Bent Salvesen was a Norwegian ship"s captain, lieutenant in the Royal Danish Navy and privateer authorized by the Dano-Norwegian government to attack English ships during the Napoleonic Wars.
Background
He was a son of ship"s captain and ship-owner Salve Olsen Hesnes (1749–1813) and Louise Bentsdatter (1760–1814), and his ancestors on both sides had been ship"s captains from today"s Grimstad and Arendal for generations. He was also descended from the estate owner Henrik Jacobsen Friis of Molland (died 1665) and the Ahlefeldt and Gyldenstierne families.
Career
He commanded one of the two ships from Drammen which received the letter of marque during the Napoleonic Wars. After serving as a lieutenant in the Navy from 1807, he became a burgher in Strømsø on 19 September 1810 and sailed as a captain of his father-in-law"s ships. Aged 26, he received letter of marque on 10 November 1813 for his ship Recovery (owned by Niels and Gabriel Omsted) with 14 cannons and a crew of 30 mentor
The ship was taken over by the Navy in 1814.
He did not return, and died in 1820 in the Spanish port town Santander, aged 33. He had been employed as captain of a Danish ship bound for Spain in Copenhagen in 1820, after returning from the East Indies.
She therefore must provide for her family herself." The application was finally granted on 14 December 1823, after being recommended by many of Strømsø"s leading men and by governor Johan Collett. According to Alfthan Vogt Brocklesby Juel, Bent Salvesen was well known in Drammen for his witty humour, giving rise to several sayings in Norway.
Bent Salvesen has descendants with names including Salvesen, Paus, Høeg, Kapteijn, Løvenskiold, Wessel, and other names.