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It is 498 years ago more or less these days, since the epic fight between two Hansa ships under Captain Carsten Thode and the pirate Martin Pechlin on the southern tip of Norway, close to present day Mandal. The really great thing about it, is that one of the people on Thode's ship wrote a detailed account of what happened, which is a great read.
Martin Pechlin worked for the Nordic ex-king Christian II. He was German himself, came from Fehmarn, just outside Lübeck. 1/*
#history
Serious historians might say "No no, don't call him a pirate, he worked for ex-king Christian II, which means he was a privateer, not a pirate!" Sure, but to his victims, it really didn't matter. They called him "rover" "deef" - "robber" and "thief". Or indeed, "pirate".
Pechlin preyed on shipping and vulnerable coastal communities, monasteries and such, between Denmark and Norway, in the summer of 1526. 2/*
Carstein Thode and his Hanseatic merchant passengers were late going home from Bergen this year - shipping stopped in the winter because of the weather. And indeed, they met a storm in the waters between Norway and Denmark. They were blown around by the winds until finally they ended up back on the Norwegian coast, battered but alive. But the ships couldn't go further without repair - they were crippled. 3/*
They meet with locals who behave suspicially, and then they realise: They have landed just next to a pirate base. Close by is a pirate ship, preparing to attack them.
Some fearful days and sleepless days follow, as Captain Thode and his men prepare for the inevitable attack. The tension gets on their nerves. When a flock of ravens comes by after a sleepless night, our source cracks completely: 4/*
"When day came, a large flock of ravens came from where the pirate ship was. They landed on our ships sides and on the cliffs by the ships, and clawed on the moss with their beaks and claws, so it filled us with dread."
Shortly after, the pirates attack.
I won't give away what happened, of course...
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But what I can say, is that the pirate's flag ended up being brought to Lübeck in triumph and hung in St. Mary's church there as a prize.
Captain Thode had a song written about him and printed.
"The Bergen travellers are well worth honour
everywhere they might go
They might well dare that
For they protected themselves well
And were not frightened".
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Archeology confirms that that Norway's southern coast was dangerous at this time. 21 shipwrecks from the period have been found, most of them in calm waters close to land, where they might have been anchored. Many have traces of fire. As might have been the result of being brought to shore and deliberately sunk and/or burned.
Good background on this (in English) in this article by Frans-Arne H. Stylegar: https://journals.uis.no/index.php/AmS-Skrifter/article/view/277/231
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...and in my book, of course (in Norwegian):
https://www.norli.no/boker/dokumentar-og-fakta/historie-og-dokumentar/krig-og-historie/kontoret
@oysteib Artig språk i det bildet, virker litt som gammel tysk og nederlandsk, lesbart men rart :)
