Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt (born 14 February 1741 29 February 1796) was a Danish naval officer and ship builder, who served in the French navy for four years.
[Topsøe-Jensen Vol 2 pp 554 – 557] and became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Family
E W Stibolt's grandfather, Hans Andersen Stibolt, was Commandant on Christiansø, Denmark's most easterly point, with the army rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He had roots to German nobility.
His father, (naval) Commander Caspar Henrik Stibolt, who became a naturalised Danish citizen in 1777, two years before his death, was also for many years Commandant of Christainsø. He was married twice, the second marriage (to Cathrina von Harrasoffski ) giving issue to sixteen children of whom eight, including Ernst Wilhelm, became Danish naval officers. See
Stibolt The family name Stibolt (alternative spelling Stiboldt) was closely associated with the Danish-Norwegian navy of the 18th century and with the island of Christiansø from the time that Hans Anderson Stibolt was appointed commandant of those most eas ...
In 1791 Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt married Kirsten Güldencrone Kaas, the daughter of rear admiral Ulrik Christian Kaas.
Career
From a cadet in the Danish navy in 1760, Stibolt was promoted steadily to captain in 1781 and commander in 1790.
[Project Runeberg pp 426 -427](_blank)
/ref>
Early years
Immediately on receiving his first commission Stibolt chose to specialise in ship construction under the tutelage of master shipwright :da:Frederik Michael Krabbe and was given a junior position in the Construction Commission, which included in its remit the education of young naval officers. In 1768, together with 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 ...
, he embarked on a study tour to England, France and Holland.[Not only did he study ship building, but also water management techniques in Holland. Stibolt was instructed to recruit, if possible, a Dutch engineer with experience in development of docks, dykes, and dams.] He returned in November 1773 to become, in March 1774, a lecturer in ship construction at the naval cadet college, and a member of the Construction Commission. Also in 1774, Stibolt undertook a journey to Christiansø, Frederiksværn, and Trosvig (near Frederikstad on Oslo Fjord), with a view to planning improvements to those harbours. Shortly afterwards he produced the designs for two dredging barges, which were to work at Christiansand
Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...
. In 1776 he became second-in-command of the ship-of-the-line ''Mars'' and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
{{Infobox organization
, name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
, full_name =
, native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
, native_name_lang =
, logo = Royal ...
In the meantime, Gerner had been named the Danish navy's master shipbuilder, so there was no prospect for Stibolt for further promotion in the technical field. In 1778, therefore, he sought permission to go into the service of a foreign power, France, which at that time was engaged in hostilities with Britain during the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(1775–1783).
French Service
In the period 1778 to 1782 Stibolt served in three French ships:
*} (74) (ship-of-the-line)
* (frigate), before her capture by the British Royal Navy
* (ship-of-the-line}
Under the admirals Latouche Tréville and Count de Grasse he performed well, together with, among other Danes, Lorentz Fisker
Lorentz Fisker (1753–1819) was a Danish naval officer who charted the waters of southern Norway and the Kattegat, and organised Norwegian defences against Britain and Sweden.Project Runeberg – DBvol. 5, pages 180 - 182/ref>Topsøe-Jensen Vo ...
, witnessing various naval actions. Stibolt wrote numerous reports back to the Danish admiralty during his service on these ships. He met George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
during the siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...
in 1781. On being recalled to Danish service in 1782 he was awarded a pension from the French, which caused much dissatisfaction amongst other Danish officers returning from French service, and was decorated with the Order Pour le merité militaire, which was questioned by some French officers on the grounds that Stibolt had not participated in any major battle. He also came with a glowing reference from Grasse, with whom he maintained a close friendship.
After 1782
Back in Copenhagen, Stibolt was appointed General Adjutant to the King and produced further reports on the defence works on Christiansø. He was also involved with ship building (including the "unsinkable" defence frigate '' Hjælperen'', which was to take part in the Battle of Copenhagen (1801)
The Battle of Copenhagen of 1801 (Danish: ''Slaget på Reden''), also known as the First Battle of Copenhagen to distinguish it from the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, was a naval battle in which a British fleet fought and defeated a sm ...
, but his career was overshadowed by disputes with the master shipbuilder Henrik Gerner, who was considered the better designer. Later disputes with Gerner's pupil (and later master shipbuilder) Hohlenberg also affected Stibolt's health.
With the death of Henrik Gerner in 1787, Stibolt was appointed interim master shipbuilder to the Danish navy in 1788 – a position that was confirmed in 1790.
Some 39 ships of a variety of types plus 37 smaller boats are recorded,[To access the list click]
orlogbasen
then>database>AVANCEREDE> set Konstruktør to "Stibolt" >Søg! as designed and built by Stibolt, including four ships-of-the-line five frigates and many lesser ships. More ships, especially brigs, were built to Stibolt's design long after his death. Of these, the following are notable:
* ''Lougen'' (1791) brig – the first Danish warship to be copper-sheathed
* ''Lougen'' (1805) brig
Several of Stibolt's ships were captured at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic War ...
*Ships-of-the-line: ''Danmark'', ''Seieren'', & ''Waldemar''
*Frigates: ''Freia'', ''Havfruen'', ''Iris'', & ''Triton''
*Brigs: ''Glommen'', ''Nidelven'', & ''Sarpen'', and later ''Allart'' (1807)
Long after Stibolt's death, one of his designs for a new ship-of-the-line was used. Laid down in the year after the Battle of Copenhagen (1807), launched in 1810 but not fully fitted out until 1813. This was appropriately named ''Phoenix''.[Royal danish Naval Museum ]
Phoenix
/ref>
Death
At the beginning of 1796, suffering from "weakness and a deep melancholy", Stibolt resigned his position, and shortly after on 29 February that year – committed suicide by jumping out of the window in his flat in Toldbodvejen (modern street name Esplanaden). He is buried in the Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)
Assistens Cemetery (Danish: Assistens Kirkegård) in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the burial site of many Danish notables as well as an important greenspace in the Nørrebro district. Inaugurated in 1760, it was originally a burial site for the poor l ...
Notes
Citations
References
Basic article translated from the Danish Wikipedia articles :da:Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt and :da:Stibolt
*T. A. Topsøe-Jensen og Emil Marquard (1935) “Officerer i den dansk-norske Søetat 1660–1814 og den danske Søetat 1814–1932" (Danish Naval Officers). Two volumes
downloadable here
).
*Project Runeberg: Dansk biografisk Lexikon / XVI. Bind. Skarpenberg – Sveistrup /
*Royal Danish Naval Museum â€
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stibolt, Ernst Wilhelm
18th-century Danish naval officers
18th-century Danish shipbuilders
Royal Danish Naval Academy alumni
1741 births
1796 deaths
Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy personnel
People from Christiansø
Suicides by jumping in Denmark
Burials at Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)
Ernst
Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
* Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst"
* Anton Ernst (1975- ...