On August 5, 1809, the English warship Talbot was anchored in the outer harbor of Eyrarbakki. The ship had sought shelter there from a storm under the command of Captain Alexander Jones. At Eyrarbakki, he received news that three English ships were in Reykjavik (including the English Viking merchant ships Margrét and Anna, flying the new Icelandic flag, a blue flag with three white cod fillets) and that an English soap merchant (Samuel Phelps) had become the captain of the island. Alexander Jones immediately weighed anchor and headed his ship to Hafnafjörður to take matters into his own hands.
That summer, a "revolution" had occurred in Iceland while the Napoleonic Wars raged in Europe and the country was effectively out of control from Danish authorities. Samuel Phelps' Danish interpreter, Jörgensen by name (Jörundur Hundadakonungur) then took over the country on behalf of the soap merchant. He declared that Iceland was free and independent of Danish rule and that there was peace throughout the world. Perhaps Jörgensen was able to indirectly inform the people of Eyrbek that his reign and "Icelandic independence" had ended so abruptly.
This Jörgensen had been on a coal carrier as a young man, but later mustered out as a midshipman on one of the ships of the British navy until he joined Samuel the merchant as a special interpreter in his trade with the Icelanders.
Source: Letter from Alexander Jones-Íslensk sagnablæði 1816-1820
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