History

Bratteklev was established by Ole Bertinius Sørensen (1836–1916). He was born into a family where men for several generations had been seafarers. This opened opportunities at the time. At the age of 15, just after his confirmation, O. B. Sørensen signed on as a deck boy. He enjoyed life at sea, learned quickly, and rose through the ranks. At 18 he passed his exams and became a mate, and at 24 he was a captain.
 

During a stay in New York in 1863, O. B. Sørensen came across an opportunity to negotiate a contract for transporting barrels of oil to France. Together with a close friend and his father, he invested in an old Canadian sailing ship. She was named Alpha. The oil cargo marked the beginning of the shipping company O. B. Sørensen & Co., and the shipment is believed to have been the first of its kind across the Atlantic. In 1865 he purchased the Bratteklev property, which quickly became a base for shipping, shipbuilding, business, and civic engagement.
 

These were prosperous times for Norwegian shipping, and between 1868 and 1884 – in just 16 years – eight sailing vessels were built at Bratteklev.

Towards the end of the 1870s, times grew harder. For a 20-year period at the end of the 19th century, O. B. Sørensen engaged in whaling in the Arctic Ocean. Two of the ships built at Bratteklev were whaling vessels. They had steel hulls, steam engines, and were equipped with harpoon cannons.
 

Despite heavy losses during the Arendal financial crash in 1886, he once again invested at the beginning of the 20th century and built two large steamships with wooden hulls. These were well suited for transporting natural ice. In 1916 he began construction of a schooner with an auxiliary diesel engine, but passed away before it was completed. The ship was finished in his wife’s name. His son Søren Hans built one last steamship on the slipway here in the 1920s.
 

You can learn more details about this story and other aspects of O. B. Sørensen’s life’s work by visiting Bratteklev Shipyard.