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The Danish Problemvessels had thus far entered at Kronstadt and only four or fiveof them were American. Wher e are the Americans?, the writerasked. 38 The answer was, of course, fuming in Christiansandand Copenhagen or suffering the tortures of Tantalus in Gothenburg.Even as late as 4 September, only twelve of the fifty-fiveAmerican sail to come to Kronstadt in 1809 had arrived. 39 Butin August and September two developments put an end to theparalysis of American shipping in the Baltic. In August theaccumulated complaints of neutral nations and England's retaliatoryblockade of Norwa y persuaded Frederick V I to prohibitprivateering everywhere but in the waters around British-heldHeligoland. 40 An d in September, the war between Sweden andRussia ended. In the few weeks remaining before ice reclaimedthe Gulf of Finland, forty-three American vessels arrived inKronstadt.A good many of thefifty-five American sail that came toKronstadt and the Americans that entered elsewhere in theBaltic in 1809 must have passed through the Danish narrowsas members of British convoys. In thefirstplace, it was safer todo so. In the second place, the Britishfleet,seeking to robDenmark of her Sound dues and to destroy the commerce ofCopenhagen, permitted very few neutrals to enter the Sound,encouraging them rather to take British convoy through theGreat Belt. 41 All in all, only forty-five American sail passed intothe Baltic through the Sound in 1809,fiveof which were seizedby the Danes and condemned by the Danish prize courts. Ofthe remaining forty, only twenty returned through theSound. 42Between 1807 and 1812, literally hundreds of American*37