Battle of Fladstrand, 11 May 1712

The battle of Fladstrand was a minor naval battle of the Great Northern War. In April 1712 a small Danish squadron under Commodore-Captain Knoff had been sent to reconnoitre the area around the Swedish port of Gothenburg. By the middle of May his squadron contained five ships, the largest of which was the 52 gun Fyen with the rest of fleet bringing the total up to 158 guns. On 11 May the Danish squadron was at anchor off Fladstrand (close to Frederikshavn on the northern tip of Jutland).

On 11 May Knoff was attacked by the Swedish fleet based at Gothenburg. Commanded by Schoutbynacht Sjöblad, the Swedish fleet contained seven ships carrying 330 guns (even excluding seventy lighter swivel guns the Swedish fleet still significantly outgunned their Danish opponents).

The battle did not begin until 6 p.m. The Swedish fleet was unable to take advantage of its numerical advantage, and inflicted very little damage on the Danes, whose 44 dead and wounded included many casualties caused by an exploding gun. After two hours of fighting the Swedes withdrew back to Gothenburg.

The Danes responded to the Swedish attack by increasing the size of their force off Gothenburg to eleven – five small ships of the line and six frigates. They were also joined by three Russian frigates, but even this larger allied fleet was unable to prevent the Swedish ships from emerging from Gothenburg to attack a Danish convoy later in the month.

How to cite this article: Rickard, J (30 July 2007), Battle of Fladstrand, 11 May 1712 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_fladstrand1712.html

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