Rebecca Brown's Interview with
Henrik F. Christensen
Author of
Will I Am

Rebecca:
Why would a Dane write a book about 19th century American Merchant Seaman who landed in British ports & were abducted by the Royal Navy Press Gangs & impressed into serving in their men-o-war? Who was at war with whom?

Henrik:
The original idea came out of finding a letter written by American Merchant Seaman William Watson in 1811, who was from Delaware. I wondered why he, an American, was on board a British man-o-war. With him were two other American seamen from Massachusetts: John Brown of Salem & Amos Stevens of Boston. The British were fighting France & Denmark in Danish waters. France & Denmark were united against Great Britain & Sweden. Yet at the same time Denmark was allied with the young North American Nation.

Rebecca:
What was a Protection Certificate?

Henrik:
To protect American merchant seamen from being impressed into the Royal Navy's men-o-wars. By a law recognized by the young American Nation, the British ships had the right to stop & search American merchant ships on the open sea. Likewise to search in British harbors for British seamen, trying to escape from the British Royal Navy.

Because of the long lasting war with France, the Royal Navy war ships' crews often lacked a sufficient number of British seamen, so British captains & officers used the occasion, when searching American merchant ships, to seize American seamen as though they were escaped British.

The Protection Certificates should have helped prevent this, by making it possible for the Americans to prove who they were. In the beginning the American port collectors issued handwritten Custom House Protection Certificates (CHPC). These would contain a description of the seamen's looks & special marks like scars, tattoos, etc. Lacking photos contained in today's passports.

But British captains had little if any respect for these papers, especially as false CHPCs could be issued quite easily & an escaped British seamen could get one if desperate enough.

Later the office under the Secretary of State issued formal printed Protection Certificates typically with the logo of the Bald Eagle. They were difficult to copy at that time.

Rebecca:
Where did you first find the logs & letters from William Watson, John Brown & Amos Stevens around which you have written your novel?

Henrik:
I found a copy of William Watson's letter in a book written in Danish. I went to the local archive to see the original & found I could translate it differently thus giving a completely new meaning of the content.

This was the key document for my search of the National Archives in Washington D. C., where we unexpectedly, & very luckily, found a letter written by William Watson's wife. Later we began researched the genealogy of the family of William Watson in the state of Delaware.

The British ship logs, I used to trace the sea travel of the two American seamen were located in the Public Record Office in London, England.

I will not reveal the details about these events appearing in the book. But if the reader keeps in mind, that the origin of the different stories in this novel came out of these simple hand written letters, filled with spelling errors, they will understand what a voyage I was on in researching & writing this novel. As an amateur Danish historian I did not have much knowledge of the American Revolutionary War nor the War of 1812 when I started out to research the letters.

Rebecca:
Are there any relics from the naval vessels in Denmark?

Henrik:
The details are in the novel. I will say that the Afterwords give all the answers.

Rebecca:
When you started your research, did you realize that none other than former President Jefferson would become involved?

Henrik:
No! That is the oddest thing about researching this novel. By pure coincidence & with help from my Delaware genealogical researcher, I was sitting in my office on my farm on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark, comparing signatures from a Delaware New Castle County Deed of a Thos. Wattson with a copy of the Dec. 7, 1787 Delaware Constitution, & concluded that these two persons were the same.

As a wind turbine scientist that pleased me very much! To imagine that a signer of the Delaware Constitution should be identified by an arbitrary Dane in Denmark some 210 years later. A Dane who had set out to find the family of an ordinary Delaware-born seamen, who incidentally came to Denmark, that's very funny to me!

Rebecca:
How did these Merchant Seaman escape to freedom?

Henrik:
Ah, this it too much of a question! Please read the book!

Rebecca:
What do you hope Readers will find in your historical seafaring tale?

Henrik:
Mostly, I hope that the Reader will get a feeling for each family's long chain of forefathers & foremothers & what they went through & overcame to make it possible for us to be here today. If we as modern people think we sometime experience tough times, I can guarantee you that many of our ancestors would laugh at our complaints.

Rebecca:
Thank you, Henrik, for recording this wild & dangerous era in naval & political history between the Old & New Worlds. If you like real life naval stories, then catch my Review of Henrik F. Christensen's Will I Am which is going to fascinate you. - I hope it makes you go out & buy yourself a copy!

Rebecca Brown
Published 03/21/04