Andreas Gerner was a Danish naval officer who was also employed in the building of ships for the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.

Personal

Gerner was the grandson of

Henrik Gerner Henrik Gerner (1742–1787) was a Danish naval officer who specialised in shipbuilding and naval architecture. His interests as an entrepreneurial engineer led to unsinkable gun platforms, horse-driven dredging machines, and desalination equipmen ...

, the bishop of Viborg and the father of

, the ''fabrikmester'' shipbuilder. KommandørkaptajnEquivalent to Commander - see Ranks and insignia of NATO navies' officers Gerner was born in 1698 and died in 1749.

Career

In 1735 Andreas Gerner was sent abroad as a senior lieutenant to study shipbuilding, and on return he was entrusted with the building of some ships (but never achieved the top post of fabrikmester to the Royal danish navy). In 1746 he bought three

snows Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

in England. His largest ship, the ship-of-the-line Fyen of 50 guns, was deemed unsuitable for use with the fleet even while it was still on the stocks and so it was transferred to the Danish East India Company. In this capacity the design proved a great success and copied for future armed trading vessels.Gjødesen pp 11 -12
/ref> Notes attached to the ships plans indicate that ''Fyens design was inspired by the British ship HMS ''Augusta'' (1736) at Deptford.Royal Danish Naval Museu
database - Fyen
(click ''vis'' for plans and notes) On his deathbed, he is recorded as having warned his sons not to have a career in shipbuilding, as this was a sure way to lose a fortune. His son Henrik did not heed this advice and became a very successful ''fabrikmester''.

Notes

References

Citations

*This article includes information gleaned from the Danish wikipedia pages :da:Fabrikmester and :da:Henrik Gerner (skibskonstruktør) *Project Runeberg: Dansk biografisk Lexikon /Vol 5. Faaborg - Gersdorff / p 614 (1887-1905) Author: Carl Frederik Bricka *Gjødesen, P.F. (1900) Mindeskrift om Henrik Gerner. Publisher Denmark : Sølieutenants-Selskabet (contains details of Andreas) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerner, Andreas 1698 births 1749 deaths 18th-century Danish naval officers 18th-century Danish shipbuilders Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy personnel