Dorothea Maria Lösch

Dorothea Maria Losch

The Battle of Svensksund

Dorothea Maria Lösch (1730 – 2 February 1799), was a Swedish master mariner, known for the incident during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90) in which she commandeered a Swedish ship during a crisis. She was the first female in Sweden to be given the rank of a sea captain. Her name have also been spelled Losch and Läsch.

Dorothea Maria Lösch was the daughter of the goldsmith Henrik Jakob Losch from Stockholm and Dorothea Maria Beyms and married in 1756 to the Finnish sea captain Mårten Johan Thesleff: her spouses name was also spelled Theslöf or Theslef. She had eleven children during her marriage. She was the author of a medical book of how to treat small pocks, Beskrivning af et bepröfvat medel emot Kopp-ärr (Stockholm, 1765).

Dorothea Maria Lösch took over and commanded the ship Armida to safety after its officers had been killed or abandoned it during the Battle of Svensksund 9 July 1790. For this act, she was awarded with the rank of a master mariner of the Swedish fleet, something unique for a woman of this period. Although this was a pure ceremonial title, she was nevertheless the first woman in such a position.

See also

• Brita Hagberg
• Margareta von Ascheberg

References

• Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor
• Wilhelmina Stålberg: Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (Notes on Swedish women) (Swedish)
• Ann Öhrberg (2001). Vittra fruntimmer. Författarroll och retorik hos frihetstidens kvinnliga författare. Stockholm: Gidlunds Förlag. ISBN 91-7844-330-X
• Kvinnan inom svenska litteraturen intill år 1893. En bibliografi /
• https://web.archive.org/web/20140220210415/http://www.mesterton.net/~d637989/juusten/t5368.htm