[3] He married, in 1803 in the Danish naval church at Holmen, Christiane Dorthea Bech – the daughter of a senior highcourt official.

At that point Schifter's studies were not yet completed, so the position of fabrikmester was left unfilled, but “reserved” for him as he became auskulant (apprentice) at the Construction Committee (Konstruktionskommissionen) in 1805.

[1][4] He escaped to Norway and found his way back to Frederiksværn (modern day Stavern) where he became busy building gunboats and other defence works.

[2] In October 1807 he was ordered to the Duchy of Holstein, producing more gunboats, and in December was back at the naval shipyards in Copenhagen converting commercial vessels to defence ships.

[4] In 1808 and 1809 he had a very unhappy posting to the Pultusk,[2] the French ship-of-the-line stationed in the Scheldt where in January 1809 two Danish lieutenants (Falsen and Holsten)had mutinied.

[6][Note 3][4] Eventually he was allowed to continue his educational tour to Holland, France and Italy, only returning to Denmark in 1814 where he became fabrikmester and member of the Konstruktionskommissionen.

[2] At home he became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1829[4] and was one of the leaders to establish boreholes for artesian wells on Nyholm.

[1] In this position he found himself leading the naval mobilisation for the war of 1848 -50 (Schleswig Holstein Question) which involved much of the fleet that he had built.

[1] After the first Schleswig war, the now vice admiral Schifter was recalled to active duty with the fleet, but was not involved in any notable actions.