Jens Jacob Eschels
Jens Jacob Eschels (born December 12, 1757 in Nieblum , Föhr, † June 7, 1842 in Altona ) was the captain. His biography , written in old age, is the oldest surviving authentic German captain's autobiography.
The great-great-grandson of the whaling captain Matthias Petersen (1632-1706) grew up in a poor family. His father drove several times "in front of the mast" for the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) . In 1769, at the age of 11, Jens was hired as a cabin boy on an Amsterdam whaler, lost his ship several times in the Arctic, but returned unharmed and continued to sail on various Amsterdam whalers. During the winter months, the ambitious and inquisitive boy learned the “helmsman's art” ( navigation ).
In 1778 he switched to the less dangerous and long-term more promising merchant shipping. He sailed all European seas. In 1781 he finally sailed across the Atlantic to the West Indies for the first time . In Grenada he had the chance to switch to a Hamburg ship as "subordinate helmsman". The following year he was accepted as helmsman on the barque HENRICUS DE VIERDE in Hamburg. Due to the illness and death of his captain in Haiti , he already took over the ship for the return voyage as captain and ultimately led it as such on numerous voyages until 1798.
He then stayed on land because of the difficult conditions for German shipping due to the coalition wars between France and Great Britain. Through the seafaring days he had laid the foundation for a certain wealth and now worked as a tobacco manufacturer, merchant, shipowner and expert in maritime issues ("Schiffer-Alter") in Altona near Hamburg, then in Denmark .
In the spring of 1831 he began to record his autobiography, which he completed on March 19, 1833. His intention to copy a copy of it for each of his children and grandchildren, "more than two dozen", turned out to be impossible given the length of 400 pages. Eschels therefore decided to print it with a foreword dated November 20, 1834 at his own expense at Hammerich & Lesser in Altona and to have it brought to the book trade as a biography of an old sailor, written by himself and initially for his family . The work offers a wealth of information on contemporary seafaring and gives an insight into the everyday life and thinking of the people of his time. In the sober, analytical view of his experiences, Eschels shows himself to be a tolerant and downright enlightening-critical spirit.
literature
Jens Jacob Eschels: biography of an old seaman, written by himself and initially for his family . Altona 1835. http://books.google.de/books?id=wrBYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP9
Complete new edition, ed. v. Albrecht Sauer. Kabel Hamburg 1995. Convent Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86633-003-0
Review by Hans-Werner Engels in: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History Volume 83 (2/1997) p. 319 f. sub.uni-hamburg.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eschels, Jens Jacob |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German captain, merchant and shipowner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 12, 1757 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nieblum , Föhr |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 7, 1842 |
| Place of death | Altona |