After the battle in 1807, the British Navy began a six-year blockade of Denmark as part of the ongoing Napoleonic wars, cutting off the Monopoly barley trade which had supplied 80% of the Faroes Islanders' grain needs. To stave off famine, Nólsoyar Páll obtained a pass from the British, and brought a load of barley back with him in October 1807. The following summer, after two British ships in succession had plundered the Faroes of all Danish government property, he sailed back to Denmark at the request of the Tórshavn commandant to try to obtain more grain, but "Royndin Fríða" was seized by a British warship and irreparably damaged. Taken to London, he and his crew obtained the Privy Council's sympathy and a replacement ship, the "North Star"; in this ship they sailed soon after 17 November 1808 with what was to have been the first of several grain shipments, but were lost at sea, presumably in the heavy storms of November and December that year, near Sumba. The famine was not averted until 1810, when an arrangement was made with the British. The depth of the hatred between Nólsoyar Páll and the Tórshavn commandant is demonstrated by the latter expressing his satisfaction the next April at Páll's having not returned, even though he had asked him to sail for help. This led to suspicion, which still persists, that the commandant had arranged Páll's death, perhaps by commissioning a Norwegian privateer (the "Odin") to sink Páll's ship south of the Faroes.