The Swedish fleet, following the unsuccessful action, had anchored off Trelleborg, where King Charles was waiting with new orders to recapture Gotland.

The fleet is to refuse combat with the allies at least until they reach the northern tip of Öland, where they could fight in friendly waters.

When the Swedish fleet leaves Trelleborg on May 30, the allied fleet soon comes in contact with it and begins pursuing the Swedes.

By this time the allies have been reinforced by a small squadron and now total forty-two vessels, with twenty-five large or medium ships of the line.

The reinforcements also bring with them a new commander, the Dutch Admiral General Cornelis Tromp, one of the ablest naval tacticians of his time.

The two fleets sail north and on June 1 they pass the northern tip of Öland in a strong gale.

The rough winds are hard on the Swedish ships.

Many lose masts and spars.

The Swedes, formed in a battle line held together with great difficulty, try to get ahead of Tromp's ships to get between them and the shore to get on their lee side, holding the weather gauge, and thereby gaining an advantageous tactical position.

The Dutch ships of the allied fleet, however, manage to sail closer into the wind faster than the rest of the force and slips between the Swedes and the coast, taking up the valuable weather gauge.

Later that morning the two fleets close in on each other and are soon within firing range.

Just as the battle begins, the Swedish flagship Kronan founders and sinks with a loss of almost the entire crew, including the Admiral of the Realm and commander of the Swedish Navy, Lorentz Creutz.

The ensuing disorder on the Swedish side is taken advantage of by the allied force led by Tromp.

The acting Swedish second-in-command after Creutz' sudden demise, admiral Claes Uggla, is surrounded and his flagship Svärdet battered in a drawn-out artillery duel and eventually burnt.

Uggla himself drowns while escaping the burning ship, and after the loss of a second admiral, the rest of the Swedish fleet flees in disorder.