He worked for the Austrian government as a forester in the more southern parts of the monarchy, including in Motovun, Istria.

[1] He worked in Landstrass (Kostanjevica on the Krka river in Carniola), where he tested his ship propellers for the first time.

He modified a steam-powered boat Civetta by 1829 and test-navigated it in the Trieste harbor at six knots before the steam conduits exploded.

In 1836, the Englishman Francis Pettit Smith tested a screw propeller similar to Ressel's.

He died in Laibach (now Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia) and was buried there in St. Christopher's Cemetery in the Bežigrad district.