Andreas Gerner was a Danish naval officer who was also employed in the building of ships for the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.
[1] In 1735 Andreas Gerner was sent abroad as a senior lieutenant to study shipbuilding, and on return he was entrusted with the building of some ships (but never achieved the top post of fabrikmester to the Royal danish navy).
His largest ship, the ship-of-the-line Fyen[2] of 50 guns, was deemed unsuitable for use with the fleet even while it was still on the stocks and so it was transferred to the Danish East India Company.
In this capacity the design proved a great success and copied for future armed trading vessels.
[4] On his deathbed, he is recorded as having warned his sons not to have a career in shipbuilding, as this was a sure way to lose a fortune.