Berend Jacobsen Karpfanger

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Berend Jacobsen Karpfanger statue at the base of Hamburg's Kersten Miles Bridge

Berend Jacobsen Karpfanger (baptized November 21, 1622 in Hamburg ; † October 10, 1683 in Cádiz ) was admiral , convoy captain and commander of the Hamburg convoy ship Wapen von Hamburg , which was supposed to protect the merchant ships of the Hanseatic city from the pirates of the North African barbarian states .

Life

Former window picture in the wine cellar of Hamburg City Hall with a picture of Karpfanger

Karpfanger came from a Dutch family of boatmen who had fled to Hamburg from the Spanish. At 15, he went on a whaler and two years later Karpfanger went to the Netherlands, where he on a merchant ship under Michiel de Ruyter , the navigation learned. After years in his service, he returned to Hamburg after his father's death in 1648 and took over his shipping company . Through successful trade trips, especially to North and Central America, he achieved prosperity and reputation. Karpfanger avoided sailing under the protection of slow convoys, which enabled him to make more trips each year. He was elected to various Hamburg shipping committees, where he campaigned for the construction of the city's own convoy frigates to protect merchant drivers. Karpfanger was initially the captain and owner of the ships he had inherited from his father. He achieved significant successes in the fight against pirate disaster , so z. B. in the defense of Hamburg whalers against five French privateers on September 11, 1678. In the course of these successes, he increased his number of ships by captured pirate ships.

In 1674 Karpfanger was appointed admiral for his services. As convoy captain, he first took command of the convoy ship Leopoldus Primus (or Leopold I) and later of the frigate Wapen von Hamburg , which the Hamburg Admiralty had built in 1668 to protect its merchant ships against the barbares .

On October 10, 1683, while he was lying in the port of Cádiz with the Wapen von Hamburg , a fire broke out in the bow of the frigate, which quickly spread across the entire ship. While the crew tried desperately to extinguish, the fire finally reached the powder chamber, which exploded. The cause of the fire remained unknown. Karpfanger, 42 of 170 men of the crew and 22 of 50 marines were killed. The admiral's corpse received all formal honors from the ships anchored in the harbor and was buried with a grand ceremony in the foreign cemetery on the coast of Puntales (Cádiz). King Charles II of Spain erected a monument in honor of the admiral at the tomb . It stood for 125 years until 1808. Then the cemetery was removed by Napoleon's French because they needed space to expand the fortress.

Culture of remembrance

  • At the Kersten Miles Bridge in Hamburg a statue of Karpfanger was set up in 1897 alongside three other statues of earlier Hamburg personalities. (Sculptor R. Okelmann).
  • Karpfangerstraße in the Neustadt district of Hamburg is named after him.
  • In 1937, HAPAG bought the Finnish freighter L'Avenir and put it into service as the Admiral Karpfanger training ship .
  • Karpfangerstraße in Cuxhaven - Ritzebüttel bears his name.
  • The pilot steamship from 1893, stationed in Cuxhaven, was named Capitain Karpfanger .

Trivia

  • The 400-page historical adventure novel Capitain Carpfanger by Herrmann Schreiber, published by Schneekluth Verlag (May 1977), deals with the person and adventures of Karpfanger.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Short biographies of historical personalities . In: Ulrich Komm: The Admiral of the 'Seven Provinces' , Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1977, p. 285.
personal data
SURNAME Karpfanger, Berend Jacobsen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Captain of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg
DATE OF BIRTH baptized November 21, 1622
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1683
Place of death Cadiz