Biography
Born in Trondheim in Norway, he was the tenth child of alderman Jan Wessel, and the brother of later Rear-Admiral Caspar von Wessel. Peter Wessel was a wild, unruly lad who gave his pious parents much trouble, eventually stowing away on a ship heading for Copenhagen in 1704. In Copenhagen, he unsuccessfully sought to become a navy cadet. He befriended the king's chaplain Dr Peder Jespersen who sent Wessel on a voyage to the West Indies, and finally procured for him a vacant cadetship. After further voyages, this time to the East Indies, Wessel was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy on July 7, 1711, and went on to serve on the frigate Postillion. While on Postillion, he befriended Norwegian admiral baron Waldemar Løvendal, who was the first to recognize the young man's potential as a naval officer. Løvendal soon made Peter Wessel the captain of the 4-gun sloop Ormen (HMS Serpent).
Read more about this topic: Peter Tordenskjold
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