Hero Tales of the Far North | Page 3

Langelinie, the
beautiful shore road of Copenhagen.
Fired by such deeds, young Wessel implored the King, before he had
yet worn out his first midshipman's jacket, to give him command of a
frigate. He compromised on a small privateer, the Ormen, but with it he
did such execution in Swedish waters and earned such renown as a
dauntless sailor and a bold scout whose information about the enemy
was always first and best, that before spring they gave him a frigate
with eighteen guns and the emphatic warning "not to engage any
enemy when he was not clearly the stronger." He immediately brought
in a Swedish cruiser, the Alabama of those days, that had been the
terror of the sea. In a naval battle in the Baltic soon after, he engaged
with his little frigate two of the enemy's line-of-battle ships that were
trying to get away, and only when a third came to help them did he
retreat, so battered that he had to seek port to make repairs. Accused of
violating his orders, his answer was prompt: "I promised your Majesty
to do my best, and I did." King Frederik IV, himself a young and
spirited man, made him a captain, jumping him over fifty odd older
lieutenants, and gave him leave to war on the enemy as he saw fit.
The immediate result was that the Governor of Göteborg, the enemy's
chief seaport in the North Sea, put a price on his head. Captain Wessel
heard of it and sent word into town that he was outside--to come and
take him; but to hurry, for time was short. While waiting for a reply, he
fell in with two Swedish men-of-war having in tow a Danish prize.
That was not to be borne, and though they together mounted
ninety-four guns to his eighteen, he fell upon them like a thunderbolt.
They beat him off, but he returned for their prize. That time they nearly

sank him with three broad-sides. However, he ran for the Norwegian
coast and saved his ship. In his report of this affair he excuses himself
for running away with the reflection that allowing himself to be sunk
"would not rightly have benefited his Majesty's service."
However, the opportunity came to him swiftly of "rightly benefiting"
the King's service. After the battle of Kolberger Heide, that had gone
against the Swedes, he found them beaching their ships under cover of
the night to prevent their falling into the hands of the victors. Wessel
halted them with the threat that every man Jack in the fleet should be
made to walk the plank, saved the ships, and took their admiral prisoner
to his chief. When others slept, Wessel was abroad with his swift sailer.
If wind and sea went against him, he knew how to turn his mishap to
account. Driven in under the hostile shore once, he took the opportunity,
as was his wont, to get the lay of the land and of the enemy. He learned
quickly that in the harbor of Wesensö, not far away, a Swedish cutter
was lying with a Danish prize. She carried eight guns and had a crew of
thirty-six men; but though he had at the moment only eighteen sailors
in his boat, he crept up the coast at once, slipped quietly in after
sundown, and took ship and prize with a rush, killing and throwing
overboard such as resisted. In Sweden mothers hushed their crying
children with his dreaded name; on the sea they came near to thinking
him a troll, so sudden and unexpected were his onsets. But there was no
witchcraft about it. He sailed swiftly because he was a skilled sailor and
because he missed no opportunity to have the bottom of his ship
scraped and greased. And when on board, pistol and cutlass hung loose;
for it was a time of war with a brave and relentless foe.
His reconnoitring expeditions he always headed himself, and
sometimes he went alone. Thus, when getting ready to take Marstrand,
a fortified seaport of great importance to Charles, he went ashore
disguised as a fisherman and peddled fish through the town, even in the
very castle itself, where he took notice, along with the position of the
guns and the strength of the garrison, of the fact that the commandant
had two pretty daughters. He was a sailor, sure enough. Once when
ashore on such an expedition, he was surprised by a company of
dragoons. His men escaped, but the dragoons cut off his way to the

shore. As they rode at him, reaching out for his sword, he suddenly
dashed among them, cut one down, and, diving through the surf, swam
out to the boat, his sword between his teeth. Their bullets churned up
the sea all