Johann Andreas Harmssen

Johann Andreas Harmssen (born May 22, 1782 in Bremen ; † January 29, 1861 there ) was a German captain who led the first circumnavigation in the history of German seafaring. His family name was originally written Harmsen , but there are also other variants such as Harmßen . It became known in the contemporary press of the 19th century in the form of Harmssen .

ancestry

Harmssen came as the son of the Bremen carter of the same name, Johann Andreas Harmsen (1751–1793) and Anna Harmsen born. Lehe (1748–1826) to the world. Harmssen's older sister Anna Helena Harmsen, born in 1777, married in 1797 the captain Johann Heinrich Wendt (1765–1847), whose son was the later captain and four-time circumnavigator Johann Wilhelm Wendt .

Sailors

After his training as a seaman, Harmssen rose to become an experienced and well-respected Bremen seafarer who had been in command of larger sailing ships since 1814.

First circumnavigation

In 1820 Harmssen received the command of the Mentor , with which he carried out the first German circumnavigation of the world from 1822 to 1824 on behalf of the Royal Prussian Maritime Trading Society. In addition to the safe management of the ship, the captain's task included measuring wind and ocean currents and thus making important contributions to hydrography and climatology . In addition, it should record and measure unexplored islands and coasts. Another important task was to establish new trade connections between the Kingdom of Prussia and the West and East Indies, with South America and China , and thus to create new sales opportunities for Prussian industry and economy. On this trip Harmssen was accompanied by the supercargo, Wilhelm Oswald , who was responsible for the freight . The helmsman Eggers and Harmssen's nephew Johann Wilhelm Wendt were also on board as submasters. After leaving Bremen on December 15, 1822 and crossing the Atlantic from north to south in March 1823, the difficult circumnavigation of Cape Horn was mastered. During a three-day hurricane in June 1823, when the ship was anchored off the Chilean port city of Valparaíso, Captain Harmssen managed to save his ship, while 24 other ships were driven onto the beach and smashed by the hurricane. The danger that the Mentor almost fell prey to pirates on October 21, 1823, was successfully averted thanks to the careful management of the team and thanks to the negotiating skills of the supercargo Oswald. In Hawaii, Harmssen allowed the native Harry Maitey to travel to Europe, which was the first time a Polynesian came to Prussia. On his first successful circumnavigation of the world, Harmssen covered around 39,000 nautical miles, which corresponds to around 72,228 km. The journey lasted a total of one year and 273 days, with the mentor being out at sea for 362 days. Captain Harmssen had not lost any of his 22 crew members on this voyage. In Świnoujście, after the circumnavigation of the world, a reception was given by State Minister Graf von Bülow and Chief Finance Officer Christian Rother , the President of the Maritime Trading Company. From Swinoujscie, Captain Johann Andreas Harmssen traveled via Stettin to Berlin, where he was supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. was received. The captain Harmssen, referred to in the contemporary press as the “Bremen Cook”, was awarded the General Medal of Honor, First Class , for his performance . The original of the ship's journal is kept in the Focke Museum .

Second circumnavigation

A second circumnavigation of the world under the direction of Captain Harmssen took place from 1826 to 1829 with the Princess Louise . On this voyage, too, Johann Wilhelm Wendt was the helmsman and the supercargo Wilhelm Oswald was on board. From February 5, 1828 to March 6, 1828 the ship was anchored in Honolulu harbor. During this time there were closer contacts with the young King Kamehameha III. from Hawaii, which at the time was still under the reign of his mother Ka'ahumanu . There were mutual visits on board the Princess Louise and in the Royal Palace. As a gift for the King of Prussia, Captain Harmssen and the supercargo Wilhelm Oswald were given the feather coat of King Kamehamehas I along with a missive. The feather coat is still in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin today . After this second circumnavigation of the world, Harmssen resigned from the management of further planned circumnavigations on behalf of the Prussian Sea Trade and left this task to his trusted nephew Johann Wilhelm Wendt.

