Jens Jacob Eschels

Infobox Person
name = Jens Jacob Eschels


caption =
birth_date = 12 December 1757
birth_place = Nieblum
death_date = 7 June 1842
death_place = Altona
other_names =
known_for = The first German captain's autobiography
occupation = Nautical captain, tobacco manufacturer, merchant, shipowner, nautical expert
nationality =

Jens Jacob Eschels (born 12 December 1757 in Nieblum on the island Föhr, died 7 June 1842 in Altona) was a nautical captain and is the author of the oldest known captain's autobiography in German.

Life

Eschels was born on the North Frisian island of Föhr, where many seafarers of the early modern era came from.

He was the son of a penniless family, his father oftentimes sailed "before the mast" for the Dutch East India Company. In 1796, aged eleven, Eschels joined the crew of an Amsterdam whaler as a deck boy, repeatedly lost his ship in the Arctic, but returned unharmed. Afterwards he sailed on various Amsterdam whalers. During the winter season he learned the "art of navigating".

In 1778 he changed to the less dangerous and on a long-term prospect more prosperous trade shipping. Thereby he sailed all European seas. In 1781 he eventually crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on a journey to the Carribean. In Grenada he was given the chance to move to a Hamburg based ship as "sub-navigator". In the next year he was accepted as navigator on the barque "Henricus de Vierde". Due to illness and death of his captain in Haiti he took over the post of the vessel's captain on the journey back to Europe and as such he would further command the ship on numerous journeys until 1798.

Later he stayed on land as the German seafaring experienced difficulties due to the Napoleonic Wars. By his journeys he had gathered certain assets and now worked as a manufacturer of tobacco products, as merchant, shipowner and expert in nautical questions in the then Danish town of Altona.

His comprehensive and enthralling autobiography was written based on diaries and ships' logs prior to 1832, originally it was only intented for family purposes. It was published in 1835. The 355 pages book not only provides a wealth of information about contemporary seafaring, but also offers a view on everyday life and thinking of the time.

Bibliography

*cite book|last=Eschels|first=Jens Jacob|title=Lebensbeschreibung eines alten Seemannes (Biography of an old Seafarer)|editor=A. Sauer|year=2006|publisher=Convent Verlag|location=Hamburg|language=German

Reviews

*cite journal|journal=The Northern Mariner|first=Jaap|last=Bruijn|title="Jens Jacob Eschels, Lebensbeschriebung eines alten Seemannes: Von ihm selbst und zunächst für seine Familie geschrieben"|volume=XVI|year=2006|issue=3

References