How One Sailor Took Over Iceland
16,489Jorgen Jorgensen, son of Jurgen Jurgensen, was a Danish sailor in the early 1800s who lost a battle at sea and got arrested by the British. While on parole, he tried to trade with the Danish territory of Iceland, but they didn’t let him in because his ship was British and Britain and Denmark were at war. He left and came back again and the governor told him “Sorry bud, answer’s still no” so Jorgen and his men kidnapped the governor. Jorgensen declares himself protector of the island, William Walker style, and promises these Icelandic savages he’ll give them their democracy back once they were civilized enough to handle it (Dear God he really had been living in Britain). It’s the British of all people that came to arrest him, and he would spend the rest of his life in and out of prison except for a brief stint as a spy that took him near the Battle of Waterloo.
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