Gustav Wattrang

Gustav Wattrang (also Gustaf Wattrang ) (* in the 1650s; † 1716 ), was a Swedish admiral during the Great Northern War .

family

Gustaf Wattrang came from the Swedish aristocratic family Wattrang . He was the second son of Zacharias Wattrang , a member of the Collegium Medicum and personal physician to the members of the royal family. He was married to a daughter of Count Werner von Rosenfeldt , also an admiral of the Swedish crown as well as a cartographer and poet .

Military career

In 1689 Wattrang was appointed captain of a Swedish ship. Just six years later, he was commanding convoys of merchant ships flying the Swedish flag. In 1695 there was a battle with an English warship during a convoy voyage .

On March 26, 1700 he becomes Schoutby Night and is appointed commander of the Prinsessan Ulrika . Wattrang took part in the landing at Humlebæk in 1700 as the commander of a Swedish warship . His ship was part of the second squadron of Admiral Cornelius Anckarstjerna .

1710 Appointment as Vice Admiral by the Swedish King Karl XII. A year later, Wattrang was given command of the Nyenska squadron. In December 1711 he took part in the rescue expedition of the Swedish properties in northern Germany together with Carl Hans Wachtmeister and Magnus Stenbock . He commanded the Swedish fleet, which brought General Stenbock's troops from Karlskrona to the besieged Hanseatic city of Wismar in Swedish Pomerania . In total, the fleet was 65 ships strong and was supposed to bring 2000 Dragoons and their horses to Pomerania. The fleet ran a total of three times. On the third attempt, the ships almost reached the German coast, but were surprised by a storm shortly before and driven north again. The fleet suffered badly from the storm. The convoy was torn apart and the captains steered their ships to the ports of Karlshamn , Kalmar , Gotland and Karlskrona on their own orders . Only two ships reached the German mainland. The 40 Dragoons on board were the only support Stenbock received.

In 1714 he commanded the Swedish fleet in the Baltic Sea region. Wattrang succeeded in thwarting the advance of the Baltic fleet in the beginning of 1714. When the fleets first met, the Swedes sank over 30 Russian ships within a few weeks . In the summer of 1714 he sent Rear Admiral Nils Ehrenskiöld to the Åland Archipelago to stop the Russian attack fleet under the command of Admiral Fyodor Matwejewitsch Apraxin , which was gathering near the archipelago. Ehrenskiöld could not win the subsequent naval battle at Hanko . He had only 11 large ships at his disposal and the Russian fleet sent over 95 (half) galleys for the 3rd attack , which were much faster and more agile. Despite a cry for help to Wattrang, who was in wait with 15 other warships, the battle was lost.

Until 1715 Wattrang kept the command of the Swedish fleet, in the same year he took his leave due to illness and died in 1716. He was buried in the family crypt of his father-in-law of Count Werner von Rosenfeldt in Kalmar Cathedral.

literature

• Wattrang, Gustaf . In: John Rosén (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 1st edition. tape 17 : V-Väring . Gernandts boktryckeri, Stockholm 1893, Sp. 406 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
• Gustaf von Adlerfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Part 1, Leipzig 1740.
• RG Grant: Battle at Sea: 3000 years of naval warfare. London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4053-5335-9 .
• Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Volume 3, Braunschweig 1861.
• Astrid Blome: The German image of Russia in the early 18th century. Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04341-5 .
• NM Lindh: Biographiskt lexicon öfver namnkunnige Svenska men. Örebro 1855.
• Kungl. Vitterhets, historie och antikvitets academies: Handlingar. Volume 22, Stockholm 1861.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Nordisk familjebok
2. ↑ Handlingar, Volume 22, p. 79.
3. ↑ Gustaf von Adlerfeld, p. 64.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Biographiskt lexicon. P. 113 ff.
5. ↑ Anders Fryxell, p. 212 ff.
6. ↑ Astrid Blome, p. 149.
7. ^ RG Grant, p. 154.