Axel Thorsen 1810 - model

The gunboat Axel Thorsen had a twin, Skjon Walborg, and both were launched in 1810. Initially, they served as patrol vessels, tasked with protecting merchant ships leaving Arkhangelsk from British attacks during the Napoleonic Wars. After the peace of 1815, Norwegian authorities viewed Russian activities in Finnmark in northern Norway with great suspicion, and in 1816, Axel Thorsen was sent north to remove Russian settlers from the area and demolish their buildings. In 1817 and 1818, Skjon Walborg took over this role. Both ships also participated in a mapping program in the far north. In 1831 and 1832, a cholera epidemic broke out in Arkhangelsk, and the purpose of both ships was to prevent ships sailing from the epidemic area from entering northern Norway. In 1864, Axel Thorsen participated in the Svalbard expedition organized by Adolf Nordenskiöld, while Skjon Walborg was used by Count Walburg-Ziel and Baron von Heuglin on a similar expedition in 1870. Both ships were extensively engaged in seal and walrus hunting in Novaya Zemlya. Their lives ended in 1872, when both were crushed in the ice and lost.