Battle of Öland


 * For the 1789 battle, see battle of Öland (1789).

The Battle of Öland was a naval battle between an allied Dano-Norwegian-Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea, off the east coast of the island of Öland on 1 June 1676. The battle was a part of the Scanian War (1675–79) fought for supremacy over the southern Baltic. Sweden was in urgent need of transferring reinforcements to its north German possessions while Denmark sought to ferry an army to Scania in southern Sweden to open a front on Swedish soil.

Just as the battle began the Swedish flagship Kronan foundered and sank with the loss of almost its entire crew, including the Admiral of the Realm and commander of the Swedish Navy, Lorentz Creutz. The allied force under the leadership of the Dutch admiral Cornelis Tromp took full advantage of the ensuing disorder on the Swedish side. The acting commander after Creutz' sudden demise, Admiral Claes Uggla, was surrounded and his flagship Svärdet battered in a drawn-out artillery duel, eventually being set ablaze by a fireship. Uggla himself drowned while escaping the burning ship, and after the loss of a second admiral, the rest of the Swedish fleet fled in disorder.

The battle resulted in Dano-Norwegian naval supremacy, which was upheld throughout the war. King Christian V of Denmark and Norway was able to ship troops over to Swedish soil, and on 29 June 14,500 men landed at Råå, just south of Helsingborg. Scania became the main battleground of the war, culminating with the bloody battles of Lund, Halmstad and Landskrona. Dano-Norwegian and Dutch naval forces were left free to raze Öland and the Swedish east coast all the way up to Stockholm. The Swedish failure at Öland led to the creation of a commission to investigate the fiasco; it ultimately found no-one guilty.

Background
Sweden had attacked the German state of Brandenburg in the summer of 1675 at the insistence of its ally France, at that time the most powerful nation in Europe. The Dutch Republic was at war with France in the Franco-Dutch War, and soon declared war on Sweden. A Swedish defeat by Brandenburger forces at the battle of Fehrbellin on 18 June 1675, though of comparatively minor tactical consequence, was a heavy blow to the high reputation of the Swedish army. A number of German states, as well as the Holy Roman Empire, saw the defeat as a sign of vulnerability, and joined the war against Sweden. Denmark saw a chance to regain Scania, Blekinge and Halland, which had been lost to Sweden in the Treaty of Roskilde in 1660, and declared war on 2 September. The southern Baltic became a strategically important scene for both Denmark and Sweden. Denmark needed the sea lanes to invade Scania, while Sweden needed to reinforce its holdings in Pomerania; both stood to gain by taking control of the Baltic trade routes.

In late Fall of 1675 the Swedish fleet under Gustaf Otto Stenbock put to sea, but only got as far as Stora Karlsö off Gotland before it had to turn back to Stockholm, beset by cold and stormy weather, disease, and loss of vital equipment. Stenbock, held personally responsible for the failure by King Charles XI, was forced to pay for the campaign out of his own pocket. During the winter of 1675-76 the Swedish fleet was placed under the command of Lorentz Creutz, but was iced in by exceptionally harsh weather.

Prelude
A Danish fleet of 20 ships under admiral Niels Juel put to sea in March 1676, and on April 29 his forces landed on Gotland, which promptly surrendered. The Swedish fleet was ordered out on May 4, but encountered adverse winds and was delayed until May 19. Juel had by then left Visby, the main port on Gotland, to join up with a smaller Danish-Dutch force at Bornholm, between the southern tip of Sweden and the northern coast of Germany. Together they intended to cruise between Scania and the island of Rügen to stop Swedish troops from landing on Rügen and reinforcing Swedish Pomerania. On May 25–26 the two fleets fought a largely indecisive battle at Bornholm. The Swedish force was superior in numbers, but was unable to inflict any serious losses and instead lost a fireship and one smaller vessel.

Several Swedish accounts say that Creutz was in conflict with his officers after Bornholm. Major Taube of the Mars testified that after the battle, the officers had been "scolded like boys" and that Creutz, "without regard for guilt or innocence, accused them almost all alike". The army captain Rosenberg told a later inquiry that Creutz "almost had a paroxysm in the night" over the conduct of Johan Bär (one of his flag officers) at Bornholm, and that he swore "never to go to serve at sea with such rascals". Maritime archaeologist Lars Einarsson has concluded that the relationship between Creutz and his subordinates before the battle had hit rock bottom.

