I found this about a Wessel:
In May 1782 Wessel was released from his work with the Royal Danish Academy
so that he could conduct a trigonometrical survey of the duchy of
Oldenburg. Oldenburg had come under Danish control in 1667 but in 1773, not
long before Wessel was asked to survey it, Oldenburg had been exchanged by
Christian VII of Denmark for Holstein-Gottorp. Bugge, who headed the survey
work at the Royal Danish Academy wrote a letter recommending Wessel for the
post.more:
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Wessel.html