Battle of Silda (''Affæren ved Silden'' or ''Affæren ved Stadt'') was a naval battle fought on 23 July 1810 between the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...
and
Denmark–Norway
Denmark–Norway (Danish and Norwegian: ) was an early modern multi-national and multi-lingual real unionFeldbæk 1998:11 consisting of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway (including the then Norwegian overseas possessions: the Faroe I ...
near the
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
island of
Silda in
Sogn og Fjordane
Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...
county. The battle occurred during the
Gunboat War
The Gunboat War (, ; 1807–1814) was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Nav ...
, itself part of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. In the battle, two British frigates captured or destroyed three or four Dano-Norwegian gunboats. The Danish-Norwegian and British accounts of the battle differ.
Danish-Norwegian account
The Dano-Norwegian Navy had based three
gun-schooners ''Odin'', ''Thor'', and ''Balder'', and the gun-barge ''Cort Adeler'' at the
pilot station
Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000.
Geography
Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...
on Silda. However, only ''Thor'' and ''Balder'', plus a third, smaller gunboat, were involved in the battle.
On 23 July the British frigates , Captain
Richard Byron, and , Captain William Ferris, launched their assault. One of the Dano-Norwegian boats was able to hit at least one of the British boats, killing several British soldiers. Still, the British captured the station. The crew of one of the Dano-Norwegian boats scuttled their vessel and escaped. The British took the other two captured vessels as prizes and sent their crews as prisoner of war in England. The British also captured merchantmen moored in the vicinity.
British account
''Belvidera'' and ''Nemesis'' were sailing close in-shore of Studtland, Norway. On the evening of 22 July a boat from ''Belvidera'' scouting a deep bay sighted three Dano-Norwegian gun-vessels. The next morning seven boats from the two frigates entered the creek and cut out the two larger Dano-Norwegian vessels. The British suffered no casualties, though the Norwegians lost four men killed.
The two larger vessels, ''Balder'' and ''Thor'', commanded by Lieutenants Dahlreup and Rasmusen, were
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
-rigged. Each mounted two long 24-pounder guns and six 6-pounder howitzers and had a crew of 45 men. The third gun-vessel, Gunboat No. 5, was of a smaller class; she carried one long 24-pounder and had a crew of 25 men. Her crew ran her up a fiord where they abandoned her; the decision was then made to burn her.
[
The British prize money reckoning refers to three vessels, ''Balder'', ''Thor'', and ''Fortuna''. ''Fortuna'' may have been a merchant vessel seized at the time.]
Aftermath
The local Norwegian commander, vicar Gabriel Heiberg, failed to alert other Dano-Norwegian naval vessels nearby that could have helped repel the attack. He also later issued an order to keep out of the way to avoid combat, an action for which he later underwent a court-martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
.
Footnotes
Notes
Citations
Sources
An article on the event from nrk.no
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silda, Battle of
1810 in Norway
Battles of the Gunboat War
July 1810 events
Conflicts in 1810