After the unsuccessful action the Swedish fleet anchored off Trelleborg, where King Charles was waiting with new orders to recapture Gotland. The fleet was to refuse combat with the allies at least until they reached the northern tip of Öland, where they could fight in friendly waters. After the Swedish fleet left Trelleborg on May 30, the allied fleet soon came in contact with it and began pursuing the Swedes. By this time the allies had been reinforced by a small squadron and now totaled 42 vessels, with 25 large or medium ships of the line. The reinforcements also brought with them a new commander, the Dutch Admiral General Cornelis Tromp, one of the ablest naval tacticians of his time. The two fleets sailed north and on June 1 passed the northern tip of Öland in a strong gale. The rough winds were hard on the Swedish ships. Many lost masts and spars. The Swedes, forming a barely cohesive battle line, tried to sail ahead of Tromp's ships, hoping to get between them and the shore, thus putting themselves on the allied fleet's lee side and gaining the tactical advantage of holding the weather gage. The Dutch ships of the allied fleet, however, managed to sail closer to the wind and faster than the rest of the force, and slipped between the Swedes and the coast, snatching the weather gage. Later that morning the two fleets closed on each other, and were soon within firing range.

Battle
Around noon, as a result of poor communication and signaling, the Swedish line unexpectedly turned toward the allied fleet. When the flagship Kronan came about in the maneuver it suddenly heeled over and began to take on water. According to master gunner Anders Gyllenspak, the sails were not reefed and the ship leaned over so hard that water flooded in through the lower gunports. While the ship was leaning over, a gust of wind pushed the ship on her side, laying her masts and sails down in line with the surface of the sea. A short while later the gunpowder store in the front part of the ship exploded and ripped the forward part of the starboard side apart. Kronan quickly lost buoyancy and sank, taking most of her 850-man crew with her.

The sudden loss of the flagship and the fleet admiral threw the already scattered Swedish line into confusion and sapped morale. Four ships from Creutz' and Uggla's squadrons immediately fled when they saw that the flagship was lost. Claes Uggla was next in command after Creutz and became the acting commander of the Swedish fleet. When the line came about, Uggla and his ship Svärdet came on a collision course with the still floating wreckage of Kronan, and were forced to jibe (turn the stern into the wind direction) to avoid it. Svärdet's second turn was interpreted by many ships as a signal to turn again while others interpreted it as the beginning of a general retreat, leading to major disorder. Uggla reduced speed in an attempt to gather his forces, but instead was separated from his subordinates.

Tromp on Christianus Quintus, Vice Admiral Jens Rodsten on Tre Løver and Niels Juel on Churprindsen took advantage of the chaos. They quickly surrounded Svärdet and began to hammer it into submission. Several Swedish ships attempted to assist Uggla, but they were in a lee position and could not provide effective support. After about an hour-and-a-half to two hours of hard fighting Svärdet's mainmast went overboard and Uggla had to strike his colors (surrender) to Tromp. Despite this, Svärdet was ignited by accident or misunderstanding by the Dutch fireship t' Hoen. The second largest Swedish ship after Kronan sank in the blaze and took with it 600 out of a crew of 650, including Admiral Uggla himself. Only Hieronymus, Neptunus and Järnvågen, an armed merchantman, had tried to support Uggla. Of these only Hieronymus escaped the attempt, though badly damaged, while the others were captured by Juel and his subordinate on Anna Sophia.

By six o'clock in the evening the Swedes had lost two flagships along with two fleet admirals, and the entire force now began a disorderly retreat. Some of the smaller ships were caught up with and captured while the rest of the ships sought shelter in friendly harbors. Most set course for Dalarö, north of Stockholm, while others tried for Kalmar Strait, between Öland and the Swedish mainland.

Aftermath
The Swedish fleet had suffered a stinging blow by losing its two largest ships, its commander-in-chief and one of its most experienced admirals. Even after the battle, the misfortunes continued. Äpplet came off its moorings at Dalarö, went aground and sank. Around fifty survivors were picked up by pursuing Danish ships and taken as prisoners to Copenhagen. The battle gave Denmark undisputed naval supremacy and the Swedish fleet did not dare to venture out for the rest of the year. The army that had been amassed in Denmark could now be shipped to Scania to take the war to Swedish soil and on June 29, 1676, 14,500 troops were landed at Råå south of Helsingborg.

The Swedish commission
Within a week, the news of the failure at Bornholm and the complete fiasco at Öland reached King Charles, who immediately ordered that a commission be set up to investigate what had happened. Charles wanted to see if Bär and other officers were guilty of cowardice or incompetence. On June 13 the King wrote "some of our sea officers have shown such cowardly and careless behavior" that they have "placed the safety, welfare and defense of the kingdom at great peril", and that "such a serious crime should be severely punished". The commission began its work on June 7, 1676. At the hearings, strong criticism surfaced and was directed against individual officers as well as Swedish conduct in general. Anders Homman, one of the officers on board Svärdet, was among those who chastised his colleagues the hardest. In his testimony he said that that Admiral Uggla had exclaimed "look how those dog cunts run" when he was surrounded, fighting the allied flagships. Homman himself described the actions of his colleagues as those of "chickens running about the yard, each in his own direction", and added that he "had been in seven battles, but had never seen our people fight so poorly".

