He studied at the Sorø Academy, where he studied theology and zoology. He later became a lieutenant in the Royal Danish Navy and traveled to Greenland to pursue his passion for malacology. While there, he wrote the Index Molluscorum Grönlandiae, which described all of the mollusks native to Greenland.[1]
From 1843 to 1845 he served as Inspector of Colonies and Whaling in North Greenland before his untimely death in Rome at the age of 34.