Anders Sorenson “A.S.” Andersen (1890-1953) was known to his friends as “Captain” Andersen due to his love and lifelong connection with the sea.Captain Andersen, the son of [Rasmus or Rufus] and Kristine Andersen, was born June 21, 1890, in Brorup, Denmark. At the precocious age of 13 he set sail on a German schooner and sailed across the Atlantic and in the Artic, North, and Baltic Seas. In 1906 Captain Andersen, still a teenager, was shipwrecked near Pensacola and again in 1907 near the Dry Tortugas.With this second shipwreck in Florida, he later claimed that “This is where God wanted me.”Florida became his home from that point on; he made his way to Key West where he worked with the Trumbo Dredging Company for seven years.In 1908, on his way from New York to Europe he met Selma Borjesson and they were married three years later in Delray, Florida.By 1923, A.S. and Selma had a healthy family of three girls, Ingrid, Edith, Selma, and one son, Einar.
Andersen started his own company, Andersen Dredging Co., Inc. in 1918, and worked throughout southeastern Florida.His company is most notably known for being the first to cut through the rock at Lake Worth Inlet.
His experiences with dredging machinery led him to invent and patent a piece of equipment that would automatically oil the cables for the dredging equipment.A massive hurricane in 1928 toppled his dredging equipment and he was unable to piece the company together.He spent a few years at a farm in Kelsey City, now Lake Park, where he started the Diamond Dairy Company which he sold to Alfar Creamery.His ambitions were then redirected into public service. He had already been chairman of the School Board and head of the Boy Scouts of America in Palm Beach County for several years in the 1920s. His civic role increased when he was appointed city manager in West Palm Beach in 1930, a post he held until 1934.After this, Andersen found success as a tax consultant and real estate broker.He gained a reputation for his highly accurate appraisals that were rarely contested.
Captain Andersen volunteered his services and expertise to the U.S. Navy Department at the onset of WWII.He was given orders to report in 1942, at the age of 52, and he assisted in the Pacific Theater until 1945. His efforts in the war contributed to the Navy’s first hydraulic dredges that were used in a battle zone, as well as improvements and developments of the harbor infrastructures of the captured islands in the Pacific.
After the war, he returned to real estate, tax consulting, and various veterans’ projects.He belonged to the Rotary Club and was a member of the Yacht Club in Palm Beach for nearly thirty years.His most notable membership, perhaps, is that of his membership to the Cowboys of the Sea with his friend and prominent citizen of Palm Beach, Gus Jordahn.Membership to this exclusive club can only be obtained by helping to save a person from drowning.
On June 25, 1953, Anders and his wife, Selma, were killed in a car accident while returning from a business trip to Vero Beach.