Michael Bille (naval officer)

Michael Bille

Michael John Petronius von Bille (born November 8, 1769 in Stege , † March 27, 1845 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish-Norwegian and Prussian naval officer.

Life

He was born on November 8, 1769 in Stege on the Danish island of Møn . He came from a noble family who had and should produce many Danish flag officers.

Michael von Bille was sailing on the Danish frigate Bornholm , which his father Mathias commanded as captain, when the ship got caught in a hurricane off the Danish West Indies . After days of fighting, the ship ran aground on March 17th, 1782 off Newport (Mayo) in Ireland , father Mathias died of the consequences. Michael Bille became an officer in the Danish-Norwegian Navy in 1789 and fought in the Battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801, commanding the lower battery of the Prøvesteenen , which fired the first shot at the English fleet.

For fifteen years he also taught mathematics and astronomy at the Naval Cadet Academy ( Dansk Søværnets Officersskole ). From 1807 to 1811 he served as a captain at the Kristiansand site and was responsible for the gunboat squadron ( Roflotillen ). From 1812 to 1813 he commanded a French warship on the Scheldt . From 1815 he served as a "pilot inspector" in Helsingør until he entered Prussian service.

In 1821 he began his very successful career as the director of the Navigation School in Gdansk . This school was initially housed in the former St. Jacob's Church, which had been partially destroyed by a powder explosion and has now been refurbished for the new purpose. Its tower was expanded as an observatory. After three years, Bille moved the school to a building outside Gdansk, which was located at the mouth of the Radaune , because the St. Jacob's Church proved unsuitable. The school was assigned to the Stralsund war schooner under the command of Diedrich Johann Longé . From 1825 the school also had the Haff gunboat Danzig . Bille and the ships were under the Prussian War Ministry in Berlin. This can be seen as the beginning of the Prussian Navy . The number of cadets rose from 40 in 1827 to 115 in 1831.

After his appointment as Rear Admiral in the Danish Navy, Bille resigned from Prussian service on May 3, 1838. He had done his job excellently and was fondly remembered: “A better leader for this branch of maritime affairs could hardly have been found. His Danish origins did not prevent him from performing his official duties with enthusiasm and zeal. "

As a rear admiral, he was engaged in writing and researching the natural sciences. In 1840 he published a book on navigation: Tankar om och i navigations . He died in Copenhagen on March 27, 1845.

Fonts

• Michael von Bille: Tankar om och i navigations . Carl Deleen Verlag, Stockholm 1840 (Swedish).

literature

• Jens Braage Halvorsen: Norsk forfatter-lexikon, 1814-1880. Paa basis by JE Krafts and Chr. Langes "Norsk forfatter-lexikon 1814-1856" . tape 1 . Den Norske Forlagsforening, Kristiania 1885 ( archive.org ).
• Karl Hinrich Peter : aspiring naval officer. Your education from 1848 until today . Mürwik, 2009, p. 13–14 ( pkgodzik.de [PDF] first edition: 1969, with some additions from 1973, prepared for the Internet from the original manuscript and edited by Peter Godzik).
• C. With: Bille, Michael Johannes Petronius . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 2 : Beccau – Brandis . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1888, p. 234-236 (Danish, runeberg.org ).