Kruse, Lars

Lars Andersen Kruse 1828-1894, fisker og redningsmand

Født: 5. juni 1828 i Skagen

Gift: 

Første gang : 2. august 1850 Inger Marie Jensdatter

Anden gang : 8. marts 1872 Hedvig Jensen Bagh

Død: 9. marts 1894 i Skagen. Begravet på Skagen Assistents Kirkegård (nær Kunstnergravene)

Dekorationer: 

  Relationer

Lars Andersen Kruse 1828-1894, fisherman and rescuer 

Born: 5 June 1828 in Skagen

Married: 

First time : 2 August 1850 Inger Marie Jensdatter

Second time : March 8, 1872 Hedvig Jensen Bagh

Died: 9 March 1894 in Skagen. Buried at Skagen Assistents Cemetery (near Kunstnergravene)

Decorations: 

  Relations

 Biografi i relation til Skagen

(Kilde: Vang Rasmussen: Lars Kruse, Forlaget Tommeliden)

En sommerdag i Skagen 1844 løb fire drenge nede på stranden. "hvem kommer først?" råbte en lang, mager dreng og satte i løb. Lars og Iver gad ikke være med til at løbe om kap - de kunne alligevel ikke hamle op med Jens. Lars får øje på et stykke træ ude i vandet. "Jeg tror det er blå-træ" siger han. De satte en båd i vandet og hentede træet. Træstykket solgte de til bonden Peter Hansen fra Østerby som kom forbi for at samle tang til gødning. Han gav de fire drenge 7 skilling hver - det ville ialt svar til nogle få kroner i dag.

Men drengene tænkte ikke på at træstykket jo slet ikke var deres. Alt, hvad der driv i land på kysten, tilhørte kongen og det skulle straks meldes til fogeden. 

Snart havde de fire drenge glemt alt om blåtræet. Men lovens arm var lang. En dag blev de kaldt op til byfogeden, som var en streng herre. Han gav de stakkels drenge prygl med sin stok (rotting) og noterede deres navne i sin tykke domsbog, hvor han også noterede hvor mange slag de havde fået og hvorfor. 

Lars Kruse deltog i sin første redning som 21-årig i 1848. 

Redningsvæsnet 1852

Da Lars Kruse var ung, havde man endnu ikke fået et redningsvæsen ved de danske kyster. Men i året 1852 blev det oprettet ved lov. Samme år fik Skagen en rednings-station med redningsbåd og raket-apparat. Nogle gange var det nemlig lettere at skyde en raket med en line ud til et strandet skib. Så kunne man trække folkene i land i en redningsstol. 

Men selv om man havde fået en redningsstation, var det dog ofte fiskerne i deres små, lette både, der først nåede ud til et strandet skib. Lars Kruse var kun 21 år, da han var med til at redde folkene fra to engelske skibe.

Kærligheden

Der var folk, som mente, at den unge Lars Kruse ikke tænkte på andet end at fiske og være blandt de første, der nåede ud til et forlist skib. Men han havde også øje for pigerne. Han vidste godt, hvem han ville have, men hende kunne han ikke få. Den lyse, glade Hedvig med de drilske øjne giftede sig med Iver (Andreasen). I høsten giftede han sig med Inger Marie. Med hende fik han senere en søn, som fik navnet Jens. 

I julen 1862 holdt man gilde, som det var gammel skik og det blev sent, før Lars og hans familie kom hjem. Han havde ikke sovet mange timer før han blev vækket ved råb om stranding. 

Den svenske brig "Daphne" var strandet på Nordstrand. Da Lars nåede frem, så han, at redningsbåden allerede var på havet. Men den store båd havde svært ved at nå ud til skibet. Storm og vind drev den hele tiden tilbage. 

Nu plejede Lars ikke at stå og se til uden at gøre noget. Han fik da også fat i en hestevogn og nogle folk. Der lå nemlig en båd et stykke borte som kunne bruges. Så gik det i fuld fart gennem sne og sand hen efter båden. 

Da de kom tilbage lå redningsbåden på land. Folkene var så trætte, at de måtte have et hvil og fire af dem kunne heller ikke klare det mere. De måtte skifter ud med andre (frivillige fra stranden). Så gik redningsbåden ud igen. Denne gang nåede båden frem til skibet og fik den første mand halet ombord i redningsbåden. Men så gik det galt. Båden kæntrede i den stærke strøm og blev liggende med kølen i vejret. 

Nogle af mændene fik fat i de livliner, som var ved båden. Men vandet var iskoldt, og snart førte strømmen dem væk. En efter en drev mændene i land som lig. Kun to af dem overlevede. 

Lars kendte alle de døde. Nogle af dem var hans bedste venner. Da han gik langs stranden, så han Hedvig sidde stille og græde ved et af ligene. Havet havde også taget Iver. Nu var hun alene med fem børn. 

Det var en grusom ulykke, som den dag ramte Skagen. På et øjeblik havde 8 koner og 25 børn mistet deres forsørger. 

