Alfred Tetens (1 July 1835, in

Wilster Wilster () is a town in Steinburg district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. History Wilster was granted town rights under Lübeck law in 1282, and thereby counts itself among Schleswig-Holstein's oldest towns. Wilster forms the centre of the Wils ...

– 13 January 1903, in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

) was a German captain,

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and Senator of Hamburg.

Life

Tetens was the son of a ''Justizrat'' (senior counsel) and senator in Danish services. For many years he captained sailing boats on Hamburg's two lakes, the ''

Binnenalster Binnenalster () or Inner Alster Lake is one of two artificial lakes within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany, which are formed by the river Alster (the other being the Außenalster). The main annual festival is the ''Alstervergnügen''. The la ...

'' and the ''

Außenalster Außenalster () or Outer Alster Lake is the larger one of two artificial lakes, which are formed by the Alster River and are both located within the city limits of Hamburg, Germany. The other „lake“ is the Binnenalster. The Außenalster and i ...

,'' but in the middle of the 1860s he went to

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

on behalf of Hamburg shipping owner and merchant

Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy Johann Cesar Godeffroy (7 July 1813 in Kiel – 9 February 1885 in Blankenese) was a German trader, blackbirder and Hanseat. He was the founder of Museum Godeffroy. Family history and the trading company J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn The Godeffroys ...

, then seeking material for

Museum Godeffroy The Museum Godeffroy was a museum in Hamburg, Germany, which existed from 1861 to 1885. The collection was founded by Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, who became a wealthy shipping magnate a few years after the expansion of the trade towards Austral ...

which exhibited (and sold)

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

and natural history material. In 1869 Tetens established the first permanent trading post of ''J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn.'' This was on

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micr ...

and the enterprise became particularly influential in economic regard. The most important commercial product was

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from co ...

. Tetens later directed the office of the ''Wasserschout'' (which managed the central hiring of seamen) of the ''Hamburgische Admiralität'' and eventually became a Senator of the "Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg". In 1891 he was also joint founder of the German Seaman's Mission in Hamburg.

Works

*''Among the savages of the South Seas; memoirs of Micronesia, 1862-1868''. Reprinted. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1958. *with Johann Kubary and Eduard Gräffe ''The Carolines island of Yap or Guap according to the reports of Alfred Tetens and Johann Kubary'' "Die Carolineninsel Yap oder Guap nach den Mittheilungen von Alf. Tetens und Johann Kubary" Microform Reprint New Haven, Conn. *with Semmy Steinberg ''Vom Schiffsjungen zum Wasserschout Erinnerungen aus d. Leben d. Capitäns Alfred Tetens ; nach seinen Aufzeichnungen'' Hamburg Niemeyer 1889

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tetens, Alfred 1835 births 1903 deaths German explorers Senators of Hamburg (before 1919) People from Steinburg 19th-century explorers