Nils Ehrenskiöld

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Nils Ehrenskiöld (also: Ehrenschiöld) (born May 11, 1674 in Biby near Turku , † November 2, 1728 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish admiral during the Great Northern War .

family

In 1706 Nils Ehrenschiöld married the baroness Louisa Anckarstjerna, a daughter of the admiral Cornelius Anckarstjerna .

Military career

Nils Ehrenskiöld joined the Swedish Navy in 1692. Until the beginning of the Great Northern War, there was hardly any information about Ehrenskiöld. From 1700 Ehrenskiöld distinguished himself several times in naval battles against the Danish and Russian fleets.

In November 1708 he was shipwrecked as captain of the Florida on the island of Hiiumaa off the coast of Livonia . He and his crew managed to make the ship seaworthy again, and two days later he returned safely to Swedish waters.

In the naval battle of Hanko on July 27th jul. / 7th August 1714 greg. Ehrenschiöld was captured on the deck of his flagship , the Prahm Elephant , after he had put up bitter resistance against the Baltic fleet under Admiral Fyodor Apraxin . The Swedish squadron consisted of only eleven ships. In the third and final attack, they faced 95 Russian (half) galleys . Due to the weak wind, the heavy Swedish ships could only maneuver to a limited extent, which the Russians took advantage of and hijacked the ships.

The Russian tsar Peter I , who himself had taken part in the battle as the commanding officer of a galley, showed himself graciously to the almost 600 captured Swedish soldiers. Ehrenschiöld, who had been wounded in the battle, was received with all honors by the tsar.

Ehrenschiöld was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1716 . In 1721 he was appointed admiral and head of the department for economic affairs in the naval command in Karlskrona .

After his death in 1728 he was honored to be buried in the Admiralty Church of Karlskrona. He was later reburied in Kalmar Cathedral .

obituary

HMS Ehrenskiöld during the Second World War with the white ribbon as a sign of neutrality and with the ship number 1 as the 1st ship of the Ehrenskiöld class

Ehrenschiöld is still considered one of the most talented, ardent, courageous and honest commanders in the Swedish Navy .

In his honor, the destroyer HMS Ehrenskiöld was put into service in 1927 . Furthermore, a destroyer class was named after Ehrenskiöld, the Ehrenskiöld class . Two destroyers belonged to this class, the HMS Ehrenskiöld and the HMS Nordenskjöld . Both destroyers were decommissioned in the 1960s. Subsequently, a torpedo boat was named after the admiral.

A representation of his life can be found in the Swedish story Svenska sjöhjältar, III. Find Nils Ehrensköld . The Swedish author Axel Munthe wrote it in 1900.

literature

  • Ehrenskiold, Nils . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 7 : Egyptologi-Feinschmecker . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1907, Sp. 18 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • RG Grant: Battle at Sea: 3000 years of naval warfare. London (2010), ISBN 978-1-4053-5335-9 .
  • Georg Karl Friedrich Viktor von Alten: Handbook for Army and Fleet: Encyclopedia of War Sciences and related areas. Volume 3. German publishing house Bong & Company (1911).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ehrenskiold, Nils . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 7 : Egyptologi-Feinschmecker . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1907, Sp. 18 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  2. ↑ Handbook for Army and Fleet , p. 293
  3. ^ RG Grant, p. 154
personal data
SURNAME Ehrenskiöld, Nils
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ehrenschiöld, Nils
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish admiral
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1674
PLACE OF BIRTH Biby near Turku
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1728
Place of death Stockholm