Lars ville nu prøve at redde resten af besætningen og fik 8 mand med sig i den båd de havde hentet. Det lykkedes ikke inden mørket faldt på og de måtte vente. De gik hjem for at få tørt tøj på og styrke sig med mad og drikke. Klokken ti om aftenen gik de tilbage til stranden. Månen var kommet frem mellem skyerne og de satte båden i vandet igen. Nu lykkedes det at redde resten af besætningen på "Daphne" og Lars Kruse og hans kammerater kunne langt om længe gå hjem og sove. 

På årets sidste dag begravede man syv af de druknede redningsmænd. Liget af den sidste drev aldrig i land. 

Fiskerne, som havde reddet de svenske søfolk i land, blev antaget som nyt mandskab til Skagens redningsbåd. Men indtil videre var der ingen båd. Den var drevet til søs efter ulykken. 

Men en dag i marts ankrede et skib op ud for Skagen. Det havde haft redningsbåden på slæb fra Sverige, hvor den var drevet i land i Marstrand. Båden havde ikke taget særlig skade og var snart klar til brug igen. 

Lars Kruse som var blevet valgt til bådfører, blev udnævnt til Dannebrogsmand. Det var den højeste udmærkelse en redningsmand kunne få. 

Men Lars fik hverken kors eller bånd. Det fine sølvkors var ganske vist blevet sendt til byfogeden, for at han skulle give det til Lars. Men han havde sendt det retur.  Byfogeden havde nemlig set i den tykke domsbog at Lars var blevet straffet - og så var han ikke værdig til at bære dannebrogs-korset. 

Folk blev meget vrede, da de hørte, had der var sket. Kaptajn Johan Peter Larssen, pensioneret fyrskibsfører, boende i Højen, havde gjort Lars Kruses sag til sin og ved sine rejser til hovedstaden og med sine forbindelser der, påtalte denne affære, så den fandt ørenlyd i vide kredse over hele landet og Holger Drachmann skrev om det og mange andre, herunder Michael Ancher støttede Lars Kruse. Ja, der kom protester fra hele landet. Men lige lidt hjalp det - byfogeden fastholdt sit. 

Det var en hårdt slag for Lars Kruse og pinte ham i mange år. Lars Kruse var fører af Skagens redningsbåd i 31 år og gik ud med redningsbåden 29 gange. 

I 1871 blev Inger Marie syg og døde først på sommeren. Det var også et hårdt slag for Lars, som nu var alene med sønnen. Et års tid senere giftede han sig med Hedvig. Hun havde været enke, siden Iver druknede ved Daphnes forlis. 

I 1882 kom langt om længe den hæder, som han havde ventet på i mange år. Endelig blev han udnævnt til dannebrogs-mand og nu kom det frem, at den lov, han i sin tid var blevet dømt efter, forlængst var ophævet. De syv skilling skulle ikke plage ham mere. Han var en ærlig mand. 

Den 9. marts 1894 var han med sit bådelag ude for at sætte garn. Han var 66 år, men stadig en rask og rørig mand. På vej ind over revlen blev de pludselig ramt af en forkert sø og båden kæntrede. Lars og drengen Bertel druknede og drev i land senere på dagen. 

Maleren Michael Ancher har gengivet situationen hvor Lars Kruse er bragt hjem efter drukneulykken i maleriet "Den druknede" (Skagens Museum)

Lars Kruse havde gennem de 31 år  som redningsmand, været med til at redde 180 søfolk fra at drukne. 

Men rekorden har bådfører Jens Rasmussen fra Højen. Han har været med til at redde 433 mennesker. De to var venner.

Biography in relation to Skagen

(Source: Vang Rasmussen: Lars Kruse, Forlaget Tommeliden)

One summer day in Skagen in 1844, four boys were running down the beach. "who comes first?" shouted a tall, skinny boy and set off running. Lars and Iver didn't want to join the race - they couldn't keep up with Jens anyway. Lars spots a piece of tree out in the water. "I think it's blue-tree" he says. They put a boat in the water and fetched the tree. They sold it to Peter Hansen, a farmer from Østerby, who came by to collect seaweed for fertiliser. He gave the four boys 7 shillings each - that would be the equivalent of a few kroner today.  

But the boys didn't think about the fact that the piece of wood wasn't theirs at all. Anything that drifted ashore belonged to the King and had to be reported to the bailiff immediately.   

Soon the four boys had forgotten all about the  logwood. But the arm of the law was long. One day they were summoned to see the town bailiff, who was a strict gentleman. He gave the poor boys a beating with his cane and recorded their names in his thick judgment book, where he also noted how many beatings they had received and why.   

Lars Kruse took part in his first rescue at the age of 21 in 1848.   

The rescue service 1852

When Lars Kruse was young, there was not yet a rescue service on the Danish coast. But in 1982 it was established by law. That same year, Skagen was given a rescue station with a lifeboat and rocket apparatus. Sometimes it was easier to shoot a rocket with a line to a stranded ship. The men could then be pulled ashore in a lifeboat.   

