Jens Jensen Berg

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Jens Jensen Berg (29 September 1760 – 29 July 1813) was a Danish ship captain and businessman who took part in the Triangle Trade. In the 1790s he drafted an unrealized plan for improving cultivation and trade on the Danish Gold Coast.

Born in Saltum, Berg lost his parents as a child and moved to Copenhagen, where he attended the Navigational School after showing early talent as a young sailor. He completed his first voyage to the Danish West Indies in 1776 and later sailed to Canton via Tranquebar. After time in European trade, he returned to the West Indies and was promoted to Sailing Master.

In 1782 Berg joined the Danish Guinea–West Indies Company and sailed to the Danish Gold Coast aboard the frigate Christiansborg. He spent a year captaining a schooner along the coast, purchasing enslaved people. He captained a slave ship to Saint Domingue in 1774. In 1785 he became captain of Christiansborg and, on 7 October 1786, left the Gold Coast with 452 enslaved Africans. A slave rebellion broke out two days later; Berg and his crew regained control after three hours, but 34 enslaved people were killed. The ship’s doctor, Paul Isert, later wrote a critical account of the voyage and slavery.

In 1788 Berg was captain of Fredensborg, taking 301 enslaved Africans to Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies and returning to Copenhagen with raw sugar. He then moved to a land-based role as ekvipagemester for a Copenhagen shipping company, managing ships, shipyards, warehouses and ropeworks. In 1791 he captained Grev Schimmelmann on a voyage to the East Indies, visiting Madras, Calcutta and the Nicobar Islands, returning to Copenhagen three years later. He went back to India in 1795–1796.

With Duntzfelt & Co., Berg acquired the decommissioned frigate HDMS Hvide Ørn (1784) in 1795 and captained her on a voyage to Tranquebar and nearby ports in 1796; the voyage was said to be financially successful. After this, he settled in Copenhagen, becoming a licensed wholesaler and a commission agent, and he bought a sugar refinery in Helsingør while investing in more ships.

In 1794 Berg married Vigoline Christine Machholt; they had a daughter, Vigoline, and a son, Christian Macholt. He bought a house at the corner of Bredgade and Dronningens Tværgade. The first bombardment of Copenhagen in 1801 brought heavy losses, and during the Gunboat War he invested in privateering ventures with limited success. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog and died in 1813. Berg is buried at Assistens Cemetery.