Peter Wessel, afterward ennobled under the name of Tordenskiold, was born November 7, 1691, in Throndhjem, where his father, Jan Wessel, was a merchant. As he showed no disposition for college studies, he was placed with a tailor as apprentice; but he ran away from his master, came to Copenhagen, where he hired out as a sailor, and made journeys to the West Indies and to India. Afterward he became a naval cadet, made another trip to India, and on his return came to Bergen just as the Great Northern War had broken out. He immediately proceeded overland to Christiania, where the commanding general, Waldemar Lövendahl, took a fancy to him and gave him the command of a ship of four guns, “Ormen” (the Serpent), with which he made cruises along the Swedish coast. He soon became renowned for his courage, and was given a better ship called “Lövendahl’s galley,” a frigate of twenty guns. By his heroic deeds and brilliant bravery he rose, in the comparatively short time of ten years, from cadet to vice-admiral, and was ennobled by King Frederick IV. “For your rare courage and loyalty,” the king said to him, “we have raised you to our nobility. Your name shall hereafter be Tordenskiold (Thunder-shield).” “Well, then,” answered the young man, “I will so thunder in the ears of the Swedes that they will say you have not given me the name without reason.”
The entrance to the harbor of Dynekilen is at most places only four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet wide. On a little peninsula in the inlet the Swedes had erected a battery of six twelve-pounders, and on each side of the narrow inlet 4,000 infantry were stationed. On the evening of July 7th, when Tordenskiold lay with two frigates, three galleys and two other vessels outside of Stromstad, he learned from some Swedish fishermen, who were brought aboard as prisoners, where the Swedish fleet lay, and also that a number of the officers had been invited to a wedding, while the admiral was to have a banquet on board for the others. He concluded that the officers, therefore, would be in poor condition for fighting, and at daybreak he weighed anchor, and cried over to the brave Lieutenant Peter Grib, who was commanding the other frigate: “I am informed that the Swedish admiral is going to have a carousal on his fleet to-day. Would it not be advisable if we went in with our ships and became his unbidden guests? The pilot says we have favorable wind.” Peter Grib was ready, and Tordenskiold at once steered into the harbor. Without firing a shot he ran his ship in through a heavy fire from all sides. It was not till he came so near that his six-pounders could be of effect, and when he had reached the widest part of the inlet where he could arrange his ships with the broadsides toward the enemy, that he commenced to fire. After three hours of uninterrupted cannonading the Swedish fire began to slacken, and at one o’clock (July 8, 1716) the Swedish flag was lowered. The Swedes had then beached as many of their ships as possible, and soldiers and sailors were trying to save themselves by flight. Tordenskiold’s victory was complete; forty-four ships, carrying sixty guns, were either burned or sunk. Not a single ship was saved, and the next day King Charles was on his retreat to Sweden.
In September, 1718, King Charles again attacked Norway. He sent General Armfeldt with 14,000 men into Throndhjem Stift, where the commanding general, W. Budde, had to confine himself to the defence of the city of Throndhjem. King Charles himself moved against Frederickssteen with 20,000 men and began a vigorous siege. The outer redoubt was stormed and taken after a brave resistance, and the Swedish trenches were only two hundred and fifty paces from the fortress when King Charles was killed in one of the trenches by a bullet from the fortress, December 11, 1718. A few days later the Swedish army withdrew and returned to Sweden. General Armfeldt, on receiving this intelligence, retreated from Throndhjem and started to return to the frontier across the Tydal Mountains. On the mountain his army was overtaken by a fearful snowstorm; many hundreds froze to death, and many of those who escaped became cripples for life.
Frederick IV. now proceeded to Norway himself, and invaded Sweden with 15,000 men and occupied Stromstad, while Tordenskiold, by daring strategy, took possession of Marstrand and captured the fortress Carlsten. The war, which had lasted eleven years, was ended by a peace, which Charles’s sister, Ulrika Eleonora, concluded at Fredericksborg Castle, 1720. By this peace Sweden was compelled to agree never to help the Duke of Holstein to recover Schleswig, to pay 600,000 Rigsdalers, and to relinquish its right to exemption from tolls in the Oere Sound, a right which Sweden had had since 1645.
Peter Tordenskiold lived only a few months after peace had been concluded. He was allowed to make a journey abroad, and at Hanover he thrashed a gambler, Colonel Stahl, who had cheated one of his friends. For this he was challenged to a duel with the colonel, and in their encounter he was killed, November 12, 1720, being then a little over twenty-nine years of age.
The interests of Norway were often neglected during the reign of Frederick IV. In order to raise money the government sold all the Norwegian churches, and the lands belonging to them, to private parties, because the people, who from time immemorial had owned the churches, could not produce deeds or other documents showing title. The northern districts of Norway were especially neglected. The trade with Finmarken had, to the great detriment of that part of the country, for a long time been leased to the citizens of Bergen; in 1720 it was sold to three citizens of Copenhagen, and the result was greatly increased distress among the people.
During the reign of Frederick IV., two Norwegians distinguished themselves by missionary work. One of them was Thomas von Westen from Throndhjem, who worked with great zeal for the cause of Christianity in Finmarken. The other was Hans Egede, a clergyman from Vaagen in Nordland, who proceeded to Greenland, where, for years, he indefatigably devoted himself to the work of promoting the spiritual and material welfare of the inhabitants.
Frederick IV. died in 1730, fifty-nine years old.