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ne, og mange af pigerne blev jo deres ægtefæller. Det har
været en stor glæde at møde de mange mennesker, der hav-
de deres gang på Sømandshjemmet Gl. Havn i den tid, da
mine forældre bestyrede hjemmet, og mærke den varme og
respekt, man nærede for dem.
Noter
1. Ved udarbejdelsen er bl.a. anvendt materiale fra Dagbla-
det Vestkysten samt forhandlingsprotokoller fra Sømands-
hjemmet bestyrelse, samt William Larsen: For fulde sejl.
Indenlandsk Sømandsmissions Historie 1905-1955. Køben-
havn 1955.
Sømandshjemmets hundredeårige historie findes beskre-
vet i Mette Guldberg: Sømandshjemmet Gl. Havn. En byg-
ning på Esbjerg Havn gennem 100 år. Esbjerg 2003.
Summary
In this article, Jens Otto Jensen gives an account of his child-
hood during the 1930s and 1940s in the Seamen’s Home at
the Old Harbour, one of two sailors’ lodging houses in Es-
bjerg. He grew up the son of the couple that managed it,
Johannes Otto and Misse Jensen, who took the position in
1929. Both parents were children of Christian fishermen,
who had moved to the new town of Esbjerg at the end of the
1800s.
Beyond being a place where sea folk and fishermen
could get food and lodging, until 1946 Sømandshjemmet
also had a School for Skippers on the first floor, which took
mainly young fishermen as pupils. There were ten young
girls employed at the Seamen’s Home, to help out with the
many tasks involved with the various dining guests and the
eight rooms for letting. Young fishermen’s daughters from
the surrounding area were attracted to the Seamen’s Home
as a place of work and very few of them left there without
having found a young fisherman to marry.
At that time, the Seamen’s Home lay at the centre of the
harbour, close to the boat builders, slipways and other
businesses that serviced fishing and sailing occupations.
When the cutters were in the slipways, the craftsmen
drank coffee at the Seamen’s Home on the Skippers tab,
and many of the workers from the harbour were regulars
at the Seamen’s Home.
WWII influenced life at the Seamen’s Home in many
ways. The central watch for the Seamen’s Home Guard was
set up in the cellar, which also doubled as an air-raid shel-
ter for the lodgers at the Home. In addition, the house was
damaged a few times in connection with sabotage actions
on the neighbouring railway lines. After the war, it was
discovered that the telephone of the central watch had been
used by the Danish Resistance to keep in touch with Eng-
land.
Christmas at the Seamen’s Home was something quite
special; all crew members of foreign ships that were docked
at Esbjerg, were invited for Christmas dinner at the Seamen’s
Home and there were often many nationalities gathered
together on such an occasion.
In 1953, the Seamen’s Home celebrated its fiftieth anni-
versary and on that great occasion, manager Johannes Otto
Jensen was given the King’s silver Service Medal. How-
ever, he never managed to thank the King for it as he died
the following summer, in 1954. His wife, Misse Jensen car-
ried on running the Home with help from friends of the
Home, until she retired in 1962.
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