Shortly afterwards, the gunpowder store exploded and ripped the forward section of the starboard side apart. "Kronan" quickly lost buoyancy and sank, taking most of her 850-man crew with her. The sudden loss of the flagship and the fleet admiral threw the already scattered Swedish line into confusion and sapped morale. Four ships from Creutz's and Uggla's squadrons immediately fled when they saw that the flagship was lost. Claes Uggla was next in command after Creutz and became the acting commander of the Swedish fleet. When the line came about, Uggla and his ship "Svärdet" came on a collision course with the still floating wreckage of "Kronan", and were forced to jibe (turn the stern into the wind direction) to avoid it. "Svärdet"s second turn was interpreted by many ships as a signal to turn again; others interpreted it as the beginning of a general retreat, leading to major disorder. Uggla reduced speed in an attempt to gather his forces, but instead was separated from his squadron. Tromp on "Christianus Quintus", Vice Admiral Jens Rodsten on "Tre Løver" and Niels Juel on "Churprindsen" took advantage of the chaos. They quickly surrounded "Svärdet" and three supporting ships ("Hieronymus", "Neptunus" and "Järnvågen", an armed merchantman) and began to hammer them into submission. Several other Swedish vessels attempted to assist Uggla, but they were in a lee position and could not provide effective support. After about an hour-and-a-half to two hours of hard fighting "Svärdet"s mainmast went overboard and Uggla had to surrender to Tromp. Despite this, "Svärdet" was ignited by accident or misunderstanding by the Dutch fireship "t Hoen". The second largest Swedish ship after "Kronan" sank in the blaze and took with it 600 out of a crew of 650, including Admiral Uggla himself. Only "Hieronymus" escaped the assault by the allied admirals, though badly damaged, and the others were captured by Juel on "Churprindsen" together with one of his lieutenants on "Anna Sophia". By six o'clock in the evening the Swedes had lost two flagships along with two fleet admirals, including the supreme commander of the navy.