Daniel Ernst Bille

Personal Bille was born on 7 April 1711, the son of captain Just Bille and Catherine Maule. He was a nephew of admiral Michel Bille.

On 8 July 1738, he was married in the naval church in Copenhagen to Johanne Sophie Amalie Stibolt (of the Christiansø Stibolt family) His entire adult life was a period of relative peace for Denmark.

Career As a naval cadet, Bille was given permission to sail with the Danish Asiatic Company ship Cronprintzen to Tranquebar on the Coromandel Coast, a voyage that lasted two years and during which he was commissioned as a junior lieutenant. In 1735, he sailed again with the Asiatic company, this time to China returning in 1738. (designed and built by his son-in-law Frederik Michael Krabbe) and in the following years acted as assessor in various courts martial. In March 1766, he refused to consider repaying a debt which his long dead father, Just Bille, had incurred to the Bornholm Infantry Regiment.

He commanded, in 1769, the ship-of-the-line Norske Løve, the best sailing ship in Admiral le Sage de Fontenay’s squadron. Newly promoted to commodore, he spent most of 1769 in charge of the refitting and commissioning of some ships that were laid up in Norway. With Rear Admiral rank from 1784, he held responsibility for the naval defence of Copenhagen.

Death Daniel Bille died on 25 February 1790, aged 78, in Copenhagen and is buried in the naval cemetery of Holmen.