Ulrik Kaas

Admiral Ulrich Jørgensen Kaas (4 October 1677 – 28 December 1746) was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officer. He rose to the rank of rear admiral in the Great Northern War and later to admiral in 1732. Following a power struggle within the Danish admiralty, he left the naval service for a senior post in Bergen.

Personal life Ulrich Kaas was born in 1677 near Vejle, Ulrich Kaas took over this estate from 1719.

Kaas was first married in 1715, to Cathrine Sophie Rubring. By this marriage, he became brother-in-law to Admiral Peter Raben who was married to his new wife's sister, Elena Marie Rubring and in whose house the marriage ceremony took place.His first wife died in 1724 and Kaas remarried in 1726 to Mette Sørensdatter Mathiesen.

Naval career After five years as a cadet, Ulrich Kaas sailed with HDMS Nellebladet (Captain Ivar Hvitfeldt) in 1695, escorting a convoy to France, and continued on to the Mediterranean.

Early in 1710 Ulrich Kaas was in Holland, recruiting seamen for the Danish navy. He reported in March of that year that, by Dutch regulations, he was not officially allowed to actively recruit, but the authorities would quietly turn a blind eye to volunteers being enlisted. He then returned to blockade Stralsund in June 1716. Later in 1716 he captained the ship of the line Sophia Hedevig, named after the Danish princess.

1717 saw Kaas with his flagship Beskærmeren as part of Admiral Gyldenløve's fleet, and later that year in command of a lesser squadron in Køge Bugt with the flagship Prins Christian. On 19 February 1718 he was promoted to vice admiral and commanded a squadron of Admiral Raben's fleet from Justitia. From 1719 to 1726, he specialised as head of recruitment in Jutland, Schleswig and Holstein, which was not without incident. In January 1724, during a recruiting exercise in the north of Jutland, Kaas' lodgings in the customs house in Skagen were struck by lightning and caught fire. The house was totally destroyed, but Ulrich Kaas and his servant were rescued at the last minute, all their belongings having been engulfed in the flames. Compensation for his losses was claimed. and full restitution made.

Early in 1732 a power struggle within the Danish admiralty came to a head. On 20 February 1732, Ulrich Kaas was promoted to full admiral, a symbolic gesture five days before he retired from naval service. His final salary was withheld until his creditors could all be satisfied.

On leaving the admiralty, Kaas took up a senior administrative post with the district of Bergen where he also had responsibilities to the diocese of Bergen.

Retirement and death In 1737 he retired from his Bergen posts to his estate at Sandviggaard, He lived at Hillerød with declining health (he suffered from kidney stones). It is assumed he suffered from financial problems during his retirement as he was forced to sell his estate at Ølufgaard by auction in 1741.

Ulrich Kaas died on 28 December 1746. He was buried in the churchyard at Nørre Herlev in North Zealand.