Peter Wessel, afterward ennobled under the name of Tordenskiold, was born November 7, 1691, in Throndhjem, where his father, Jan Wessel, was a merchant. As he showed no disposition for college studies, he was placed with a tailor as apprentice; but he ran away from his master, came to Copenhagen, where he hired out as a sailor, and made journeys to the West Indies and to India. Afterward he became a naval cadet, made another trip to India, and on his return came to Bergen just as the Great Northern War had broken out. He immediately proceeded overland to Christiania, where the commanding general, Waldemar Lövendahl, took a fancy to him and gave him the command of a ship of four guns, "Ormen" (the Serpent), with which he made cruises along the Swedish coast. He soon became renowned for his courage, and was given a better ship called "Lövendahl's galley," a frigate of twenty guns. By his heroic deeds and brilliant bravery he rose, in the comparatively short time of ten years, from cadet to vice-admiral, and was ennobled by King Frederick IV. "For your rare courage and loyalty," the king said to him, "we have raised you to our nobility. Your name shall hereafter be Tordenskiold (Thunder-shield)." "Well, then," answered the young man, "I will so thunder in the ears of the Swedes that they will say you have not given me the name without reason." The entrance to the harbor of Dynekilen is at most places only four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet wide. On a little peninsula in the inlet the Swedes had erected a battery of six twelve-pounders, and on each side of the narrow inlet 4,000 infantry were stationed. On the evening of July 7th, when Tordenskiold lay with two frigates, three galleys and two other vessels outside of Stromstad, he learned from some Swedish fishermen, who were brought aboard as prisoners, where the Swedish fleet lay, and also that a number of the officers had been invited to a wedding, while the admiral was to have a banquet on board for the others. He concluded that the officers, therefore, would be in poor condition for fighting, and at daybreak he weighed anchor, and cried over to the brave Lieutenant Peter Grib, who was commanding the other frigate: "I am informed that the Swedish admiral is going to have a carousal on his fleet to-day. Would it not be advisable if we went in with our ships and became his unbidden guests? The pilot says we have favorable wind." Peter Grib was ready, and Tordenskiold at once steered into the harbor. Without firing a shot he ran his ship in through a heavy fire from all sides. It was not till he came so near that his six-pounders could be of effect, and when he had reached the widest part of the inlet where he could arrange his ships with the broadsides toward the enemy, that he commenced to fire. After three hours of uninterrupted cannonading the Swedish fire began to slacken, and at one o'clock (July 8, 1716) the Swedish flag was lowered. The Swedes