Jens Schow Fabricius
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Vice-Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
Jens Schou Fabricius (3 March 1758 – 6 April 1841) was a Norwegian naval officer who served as Minister of the Navy from 1817 to 1818. He served as a representative for ''Søe-Deffensionen'' at the
Norwegian Constitutional Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly ( or ) is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised the dissolution of the union with Denmark. The meetings took place at the Eidsvoll Manor in th ...
at
Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the munic ...
in 1814. During his naval career he served first the Danish-Norwegian Crown until the separation in 1814 of Norway and Denmark, and thereafter the Norwegian-Swedish Crown. Fabricius retired from the navy as a
vice admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...
.


Background

Jens Schou Fabricius was born in
Larvik Larvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Larvik (town) ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. He was the son of District Judge Laurs Sørensen Fabricius (1695-1761). Jens Schou Fabriciu was a student at the
Royal Danish Naval Academy The Royal Danish Naval Academy ( or more commonly, ''Søofficerskolen'') educates and commissions all officers for the Royal Danish Navy. Having existed for more than 300 years, it is the oldest still-existing officers' academy in the world. ...
in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
from the age of eleven.


Danish-Norwegian service

He became a junior lieutenant on 20 December 1779.There is a slight discrepancy on dates between the Norwegian Wikipedia article and the Topsøe-Jensen reference. Topsøe-Jensen is given preference here. He was promoted to senior lieutenant on 25 January 1788. to lieutenant-commander on 13 November 1789 and to captain on 31 May 1799. ;1781–1787 He was ''Ekvipagemester'' (Head of Naval Stores)Ekvipagemester translates literally as Master of Horse, but this is an honorary appointment. The definition/job description from
''Danish Dictionary'' (Gyldendals)
is for the naval officer in the time of sailing ships with responsibilities in the dockyard for the fitting out of the fleet and for the management of all the naval storehouses.
for the Danish company trading from the Baltic to
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in West Africa from 1781 to 1787, during which time he journeyed to the Mediterranean Sea with the warship ''Oldenborg'' and to
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as first mate on the ''Charlotte Amalie''. ;1788–1799 He saw service in the frigate ''Store Belt'' which, in 1788, was a cadet training ship, as second-in-command of the frigate ''Alsen'' when she was acting as guard-ship in the Øresund, and as captain of the smaller ''Speideren'' in the home squadron. In October 1788 he became deputy ''ekvipagemester'' at Fredriksvern in
Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...
and in the following years was often away on tours of duties with various ships, as captain. In 1795 Fabricius sailed to the Danish West Indies, but he could not tolerate the climate and was sent home by his senior officer. In 1797 he sailed as captain of the brig '' Lougen'' which was part of a squadron destined for the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
. On the outward journey his ship broached in a storm in the North Sea but righted herself with four feet of water in the hold and in the cabins. Fabricius and ''Lougen'' returned to Copenhagen on 6 August 1799. ;1800–1809 After a period as second-in-command of the warship ''Danmark'' in the home squadron, and some sick leave, Fabricius was appointed in October 1801 as commander of the port and fortress at
Fredriksvern Fredriksvern (also called ''Friderichsværn'' (1801), ''Frederiksværn'' (1865), ''Fredriksværen'' (1900) and abbreviated ''Frsværn'') was an important Norwegian naval base, just south of Larvik in Vestfold. It is named after Fredrik V Denmark ...
, including the Norwegian flotilla of small gunboats. With the outbreak of hostilities between Denmark and Britain, he became a member of the commission responsible for planning Norway’s maritime defences. ;1810–1814 In 1810 his duties at Fredriksvern were reduced whilst he still retained command together with the directorships of the church, school, pilotage and quarantine departments. In 1812 Fabricius sought a transfer to another position where he could better do his best, but this achieved little. On 1 March 1814 he resigned from his Danish-Norwegian war duties.


Norwegian service

;1814–1824 On 13 April 1814 Fabricius’ name was deleted from the list of Danish naval officers as he had sworn loyalty to the Norwegian government without having obtained a release from Denmark. On 19 February 1816, Danish Captain
Carl Adolph Rothe Counter-Admiral Carl Adolph Rothe (8 December 1767 – 12 July 1834) was a Danish naval officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor-General of the Danish West Indies from 1820 to 1822. Biography Rothe was born on 8 Decemb ...
, Copenhagen's harbour master, arrived in Christiana (now Oslo) to negotiate with Norway’s Thomas Fasting, Norwegian temporary Councillor of State, the return of the seven warbrigs that had ended up in Norwegian waters after the
Treaty of Kiel The Treaty of Kiel () or Peace of Kiel ( Swedish and or ') was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the other side on 14 January 1814 ...
. The negotiations were taken up by his Norwegian counterpart the (now) rear admiral, Admiral Jens Schou Fabricius, who did not dispute the Danish king's right to five of the brigs, but proposed consideration of the feeling in Norway whether the affair could be settled by Norway paying suitable compensation for keeping the ships. On 22 June agreement was reached between Fabricius and Rothe. The brigs ''Allart'' and ''Seagull'' which had been captured in Norwegian waters were awarded to the
Norwegian navy The Royal Norwegian Navy () is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway, including those of the Norwegian Coast Guard. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mob ...
. The other five brigs that were already in Norway would stay there on payment of 95,000 speciedlr (a little over $2 million US dollars bullion value in 2012). Thomas Fasting, then Minister for Maritime Affairs (''marinesaker''), was succeeded by Jens Fabricius for the period 1817-1818, then Fasting took over again.''Departement (marinesaker)'' (Regjeringen.no)
/ref> In 1818, Fabricius became adjutant general to
Charles XIV John Charles XIV John (; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John () and before he became royalty in ...
, King of Sweden and Norway and was promoted to vice admiral on 23 August 1821. He was elected to the
Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...
in 1824 as a representative for Bratsberg (now Telemark). ;Later He retired, at the age of 78, in 1836 and died in
Porsgrunn is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Porsgrunn (town), city ...
on 6 April 1841.


Notes


Primary Source

*Translated from the Norwegian (Norsk bokmål) Wikipedia article ''Jens Fabricius''


References


Other sources

*Topsøe-Jensen, T. A. and Emil Marquard (1935) ''Officerer i den dansk-norske Søetat 1660-1814 og den danske Søetat 1814-1932'' (Copenhagen: H. Hagerups Boghandel) *Holme Jørn (2014) ''De kom fra alle kanter - Eidsvollsmennene og deres hus'' (Oslo: Cappelen Damm)


External links


''Representantene på Eidsvoll 1814'' (Cappelen Damm AS)

''Men of Eidsvoll'' (eidsvollsmenn)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabricius, Jens Schou 1758 births 1841 deaths People from Larvik 18th-century Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officers 19th-century Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officers Norwegian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Government ministers of Norway Presidents of the Storting Fathers of the Constitution of Norway Royal Norwegian Navy admirals Members of the Storting 1824–1826 Danish naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Danish military personnel of the Gunboat War