The son of a tailor, Rasmus Krag was born in Copenhagen about 1680[1] (or possibly 1677[2])[Note 1] As a cadet in 1698 he served on a convoy with HDMS Hvide Falk to Portugal, and in 1699 to 1700 was in foreign service (which power not recorded), before being commissioned as a junior lieutenant on 30 January 1700.
Later in 1713, stationed in the Jutland town of Aabenraa to counter the smuggling of contraband, he was also in charge of the embarkation and repatriation of the Swedish troops under Stenbock after that country's defeat at the Siege of Tönning.
[1] Admiral Sehested had been critical of the French construction method used in the shipbuilding at Holmen, and in 1725 encouraged Krag to submit designs for a 72-gun ship characterised by the English construction to the much criticised fabrikmester Ole Judichær A further set of drawings was submitted in 1726 for a similar ship, recommended by Sehested, and approved.
A team of engineering students, including Knud N. Benstrup, who had just returned from abroad, was asked to comment on Krag's designs.
The following year he rose another degree and then sat on the commission to investigate a number of charges in the court martial of Knud Benstrup.
He nevertheless managed to make influential connections and receive patronage, most importantly in his later career from Frederik Danneskiold-Samsøe under whom Krag served as squadron commander in 1746.
After Frederik Danneskiold-Samsøe's fall from grace in 1746, Krag also left the service and retired at the end of that year to Slangerup[1] northwest of Copenhagen, where he died on 6 October 1755.