Carl C. Jeremiassen

Carl C. Jeremiassen (Adopted Chinese name: 冶基善, 1847–1901) was a Danish sea captain. He is known today as the first Protestant missionary to Hainan island and the translation of portions of the Old and New Testament into the Hainanese language.

Biography

Jeremiassen for China in 1868 to work for the Canton Customs Service of the Qing Government to hunt down pirates and smugglers in the South China Sea.

After having cleared the area for other pirates, he settled down in 1881 on the island of Hainan, where he did missionary work among the indigenous people there. He settled in the town of Fucheng, where he bought Wu clan shrine and decorated it to become a church from his own money, which he had accumulated during his stay there. The same year as Jeremiassen arrived in Hainan, he mapped the island and caused quite a stir by his travels, he was described by the natives as a "red-haired giant". He wrote several treatises on the native language and culture and built many chapels on the island. Jeremiassen is thus the founder of the modern missionary station on the island. His mission work as quoted from a native who reported a stranger, "which was here for 'an hour' and was nameless, but brought many views of a foreign god with a beard."

In 1901, he disappeared and was rumored by the Chinese on the island to be drowned in the sea. According to the natives would he be gone up on a volcano. However, according to missionary sources, Jeremiassen had died from typhoid whilst travelling on the island.

Jeremiassen's life story was handed over on August 3, 1923 to Henning Haslund-Christensen and also to his old shipmate John McGregor residing in Shanghai.