James Robbins (shipbuilder)

Robbins began his professional life as a ship's carpenter in the Royal Navy. From 1635 he was employed as the King's Purveyor of Timber in Hampshire. King Charles I granted Christian IV of Denmark the right to recruit shipbuilders in England, and in 1641 Robbins accepted an offer to join the Danish service.^[2]

Robbins began his Danish career in 1642 as a master shipwright at Bremerholm, the Danish main naval station, with the obligation to teach his craft to persons in "His Royal Majesty's service".^[3] One of his first assignments, was in 1642 to control if the upper deck of the ship Trefoldighed, being built in Neustadt, was done according to pattern.^[4] In 1645 Robbins was ordered to Norway to build ships from timber supplied by Hannibal Sehested, the Danish statholder.^[5] The timber purveyor, Frederik Bøjsen, a burgher of Christiania, was the government contractor for the building of the ships.^[1] In the shipyard on Hovedøya, in the Oslo Fiord, he successively built the naval ships Hannibal, a two-decker with 60 gun ports, launched in 1647; Sophia Amalia, a three-decker with 100 gun ports, launched in 1650; and Prins Christian, a two-decker with 91 gun ports, launched in the same year.^[6][7] Robbins returned to Denmark and remained in service at Bremerholm until 1665. He continued to live in Copenhagen, re-entered royal service in 1668, and died while active in 1680.^[5]