Hinrich Braren
| Hinrich Braren | |
|---|---|
| Born |
31 August 1751 Oldsum |
| Died | 4 August 1826 (aged 74) Tönning |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Other names | Hinrich Brarens |
| Occupation | Navigator, nautical examiner, pilot inspector |
| Known for | writing the first text book on navigation in German language |
| Relatives | Robert Miles Sloman (son-in-law) |
Hinrich Braren (31 August 1751, Oldsum – 4 August 1826, Tönning), later known as Hinrich Brarens, was a Danish sea captain, pilot inspector and nautical examiner. He wrote the first book on navigation in German language and established the first public nautical school in the Duchy of Schleswig. Within 30 years as a nautical teacher he examined about 3,500 navigator candidates.
Hinrich Braren was born in 1751 in Oldsum on the North Frisian island of Föhr to whaling captain Brar Hinrichen. Only aged 12 he went to sea with his father and each year from 1763 to 1780 he used to sail to Greenland as a whaler. In 1780 he changed to merchant shipping and was incidentally able to acquire the full command over one of the ships of his Dutch ship-owner in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1786, while Braren sailed from Copenhagen to Greenland as a seal catcher for the Royal Greenlandic Trade, he received the order to support a Danish expedition that was determined to explore the east coast of Greenland.
Inspired by this expedition Braren settled down as a navigation teacher on Föhr and opened a private nautical school. In 1794 he was also a merchant and harbourmaster in Wyk auf Föhr. In 1796 he was granted an examinator's license and the permission to establish a public nautical school. This school was later moved to Tönning at the mouth of the Eider river when Braren was posted there as inspector for the maritime pilots on the Eider and the Eider Canal. Due to the Continental System during the Napoleonic Wars, Tönning had become an important commercial harbour for a short time.
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