Further career

After working for the Prussian maritime trade, Harmssen joined the Bremen shipping company Gloystein & Gevekoht founded by Carl Theodor Gevekoht in 1830 , which traded as the N. Gloystein Söhne trading company after the founder's retirement . This company was mainly active in the American trade. During this time Harmssen was in command of the Virginia from 1830 to 1833 , which previously sailed under the name Manhatten , and in 1835 of the new full ship Copernicus . Successor as captain on the Copernicus was captain Hinrich Haesloop. In 1837 Harmssen took over the office of Wasserschout in Bremen. He held this office until his death in 1861.

Private

In 1814, Captain Harmssen married Anna Helena Kramer (1785–1821). The daughter Henriette, born in 1815, emerged from the marriage. Harmssen's wife died on November 28, 1821 after the birth of a second daughter who did not survive infancy. Harmssen lived at Knoopstrasse 23 in Bremen's Stephaniviertel . The street no longer exists after the Stephaniviertel was largely destroyed in World War II.

reception

The circumnavigation of the world with the ships Mentor and Princess Louise went through the contemporary press and achieved a high level of awareness in educated circles. This is attested, for example, in Theodor Fontane's autobiographical novel Meine Kinderjahre , where in 1892, almost seventy years later, he recalls stories about an encounter between the mentor and pirates. Fontane describes a fictional heroic deed by the captain of the mentor, but without mentioning the name of Johann Andreas Harmssen .

In contrast to his nephew Johann Wilhelm Wendt, Johann Andreas Harmssen was largely forgotten after the circumnavigation of the world. For example, his name is missing in the Bremen biography of the nineteenth century in contrast to the entry about Wendt. There is also no biography of Johann Andreas Harmssen and the Bremer Weser-Zeitung waived an obituary on the occasion of his death in 1861. The Great Bremen Lexicon , published in three volumes from 2001 to 2008 , does not provide any reference to Captain Johann Andreas Harmssen. This is remarkable as Johann Andreas Harmssen led the first circumnavigation of the world in the history of German seafaring from 1822 to 1824 and other seafaring nations cherish the memory of the captains of their first circumnavigators. The captains Juan Sebastián Elcano for Spain, Francis Drake for England, Olivier van Noort for Holland, Louis Antoine de Bougainville for France, Robert Gray for America, Adam Johann von Krusenstern for Russia and Steen Andersen Bille for Denmark are part of the collective memory of their nations become, not so Johann Andreas Harmssen.

literature

• Heinrich Berghaus : Six trips around the world of the royal Prussian sea trading ships Mentor and Prinzess Louise within the years 1822–1842 . Verlag von Grass, Barth &. Comp., Breslau 1842
• Percy Ernst Schramm : South America after liberation, portrayed by a German businessman (Wilhelm Oswald), In: Yearbook for History, State, Economy and Society Latin America , 5 (1968), pp. 202-234
• Heinz Burmester: circumnavigation under the Prussian flag. The Royal Prussian Sea Trade and its Ships , Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 978-3-8225-0062-0
• Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser into the world . Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 33, Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-8225-0256-1 , p. 116, p. 122 and p. 186
• Michael Stoffregen-Büller : The Sandwich Islander. From Polynesia to Prussia's Peacock Island. Henrik Bäßler Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-945880-38-8

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogical data on Johann Andreas Harmsen from the Gesellschaft für Familienforschung e. V. Bremen made available at the Verein für Computergenealogie e. V.
2. ↑ Genealogical data on Harmssen's sister, who was Johann Wilhelm Wendt's mother , from the Gesellschaft für Familienforschung e. V. Bremen made available at the Verein für Computergenealogie e. V.
3. ↑ Michael Stoffregen-Büller: The Sandwich Islander. From Polynesia to Prussia's Peacock Island. Henrik Bäßler Verlag, Berlin 2019, p. 16
4. ^ Oesterreichischer Beobachter , October 23, 1824
5. ^ Newspaper for the Elegant World , February 3, 1825
6. ↑ Captain Harmssen's ship's journal, kept on board the ship “Mentor” on the voyage from Bremen to Canton and back to Swinoujscie, 1822 - 1824
7. ↑ Peter-Michael Pawlik: From the Weser into the world . Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1993, p. 186
8. ^ Theodor Fontane: My childhood years. Autobiographical novel. Gröls Verlag, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-96637-195-7 , p. 43