supply them with firearms. As most of the pirates were well armed with such weapons it made defence difficult. However some old guns and cannons still remained and could be used against their ships. In 1627 Icelanders were shocked at the inability of the Danish forces to protect them against Barbary corsairs who murdered and kidnapped a large number of people. In some places Danish troops fled from the raiders, but the Captain (Höfuðsmaður) of Iceland, who was the highest-ranking military officer and overall governor of Iceland, managed to defend Bessastaðir by hastily building fortifications and damaged one of the raiding ships severely with cannon fire. Some Icelanders were nonetheless angered that he didn't sink the ship despite it being stuck for 24 hours on a reef in front of the fortifications. As a result, Icelanders formed local militias with the king's blessing in places such as Vestmannaeyjar. 18th and 19th centuries In the decades before the Napoleonic wars, the king declared his intention to send considerable amount of money to arm the Icelandic militias with muskets. However, his pledges were not fully fulfilled and in 1799 the few hundred militia-men in the South West of Iceland were mostly equipped with rusty and mostly obsolete Medieval weaponry, including 16th century halberds. When English raiders arrived in 1808, after sinking or capturing most of the Danish-Norwegian Navy in the Battle of Copenhagen, the amount of gunpowder in Iceland was so low that it prohibited all efforts of the governor of Iceland, Count Trampe, to provide any resistance. In 1855, the Icelandic Army was reestablished by Andreas August von Kohl the sheriff in Vestmannaeyjar. In 1856, the king provided 180 rixdollars to buy guns, and a further 200 rixdollars the following year. The sheriff became the Captain of the new army, which become known as Herfylkingin, "The Battalion." In 1860, von Kohl died, and Pétur Bjarnasen took over the command. Nine years later Pétur Bjarnasen died before appointing a successor, and the army fell into disarray. Many have campaigned for an Icelandic standing army since the late 19th century, including Iceland's Independence hero Jón Sigurðsson, but except for the attempt in 1940 it has amounted to little. Independence In 1918 Iceland regained sovereignty as a separate Kingdom ruled by the Danish king. Iceland established a Coast Guard shortly after, but financial difficulties made establishing a standing army impossible. The government hoped that