Alfred Tetens


Alfred Tetens was a German captain, South Seas explorer and Senator of Hamburg.

Life

Tetens was the son of a Justizrat and senator in Danish services. For many years he captained sailing boats on Hamburg's two lakes, the Binnenalster and the Außenalster, but in the middle of the 1860s he went to Micronesia on behalf of Hamburg shipping owner
and merchant Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, then seeking material for Museum Godeffroy which exhibited ethnographic and natural history material. In 1869 Tetens established the first permanent trading post of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn. This was on Yap and the enterprise became particularly influential in economic regard. The most important commercial product was copra.
Tetens later directed the office of the Wasserschout of the Hamburgische Admiralität and eventually became a Senator of the "Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg". In 1891 he was also joint founder of the German Seaman's Mission in Hamburg.

Works