But even with a lifeboat station, it was often the fishermen in their small, light boats who reached a stranded ship first. Lars Kruse was only 21 when he helped rescue people from two British ships.

Love

There were those who believed that young Lars Kruse had nothing on his mind but fishing and being among the first to reach a wrecked ship. But he also had an eye for the girls. He knew who he wanted, but he couldn't have her. The bright, happy Hedvig with the mischievous eyes married Iver (Andreasen). In the harvest he married Inger Marie. With her he later had a son, who was named Jens. 

In Christmas 1862 they held a guild, as was the old custom, and it was late before Lars and his family returned home. He had not slept many hours before he was awakened by cries of being stranded.   

The Swedish brig "Daphne" was stranded on Nordstrand. When Lars arrived, he saw that the lifeboat was already at sea. But the big boat had difficulty reaching the ship. Storm and wind kept pushing it back. 

Now Lars didn't just stand by and do nothing. So he got hold of a horse-drawn carriage and some people. There was a boat some distance away that could be used. Then it was full speed through snow and sand to the boat. 

When they came back, the lifeboat was on land. The people were so tired that they had to rest, and four of them couldn't take it any more either. They had to take turns with others (volunteers from the beach). Then the lifeboat went out again. This time the boat reached the ship and got the first man on board the lifeboat. But then it went wrong. The boat capsized in the strong current and was left with the keel up. 

Some of the men got hold of the lifelines attached to the boat. But the water was freezing and soon the current carried them away. One by one the men drifted ashore like corpses. Only two of them survived.   

Lars knew all the dead. Some of them were his best friends. As he walked along the beach, he saw Hedvig sitting quietly, crying by one of the bodies. The sea had also taken Iver. Now she was alone with five children.   

It was a terrible accident that struck Skagen that day. In an instant, eight wives and 25 children had lost their husbands, fathers and supporters.   

Lars now wanted to try to save the rest of the crew and got 8 men with him in the boat they had brought. They did not succeed before darkness fell and they had to wait. They went home to get dry clothes and fortify themselves with food and drink. At ten o'clock in the evening they went back to the beach. The moon had come out between the clouds and they put the boat back in the water. Now the rest of the crew of the "Daphne" was rescued and Lars Kruse and his companions could finally go home and sleep.   

On the last day of the year, seven of the drowned rescuers were buried. The body of the last one never drifted ashore.   

The fishermen who had rescued the Swedish sailors were taken on as new crew for the Skagen lifeboat. But so far there was no boat. It had been driven to sea after the accident.   

But one day in March, a ship anchored off Skagen. It had been towing the lifeboat from Sweden, where it had been driven ashore in Marstrand. The boat was not badly damaged and was soon ready for use again. 

Lars Kruse, who had been elected boatmaster, was appointed a Dannebrogman. This was the highest award a rescuer could receive. 

But Lars got neither cross nor ribbon. The fine silver cross had indeed been sent to the town bailiff to give to Lars. But he had sent it back.  The town magistrate had seen in the thick judgment book that Lars had been punished - and so he was not worthy to wear the dannebrogs cross. 

The people were very angry when they heard what had happened. Captain Johan Peter Larssen, retired lighthouse master, living in Højen, had made Lars Kruse's case his own and by his travels to the capital and with his connections there, denounced this affair so that it found an ear in wide circles all over the country and Holger Drachmann wrote about it and many others, including Michael Ancher supported Lars Kruse. Yes, there were protests from all over the country. But it didn't help much - the town magistrate stood his ground. 

It was a hard blow for Lars Kruse and tormented him for many years. Lars Kruse was Skagen's lifeboat captain for 31 years and went out in the lifeboat 29 times. 

In 1871, Inger Marie fell ill and died early in the summer. This was also a hard blow for Lars, who was now alone with his son. A year later he married Hedvig. She had been a widow since Iver drowned in the Daphne shipwreck. 

In 1882, the glory he had been waiting for for many years finally arrived. He was finally appointed a Dannebrogs man, and it now emerged that the law under which he had been convicted had long since been repealed. The seven shillings would trouble him no more. He was an honest man. 

On 9 March 1894 he was out with his boat crew to set nets. He was 66 years old, but still a fit and healthy man. On their way across the reef, they were suddenly hit by the wrong sea and the boat capsized. Lars and the boy Bertel drowned and drifted ashore later that day. 

On March 9, 1894, he was out with his boat crew setting nets. He was 66 years old, but still a fit and healthy man. On their way across the reef, they were suddenly hit by the wrong sea and the boat capsized. Lars and the boy Bertel drowned and drifted ashore later that day.   

The painter Michael Ancher has depicted the situation where Lars Kruse is brought home after the drowning accident in the painting "The drowned" (Skagens Museum) 

Lars Kruse had, during his 31 years as a rescuer, helped to save 180 sailors from drowning.   

But the record is held by boat captain Jens Rasmussen from Højen. He has helped to save 433 people. The two were friends.


Michael Ancher: "Den druknede", 1896, Skagens Kunstmuseer