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The Battle of Alvøen was a sea battle of the Gunboat War between Denmark-Norway and the United Kingdom. It was fought on 16 May 1808 in Vatlestraumen, outside Bergen in Norway, between the British frigate HMS ''Tartar'' and a Norwegian force consisting of four ''kanonjolles'' and one ''kanonsjalupps'' (collectively known as gunboats). The British Royal Navy was then blockading the coast of Norway, causing major difficulties since the country was then dependent on Danish imports of grain and other foodstuffs. Having lost their fleet in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, Denmark-Norway was unable to afford the time or money to rebuild their high-seas fleet of corvettes, frigates and ships of the line and so had been forced to construct small vessels or gunboats for coastal defence. The British frigate was underway to Bergen harbour in search of a Dutch privateer named ''Gelderland'', known by the British to be seeking shelter in the harbour during repairs. On the evening on 15 May, a message was received at Bergenhus Fortress stating that a British frigate had been sighted, and was probably heading towards Bergen. After the frigate had been sighted at Alvøen, near Bergen, on 16 May, the five vessels making up the entire Norwegian sea force in the Bergen-region were ordered to row out and engage the enemy. The frigate lay becalmed outside Alvøen, and in thick fog. The Norwegian vessels took up a position between Alvøen and the frigate, and opened fire. The battle lasted about one hour, during which the British lost 12 men, including Post Captain Bettesworth, commander of the frigate. Norwegian losses were five men and several wounded. ==Background== The years from 1807 until 1814 were hard times for Norway. They fell during the Napoleonic Wars, which raged from 1800–1815, and which the united kingdoms of Norway and Denmark entered in 1807. After "the theft of the fleet" in 1807, when the entire Danish-Norwegian fleet was confiscated and sailed to Britain after the British victory at Copenhagen, Denmark-Norway moved from 'armed neutrality' to fighting against Britain. The British fleet blockaded the Skagerrak and cruised along the Norwegian coast, capturing merchant vessels as prizes and attacking coastal convoys. The Norwegian population depended on the import of grain from other countries, particularly Denmark, but supplies dried up as the British navy captured the merchant vessels carrying them. The Henrik Ibsen poem "Terje Vigen" occurs during this period and describes a poor pilot's risky journey from the south of Norway to Denmark to buy grain in order to feed his wife and child. He is captured near the coast of Norway on his way back from Denmark, and sent to prison in England. With the loss of the high seas fleet, and the blockade of the Norwegian coast, the two countries were left to design and build a coastal defence system. Lacking the funds to construct even smaller vessels in sufficient numbers, people were urged to give money and valuables to raise funds for the construction of gunboats: Lacking a proper navy and without larger vessels in sufficient numbers, it was self-evident that a defensive strategy was what was needed. What naval powers the country still had could only hope to prevent British warships from attacking Norwegian trading vessels, and this was what they attempted to do. The coastal trade was extremely important to prevent starvation - fish from northern Norway were traded for grain from areas south of Norway, especially Denmark. Naval forces of small gunboats were placed at strategic positions along the coast, with the naval commander in chief ordering each one out as and when enemy activity was reported in their operating area. Another important factor was the privateers, civil ships granted ''letters of marque'' by the Danish government legally allowing them to engage and seize enemy vessels along the country's coast and retaining 99% of these vessels' value so long as 1% of it was then given to the government. Norwegian privateers operated as far as Scotland, and merchants began to demand better protection from the Royal Navy. As a result, the Royal Navy sent even more warships to the Norwegian coast, trying to prevent the privateers from ever reaching the open sea and any trading ships from entering Norwegian waters. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Alvøen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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