In November 1740 a letter arrived in Copenhagen from the Danish naval cadet Hans Hendrik Eller who was clearly frustrated about being held by the Dutch authorities in an Amsterdam prison. Eller gave a thorough account of how he and his crew had suffered a grave injustice and were now unlawfully imprisoned. He ended his letter stating that he and his men intended to leave Amsterdam for Copenhagen as soon as they were released. How Eller and his men ended up in an Amsterdam prison is a story that sheds light on a relatively unknown part of the Danish navy’s history in the North Atlantic. It shows how the navy’s operations around Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands were linked to a world market craving for illegally traded woollen socks and equally illegally fished cod from the area. This was not an area in which the Danish navy operated routinely. In fact, the navy only ventured to the far north on a few occasions in the eighteenth century. This might in part explain the unfortunate fate of Eller and his men. But it also demonstrates something about the priorities and limitations of the Danish peacetime navy of the eighteenth century and provides a useful insight into trading in the North Atlantic.

1740 年 11 月，丹麦海军学员汉斯·亨德里克·埃勒 (Hans Hendrik Eller) 寄来一封信到达哥本哈根，他显然对被荷兰当局关押在阿姆斯特丹监狱感到沮丧。埃勒详尽地讲述了他和他的船员如何遭受严重的不公正对待，现在如何被非法监禁。他在信的结尾说，他和他的部下打算一获释就离开阿姆斯特丹前往哥本哈根。埃勒和他的部下如何最终被关进阿姆斯特丹监狱的故事揭示了丹麦海军在北大西洋的一段相对不为人知的历史。它显示了海军在格陵兰岛、冰岛和法罗群岛周围的行动如何与世界市场对非法交易的羊毛袜和同样从该地区非法捕捞的鳕鱼的渴望联系在一起。这不是丹麦海军常规行动的区域。事实上，海军在 18 世纪只有几次冒险到遥远的北方。这或许可以部分解释埃勒和他手下的不幸命运。但它也展示了 18 世纪丹麦和平时期海军的优先事项和局限性，并提供了对北大西洋贸易的有用见解。