The commission did not find anyone guilty of negligence or misconduct, but Bär of Nyckeln and Lieutenant Admiral Christer Boije, who had run aground with Äpplet, were never again given a command in the navy. Hans Clerck of Solen went through the process unscathed, and was promoted by the King before the commission even presented its verdict. Creutz has quite consistently been blamed for the loss of his ship by historians, and has been described as an incompetent sea officer and sailor who more or less single-handedly brought about the sinking through lack of naval experience. Military historians Lars Ericson Wolke and Olof Sjöblom have attempted to nuance the picture by pointing out that Creutz' task was akin to that of an administrator rather than a military commander. The practical issues of ship maneuvering should therefore have been the responsibility of his subordinates, who had experience in naval matters.

Disputes among the allied officers
Despite the astounding success, several allied officers were unhappy with the conduct of their forces. Naval historian Jørgen Barfod explains that the battle was fought "in a disorganized manner from beginning to end" since Tromp had given the order for each commander to attack the enemy ship closest to him. Since most of the Danes were unable to keep pace with the faster Dutch ships, the race for advantageous position along the coast had also contributed to the scattering of the allied fleet. Juel later complained in a letter to the Danish Admiral of the Realm that the Dutch had not assisted him in pursuing the fleeing Swedes. He claimed that if he had gotten proper support, they could have "brought [the Swedes] such a fever on their throats that it would take years for all the doctors in Stockholm to cure it". When Tromp sent a report of the battle to the Danish King he reproached his subordinates, but not by name, and asked that no punishment be dealt out.

The captain of t' Hoen, the fireship that had set Svärdet ablaze after she had surrendered, was arrested and incarcerated directly after the battle, and was subjected to such harsh treatment that he died within a few days. Tromp later reported that his ship Delft, which had seen some of the roughest fighting, had lost around 100 men and that most of its officers were wounded.

Allied fleet
First squadron
 * Flagship: Churprindsen (68), Niels Juel


 * Christianus IV (58)
 * Gyldenløve (56)
 * Anna Sophia (62)
 * Delmenhorst (44)
 * Nellebladet (54)
 * Lindormen (46)
 * København (36)
 * Hommeren (32)
 * Anthonette (26)
 * Caritas (34)
 * Fire Kronede Lillier (4)
 * Stokfisken, Abrahams Offer (fireships)

Second squadron
 * Flagship: Christianus V (80), Cornelis Tromp


 * Tre Løver (64)
 * Oostergoo (60)
 * Charlotta Amalie (64)
 * Enighed (66)
 * Fridericus III (64)
 * Campen (44)
 * Havmanden (36)
 * Havfruen (26)
 * Spraglede Falk (18)
 * Louys, t' Hoen (fireships)

Third squadron
 * Flagship: Delft (62), Philip van Almonde


 * Waesdorp (68)
 * Dordrecht (46)
 * Ackerboom (60)
 * Gideon (60)
 * Justina (64)
 * Noortholland (44)
 * Caleb (40)
 * Utrecht (38)
 * Hvide Falk (26)
 * Delft (28)
 * Perlen (8)
 * Leonora (fireship)

Swedish fleet
First squadron
 * Flagship: Kronan (124), Lorentz Creutz


 * Solen (74)
 * Wrangel (60)
 * Draken (66)
 * Herkules (56)
 * Neptunus (44)
 * Maria (44)
 * Fenix (36)
 * Sundsvall (32)
 * Enhorn (16)
 * Pärlan (28, armed merchantman)
 * Tre Bröder (12)
 * Mjöhund (10)
 * Sjöhästen (8)
 * Jakob, Svan (fireship)

Second squadron
 * Flagship: Svärdet (94), Claes Uggla


 * Mars (72)
 * Merkurius (64)
 * Hieronymus (64)
 * Svenska Lejonet (48)
 * Göteborg (48)
 * Fredrika Amalia (34)
 * Uttern (24)
 * Flygande Vargen (44, armed merchantman)
 * Järnvågen (24, armed merchantman)
 * Ekorren (8)
 * Posthornet (8)
 * Råbocken (8)
 * Rödkritan, Duvan (fireships)

Third squadron
 * Flagship: Nyckeln (84), Johan Bär


 * Äpplet (86)
 * Saturnus (64)
 * Caesar (60)
 * Wismar (54)
 * Riga (54)
 * Hjorten (36)
 * Solen (54, armed merchantman)
 * Salvator (30)
 * Gripen (8)
 * Sjöman (8)
 * Postiljon (fireship)

Fourth squadron
 * Victoria (80)
 * Venus (64)
 * Jupiter (70)
 * Carolus (60)
 * Spes (48)
 * Abraham (44)
 * Nordstjärnan (28)
 * Trumslagaren (34, armed merchantman)
 * Konung David (32, armed merchantman)
 * Elisabeth (12, armed merchantman)
 * Fortuna (12)
 * Måsen (8)
 * Jägaren (fireship)