Jens Jacob Eschels

Jens Jacob Eschels ( born December 12, 1757 Nieblum, Fohr, † June 7, 1842 in Altona ) was a captain. Its written at the age biography is the oldest authentic German captain autobiography obtained.

The great-grandson of the whaling captain Matthias Petersen (1632-1706) grew up in a poor family. His father drove several times " before the mast " at the Dutch United East India Company (VOC). 1769, with 11 years, Jens signed on as a cabin boy on a whaler in Amsterdam, lost several times his ship in the Arctic, but returned unharmed and continued on various Amsterdam whalers. In the winter months the ambitious and inquisitive boy learned the " art of navigation " (navigation).

In 1778 he moved to the less dangerous and more promising long-term commercial shipping. He sailed all European seas. In 1781 he finally sailed for the first time across the Atlantic to the West Indies. In Grenada, he was offered the chance to switch to a Hamburg ship than to " sub-control man." The following year he was accepted in Hamburg on the Bark HENRICUS DE vierde as helmsman. Due to illness and death of his captain in Haiti, he took over the ship for the return trip already own as captain and led eventually as such on numerous trips to 1798.

Then he stayed because of the difficult conditions for the German Maritime by the Napoleonic Wars between France and Great Britain on land. By seagoing he had laid the foundation stone for a certain wealth and now worked as a tobacco manufacturer, merchant, shipowner and experts in maritime questions (" Schiffer - age " ) in the then Danish Altona near Hamburg.

In the spring of 1831 he began recording his autobiography, which he completed on 19 March 1833. His intention, of which write off a copy for each of his children and grandchildren, " more than two dozen " proved, given the range of 400 pages to be impossible. Eschels therefore decided to provide them with a preface dated November 20, 1834 at his own expense Hammerich & Lesser Print in Altona and to let life bring as a description of the Ancient Mariner, initially written by himself and for his family in the book trade. The work offers a wealth of information on contemporary maritime and provides insight into the everyday life and the thinking of the people of his time. Eschels if it is considered in the sober and analytical study of his experiences as a tolerant and downright enlightened and critical mind.