Andreas Bjørn (28 October 1703 – 27 January 1750) was a Danish merchant, shipbuilder and ship owner.

Early life

Andreas Bjørn was born (as Anders Bjørn, name later changed to Andreas Bjørn) in

Skælskør Skælskør () is a town in Zealand (Denmark), Zealand, Denmark. It is located in Slagelse Municipality. Until 2007 Skælskør was the seat of Skælskør Municipality. The town is located 17 km southwest of Slagelse and 12 km southeast o ...

to Mads Andersen Bjørn and Karen Pedersdatter. His father was a peasant. He came to Copenhagen in an early age. In 1730, he took

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

as a wholesaler. He initially worked in the lucretive timber trade. His lumberyard was located at the customs house (north of present-day

Larsens Plads ''Larsens Plads'' () is a waterfront in Copenhagen, Denmark, which runs along the Zealand side of the Inner Harbour from the Nyhavn canal in the south to the Nordre Toldbod area just south of Langelinie to the north. The name refers to a shipyard ...

. From 1731 he supplied the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

with provisions, cannons and large quantities of timber. From 1739, he also supplied the

Royal Danish Army The Royal Danish Army (; ; ) is the land-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures, equipment and training methods ...

with cannons.

Ship building

In 1732, Bjørn bought Grønnegård Harbour at the southern tip of

Christianshavn Christianshavn () is a neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of the Indre By District, it is located on several artificial islands between the islands of Zealand and Amager and separated from the rest of the city centre by the Inner Harbour, ...

. He mainly used the area as a lumberyard. In the same year, he also bought Niels Alsing's lumberyard at the other end of

Strandgade Strandgade () is one of the principal streets in the Christianshavn district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs along the full length of the neighbourhood, following the waterfront of the Inner Harbour, Copenhagen, Inner Harbour, from Christian's Ch ...

. The property reached all the way from

to Christianshavn Canal and was partly lined with a row of wooden warehouses along the street. He demolished most of the buildings and constructed a house for his own use (now known as the

Andreas Bjørn House The Andreas Bjørn House is a historic property located at the corner of Strandgade (No. 46) and Bådsmandsstræde in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built for Andreas Bjørn in 1734 and listed on the Danish reg ...

) at the corner of Strandgade and Bådsmandsstræde in 1734. He also constructed a number of warehouses and workshops on the land. In 1733, he was permission to establish a dockyard on reclaimed land to the north of his new property. Separated from the rest of Christianshavn by a branch of Christianshavn Canal (now

Wilders Kanal Wilders Kanal ( English: Wilder Canal) is a canal which connects Christianshavns Kanal to the main harbour, opposite Søkvæsthuset, in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is crossed by Wilders Bro which carries Strandgad ...

), his dockyard became known as Bjørnsholm (Bjørn's Isle). Approximately 50 ships were built at the dockyard. Some of them were used by himself in oversea trade, while others were commissions from other trading houses or the government..

Ships built at Andreas Bjørn's Dockyard

The following ships were built by Andreas Bjørn. Most of them were built at Bjørnsholm but some of them were built in other locations.The place of construction of the individual ships is not known.

Oversea trade

Bjørn participated widely in overseas trade, especially with the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

. In 1747, together with Ulrik Frederik Suhm (1686-1758) and Frederik Holmsted (1683–1758), he founded the General Trading Company which mainly traded with

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

and later

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. The company took over the northernmost part of Bjørnsholm.

Other pursuits

In 1747 the

Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society The Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society ( Danish: Kongelige Kjøbenhavnske Skydeselskab og danske Broderskab) was founded some time before 1443 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally it served to train citizens to contribute to the defence of the city b ...

moved their activities to a corner of Bjørnsholm. When

Frederick V Frederick V or Friedrich V may refer to: *Frederick V, Duke of Swabia (1164–1170) * Frederick V, Count of Zollern (d.1289) *Frederick V, Burgrave of Nuremberg (c. 1333–1398), German noble * Frederick V of Austria (1415–1493), or Frederick II ...

became a member later that same year, Bjørn arranged a large celebration at his own expense. The king, in return, appointed him as Royal Agent. In 1748, Bjørn was appointed as one of the directors of the new

Royal Danish Theatre The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first s ...

Legacy

Andreas Bjørn's site at Christianshavn is now known as

Wilders Plads Wilders Plads is a waterfront area located just north of Wilders Kanal, a branch of Christianshavns Kanal, in the north-western corner of the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. The area is bounded by Christianshavn Canal to the ...

, Krøyers Plads and

Grønlandske Handels Plads (Kongelige) Grønlandske Handels Plads (English language, English: "(Royal) Greenland Dock") is a waterfront area at the end of Strandgade in the northwestern corner of the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. The area is bounded ...

after later owners. The old main building and a half-timbered workshop of his shipyard is still found at Wilders Plads. The Andreas Bjørn House at Strandgade 46 is also a heritage listed building. Andreas Bjørns Gade, also in Christianshavn, is named after him.

References

External links

Source

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjorn, Andreas 1703 births 1750 deaths 18th-century Danish businesspeople Danish businesspeople in shipping Danish businesspeople in timber 18th-century Danish shipbuilders Businesspeople from Copenhagen People from Slagelse Municipality Merchants from Denmark–Norway