Battle of Alvøen

HMS Tartar attacked by Danish-Norwegian
gunboats in the Battle of Alvøen

Date	16 May 1808
Location	Alvøen, near Bergen 60°21′02″N 05°10′8″E / 60.35056°N 5.16889°E / 60.35056; 5.16889
Result	Dano-Norwegian victory

Belligerents

Denmark-Norway

United Kingdom

Commanders and leaders

Premierløytnant Bielke

Post Captain Bettersworth †

Strength

4 gunboats, 1 gun shallop.

1 frigate, HMS Tartar

Casualties and losses

5 killed

12 killed

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.

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.

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