page_title: Battle of Heligoland (1864)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Heligoland (1864) / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: A monument conmemorating Admiral Edouard Suenson at Nyboder in Copenhagen, Denmark
context_page_description: The Battle of Heligoland was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, between a Danish squadron led by Commodore Edouard Suenson and a joint Austro-Prussian squadron commanded by the Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. The action came about as a result of the Danish blockade of German ports in the North Sea; the Austrians had sent two steam frigates, SMS Schwarzenberg and Radetzky, to reinforce the small Prussian Navy to help break the blockade. After arriving in the North Sea, Tegetthoff joined a Prussian aviso and a pair of gunboats. To oppose him, Suenson had available the steam frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal.
  On the morning of 9 May, the two squadrons encountered each other off the island of Heligoland, then controlled by neutral Great Britain. Tegetthoff attacked with his two frigates while the slower Prussian vessels lagged behind, unable to effectively engage the Danish warships. Tegetthoff's flagship, Schwarzenberg, bore the brunt of the Danish gunfire and caught fire three times, the last of which could not be put out quickly and forced Tegetthoff to seek shelter in the neutral waters around Heligoland.
context_section_description: Suenson waited outside the British zone of 3 nautical miles (5.6 km), but the Austrian-Prussian squadron was able to escape during the night to Cuxhaven, arriving at about 04:00 on 10 May. On reaching the port, the Austrian ships began to repair the damage sustained in the battle. Suenson sent his casualties ashore and resumed patrolling in the southern North Sea, between Heligoland and the Elbe. The day of the battle, the two sides had signed an armistice in London that took effect on 12 May, temporarily ending the fighting. The armistice lasted until 26 June, when fighting broke out again on land. The following day, a second Austrian squadron, which included the ship of the line Kaiser, the armored frigate Don Juan d'Austria, and two smaller vessels under Vice Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair arrived to reinforce Tegetthoff's ships. The now outnumbered Danish fleet remained in port for the rest of the war and did not seek battle with the Austro-Prussian squadron. Instead, the Austrian and Prussian naval forces supported operations to capture the islands off the western Danish coast. These advances, coupled with the capture of the island of Als in the Baltic Sea, forced the Danes to seek a second armistice on 29 June.
  Denmark claimed to have won the Battle of Heligoland, though they were no longer able to enforce a blockade on the northern German ports. Tegetthoff himself claimed a draw, but he was promoted to rear admiral as a reward for his actions during the battle. The opinions of naval historians on the outcome of the battle are similarly mixed; Anthony Sokol, a historian of the Austrian Navy, states that "In spite of the damage they had sustained, the Austrians had won a strategic victory", citing the fact that the Danish blockade had been lifted. John Greene and Allesandro Massignani state that "Heligoland was Tegetthoff's day", though noting that Suenson could have won a victory had Jylland not been rendered unmaneuverable at the end of the action. On the other hand, David Zabecki affirms the argument that the battle "was a tactical Danish victory", while noting the lifting of the blockade. David Olivier described the battle as inconclusive, though also noted the end of the blockade.
  Jylland is today located in a drydock in a maritime museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark. She is the last surviving screw-driven, wooden-hulled warship. In Copenhagen, at Nyboder, there is a monument commemorating Suenson. A German memorial to the Austrian sailors who died in the battle was erected in Ritzebüttel, Cuxhaven.
caption: The memorial to Edouard Suenson at Nyboder in Copenhagen
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