Bergerius Sorensen (1808-1877)
1858 of Horten Dockyard, Norway.[1]
1878 Obituary [2]
BERGERIUS SORENSEN, Director of the Horton Navy Yard, Norway, was born on 30th January 1808 in the town of Porsgrund.
At the age of seventeen he became a clerk in a copper works in Norway, where his mechanical genius found scope for development. Here he became known to Count Rosen, an eminent Swedish engineer, who procured for him an appointment with a firm of mechanical engineers in London, where he distinguished himself so much that in 1846 the Norwegian Navy Department offered him the position of Director of the navy yard then to be erected at Herten. In this capacity be had to plan, erect, and organise every detail of the yard; and, although with very limited means at his disposal, achieved very great results. These works have been the training school of many of the leading Norwegian mechanical engineers, and to their careful education under Mr. Sorensen may in a great measure be attributed the satisfactory results as to safety and economy of the large number of steamers now employed on the coast of Norway.
Mr. Sorensen retired on account of failing health in the summer of 1877, and died at Christiania on 30th October, after a short illness, in the seventieth year of his age.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1858.