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Battle of the Sound 1658

Battle of the Sound: Zeeslag bij Elseneur in de Sont tussen de Hollandse en de Zweedse vloot, 8 november 1658 Rijksmuseum SK-A-3271
Image: Peter van de Velde, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date29 October 1658Wikidata
Year1658Wikidata P585 (point in time)
EraEarly modern (1500–1799)derived from year
Nearest landmassAt sea (nearest continent: Europe)Natural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictDano-Swedish War, Second Northern WarWikidata P361
Coordinates55.7500, 12.7500Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of the Sound was a naval engagement which took place on 8 November 1658 (29 October O.S.) during the Second Northern War, near the Sound or Øresund, just north of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Sweden had invaded Denmark and an army under Charles X Gustav of Sweden had Copenhagen itself under siege. The Dutch fleet was sent to prevent Sweden from gaining control of both sides of the Sound and thereby controlling access to the Baltic Sea as well as of its trade.

The Dutch, under the command of Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam with Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer as his flag captain, who had sailed to the Baltic in support of Denmark, had 41 ships with 1,413 guns while the Swedes, under Lord High Admiral Carl Gustaf Wrangel, had 45 ships with 1,838 guns. The Dutch were grouped into three squadrons, while the Swedes separated their ships into four. The seven Danish ships with about 280 guns were unable to assist their Dutch allies because of adverse northern winds and could only watch. Obdam initially received written instructions from the Grand Pensionary, Johan de Witt, that were very complicated and confusing to him.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Sound (revision 1370602368), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

55.7500, 12.7500 · At sea

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Nearby battles

Other battles of the Second Northern War

All 24 battles of the Second Northern War →

Browse more: battles at sea · Europe · Early modern battles

Further reading