Hans Ditlev Bendixsen

Hans Ditlev Bendixsen (October 14, 1842 – February 12, 1902) was a Danish-American shipbuilder who was instrumental in the development of the merchant marine industry on the West Coast of the United States.

Bendixsen was apprenticed to the shipbuilders' trade in Aalborg for two years, When he had completed his apprenticeship he worked at various shipyards in Copenhagen, after which he went to sea as a ship carpenter.

Spread out over fourteen acres were shops, sawmills, slips, timber yards, and even cottages and gardens for 150 workers.

[3] Often, Bendixsen owned shares in Bendixsen-built ships—vessels plying the coast with lumber or trading out to the sugar islands.

After many good years, an economic crisis within the lumber industry in 1877 forced Bendixsen to sell his shipyard so that he could pay his employees and creditors.