Peter Mærsk Møller

Peter Mærsk Møller (/mɛərsk ˈmuːlər/ mairsk MOO-lər; 22 September 1836 – 9 February 1927) was a Danish sea captain and the father of Arnold Peter Møller, founder of the Maersk corporation, and grandfather of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, who made Maersk the largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator in the world.^[1]

Peter Mærsk Møller
Born	22 September 1836 Rømø, Denmark
Died	9 February 1927 (1927-02-10) (aged 90) Svendborg, Fyn, Denmark

Career

He passed his merchant officer's examination at Flensborg Navigation School and became a captain in 1861. His first assignment was the ship Prima in 1862.^[2]

After the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Rømø, as Flensborg, passed under Prussian rule (and from 1871 German territory; Rømø remained so until 1920, and Flensborg – now Flensburg – still is a German city), so Captain Mærsk Møller moved to Dragør, only a few kilometres to the east of Copenhagen. He was the first in Denmark to suggest steam ships instead of sailing ships.^{[citation needed]} He did so in 1884, as he moved from Dragør to Svendborg, on the island of Fyn.^[2]

In 1904, Peter Mærsk Møller, with the fifth of his nine sons, Arnold Peter Møller, founded Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg i 1904 ("The Steam Ship Company of Svendborg 1904").^[3] Eight years later, the success of this enterprise encouraged A.P. Møller to start his own: Dampskibsselskabet af 1912, which eventually became the Maersk business conglomerate.