Kruse, Lars

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.