Johann Friedrich Steenke

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Johann Friedrich Steenke († November 18, 1818 ) worked professionally in maritime trade and shipping.

Life

He was the son of Gottfried Steenke, harbor pilot in Königsberg , Prussia . In 1802 Johann Friedrich became harbor master in Pillau and head of the harbor pilots. After Prussia's defeat in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Prussia) took him to a secret naval command under the name of the Silver Fleet to bring the king's fortune and treasures to neutral Copenhagen before the French could attack, which he succeeded in despite persecution and fighting.

In 1817 he founded the first professional sea ​​rescue service in Pillau and received the title of secret trade councilor .

On November 18, 1818, he tried to save an English sailing ship during a heavy storm, but drowned with eleven rescuers and two sailors, while the other people survived.

Johann Friedrich Steenke was the father of the royal Prussian building council and hydraulic engineer Georg Steenke , the designer of the Oberland Canal .

Johann Friedrich Steenke is the author of the treatise The Pilot's Substitute or Directions How to enter the Port of Pillau in a Storm without a Pilot with an explanation of the Signals to be given by and to ships approaching the Bar , published posthumously in 1819 by his stepson and successor CF Kuhn.

literature

  • Dariusz Barton (tr: Wlodzimierz Mengel): The Oberland Canal . MW, Sztutowo 2010, ISBN 978-83-88015-58-8 , p. 16

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Dariusz Barton: The Oberland Canal . 2010, p. 16.
  2. http://www.jmarcussen.dk/maritim/hs/folio/piloter.html .