Michael Henck

Michael Henck (born December 6, 1667 in the Swedish-Pomeranian Stettin , † July 28, 1715 on the Baltic Sea ) was a Swedish naval officer. He was last admiral in the Great Northern War .

Life

Michael Henck was a son of the Szczecin ship's master and cod fisherman Hans Henck. He went to sea early on, including England, Spain and the Mediterranean . He took part in several sea battles and served himself up from boatswain to commander of a ship, whose command he received in 1694.

In 1700 he entered service in Sweden and in the same year became the captain of an orlog ship . After he had proven himself as a naval officer, he was given command of a small brigantine in 1710 . With this he attacked a Danish frigate that was supposed to accompany several transport ships to Danzig , and pursued them as far as the vicinity of Copenhagen. He burned three enemy ships and took two others with him to Sweden. In 1711 he captured two Danish ships again.

Another confrontation with the Danes occurred during the naval battles in the Greifswalder Bodden (1712) . In that year Henck was given command of a squadron of three frigates, a brigantine, a bombarde and eleven transport ships, loaded with provisions and ammunition to supply Stettin. A Danish fleet that was supposed to prevent this only approached when Henck's squadron was already anchored in the Neuer Tief southeast of Rügen. The Danes, clearly superior in ships and firepower, reinforced by 15 orlog ships under the command of Vice Admiral Christian Thomesen Sehested , did not succeed in driving the Swedes out of their position despite six hours of bombardment. Three days later the Danes attacked again, reinforced by 14 ships with a shallow draft, but had to withdraw again with losses. For his bravery, Henck was raised to the Swedish nobility on October 26, 1712 while retaining his name. On December 29 of the same year he was appointed Schoutby Night (Rear Admiral ).

On April 12, 1714 he was promoted to Vice Admiral. Michael Henck was appointed commander of the Rügischen sea regiment on February 10, 1715 and promoted to admiral on March 4.

Michael Henck fell on July 28, 1715 on his ship Enigheten at the beginning of the sea ​​battle near Jasmund between Swedes and Danes during the Pomeranian campaign of 1715/1716 . He was buried in a church in Karlskrona .

He was married to Anna Dorothea Stolten , the daughter of the Anklam navigation teacher Peter Stolten. The marriage had three daughters and two sons.

literature

• Henck, Michael . In: Svenskt Biografiskt Lexicon. Ny Fjold. Vol. 5, Örebro 1863-1864, pp. 126-127.
• Gabriel Anrep : Svenska Adelns Ättar-Taflor. Part 2, Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm 1861, p. 235 ( Google books ).