Henrik Ludvig Sundevall

Henrik Ludvig Sundevall

Henrik Ludvig Sundevall (born December 29, 1814 at Gut Högestad, Ystad municipality ; † October 27, 1884 in Karlskrona ) was a Swedish naval officer who served in the Prussian Navy in higher command posts, most recently as rear admiral .

Life

Sundevall was the brother of the zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall and the doctor Fredrik Emil Sundevall . From 1827 to 1830 he served as a cabin boy in the Swedish merchant navy on the Baltic Sea. This was followed by his entry into the Swedish Navy at the Karlskrona Cadet School . He passed his officer's examination in 1835 and then served as a sailor partly on merchant ships, partly on the American naval schooner "Hamilton". On this ship he was promoted to NCO on board . After a year and a half of service, he moved back to the merchant navy. In 1840 he returned home and then to secondary lieutenant of the Swedish fleet appointed. After another year he took part in the so-called Oxehufvud expedition to Buenos Aires . He then served for four years in the Swedish fleet on board as well as on land and was in charge of the mail race between Ystad and Stralsund . From 1845 to 1847 he was in English military service and in 1847 was promoted to Premier Lieutenant in the Swedish fleet. But he resigned from this service in 1854, as he had already entered Prussian service two years earlier and had been appointed corvette captain there.

In the Prussian Navy, Sundevall was mainly used for the practical training of the newly recruited seafarers. In 1855 he was seconded to the chief of the Danzig naval base . He was promoted to sea captain on January 12, 1856 and was then in command of the sailing frigate Thetis for three years .

From 1859 to 1862 he was head of a squadron consisting of the ships Arkona , Thetis , Frauenlob and Elbe . Sundevall led this squadron during the Prussian East Asia expedition and visited China , Japan and other countries on diplomatic and scientific missions . The expedition was led by the Prussian diplomat Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg . He concluded trade, friendship and seafaring treaties with Japan in January 1861 and with China in September of the same year. The expedition team also included the well-known geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen , who traveled to China and East Asia for the first time.

In 1863 Sundevall was promoted to Rear Admiral. In the same year he resigned from Prussian service and returned to Sweden. There he was honorary chairman of the Warrior Society (1864).

Honors

In 1938, the German Navy named the former minesweeper of the Imperial Navy M 109, which had been converted into a test boat, after him.

literature

• Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849–1945 . Volume 3: P – Z (Packroß to Zuckschwerdt). Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-2482-4 , pp. 418-419
• Henrik Ludvig Sundevall . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 27 : Stockholm-Nynäs järnväg – Syrsor . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1918, Sp. 728 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Sundevall was previously called Johann Wittenborg and was used again as a minesweeper from 1940 with the designation M 509 .