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Rolf Svinhufuud

Rolf Svinhufuud (1662-17) was the Lord Minister of the Admiralty of Sweden. Svinhufuud is considered the "father of Sweden's navy", as he defeated the Dutch during the Hanoverian War in 1703-1704. 

Biography[]

Svinhufuud was a Swedish politician, and he was appointed Lord Minister of the Admiralty in 1700 by the new King Karl XII of Sweden. Initially, the post seemed ineffective due to Sweden's focus on land warfare with the Russian Empire and Poland-Lithuania, but with the outbreak of the largely-naval Hanoverian War in 1703, it was his task to gear up Sweden's navy.

Svinhufuud oversaw the construction of a fleet at Malmo in Scania, and the fleet (under the command of talented Admiral Emanuel Jonassen) proved itself well against the Dutch in the 1704 Battle of Rostock. The Dutch navy's remnants were cornered after the defeat against the Danish coast and then destroyed, and Svinhufuud was credited for forcing the Dutch to sue for peace.

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