On the 23rd of July 1810, British and Dano-Norwegian ships fought the Battle of Silda off the shore of, the modern-named county, Sogn og Fjordane. On the day prior, HMS Belvidera (36), under the command of Captain Richard Byron, and HMS Nemesis (28), under the command of Captain William Ferris, were sailing along the coast of Norway when a boat from the Belvidera spotted three Danish gun vessels, Odin, Thor and Balder, in a nearby bay. On the 23rd, seven boats from Belvidera and Nemesis attacked the Danish ships. They succeeded in capturing the schooner-rigged Balder, under the command of Lieutenant Dahlreup, and Thor, under the command of Lieutenant Rasmusen, both of which mounted two long 24-pounders and six 6-pounder howitzers. A third, and smaller, gunboat sailed into a fjord, and the crew abandoned her. She was, subsequently, burnt by the British. Gabriel Heiberg, the local Norwegian commander, failed to notify other Dano-Norwegian ships in the vicinity that could have assisted in the battle.

Danish and British accounts differ as to the battle. The Danes claimed that a Norwegian boat hit one of the British boats, killing several British sailors, and raided civilian ships and farms in the vicinity and along the coast. The British claimed that they captured Balder and Thor without suffering a single casualty.


For more on today’s event:
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/16402/pages/1342
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Silda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belvidera_(1809)