Denmark Expedition
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Denmark expedition ( da, Danmark-ekspeditionen), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast, and as the Danmark Expedition after the ship, was an expedition to the northeast of
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...
in 1906–1908. Despite being overshadowed by the death in tragic circumstances of the main exploration team, including three of the expedition's leading members: Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (1872–1907),
Niels Peter Høeg Hagen Niels Peter Høeg Hagen (15 October 1877 – 15 November 1907) was a Danish military officer, polar explorer and cartographer. He participated and perished in the ill-fated Denmark expedition to NE Greenland in 1906. The Denmark expedition Hà ...
(1877–1907) and Jørgen Brønlund (1877–1907), the Denmark expedition was not a failure. It achieved its main cartographic objectives and succeeded in exploring the vast region, drawing accurate charts of formerly unexplored coastlines and
fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...
s, naming numerous geographic features, and gathering a wealth of scientific data.


Purposes

The two-year expedition was conceived and led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, who had previously led the 'Literary Expedition' to Northwest Greenland together with Knud Rasmussen in 1902–1904. The main target of the Denmark expedition was to map the last blank sections of the coastline of northeastern Greenland, between
Cape Bridgman Cape Bridgman ( da, Kap Bridgman) is a headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northeast Greenland. The cape was named by Robert Peary after Herbert L. Bridgman, one of the members of the Peary Arctic Club in New York. Geography Cape Bridgman ...
, near Robert Peary's easternmost geographic exploration in the north, and Cape Bismarck, the northernmost point reached by
Carl Koldewey Carl Christian Koldewey (26 October 1837 – 17 May 1908) was a German Arctic explorer. He led both German North Polar Expeditions. Life and career Koldewey was the son of merchant Johann Christian Koldewey and his wife Wilhelmine Meyer. Koldewey ...
in the east. Beginning in the 1700s Greenland had slowly been mapped section by section, but the harsh climate in the far northeast and the difficult ice conditions off the shore had prevented the cartography of the vast zone. The expedition aimed as well to gather scientific information of the unexplored area during a period of two years, including information on any remaining Northeast-Greenland Inuit, last seen by Royal Navy Captain
Douglas Clavering Captain Douglas Charles Clavering RN FRS (8 September 1794 – mid-1827) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and Arctic explorer. Biography Early life and career Clavering was born at Holyrood House, the eldest son of Brigadier-General H ...
in 1823 further south down the coast in Clavering Island. The strategy of the expedition was to cross the ice barrier east of Greenland and sail with a ship as far north as possible, finding a safe anchorage, establishing a base with a meteorological station, and then go further north on dogsleds along the coastal ice. After the last unmapped coast of Greenland would have been explored, which Mylius-Erichsen deemed could be done in a year, the expedition would move south to further explore the
Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord ( da, Kejser Franz Josef Fjord; kl, Kangerluk Kejser Franz Joseph) is a major fjord system in the NE Greenland National Park area, East Greenland. Geography The Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord has its mouth in the Foster Ba ...
. Time permitting, the expedition would also attempt a westward crossing of the inland ice. In addition, Robert Peary's claim that a channel running from east to west separated northernmost Greenland from the mainland further south – the so-called "
Peary Channel The Peary Channel is a waterway in the territory of Nunavut. It is an arm of the Arctic Ocean, and it spreads southeast between Meighen Island to the north, Axel Heiberg Island to the east, Amund Ringnes Island to the south, and Ellef Ringnes Isl ...
" – was to be investigated. A committee of authorities on Greenland, including Gustav Frederik Holm,
Carl Ryder 200px, Schooner '' Fylla'' in Copenhagen harbour Carl Hartvig Ryder (12 September 1858 – 3 May 1923) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Biography Carl Ryder was born in Copenhagen. He was the son of Frederik Valentiner Ryder (182 ...
, Georg Carl Amdrup and
Thomas Vilhelm Garde Thomas Vilhelm Garde (22 October 1859 – 24 June 1926) was a Danish naval officer, distinguished for his explorations in Greenland. Garde became a sub-lieutenant of the Danish Navy in 1880, rising to the rank of First lieutenant in 1881, capt ...
, advised Mylius-Erichsen on the preparation of the expedition.


History


Arrival and preparation

The expedition travelled to Greenland aboard the ''Danmark'', reaching a sheltered place in southern Germania Land in August 1906 and establishing its main base there,
Danmarkshavn Danmarkshavn (Denmark's Harbour) is a small weather station located in Dove Bay, on the southern shore of the Germania Land Peninsula, in Northeast Greenland National Park, Greenland. History The location was chosen as a suitable winter harbo ...
, which was named after the ship. The captain of the ship was Lieutenant Alf Trolle of the
Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy ( da, Søværnet) is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and Greenland). Oth ...
and the doctor Johannes Lindhard. Expedition members included a very large staff of mostly Danish scientists, as well as West
Greenlanders This is a demography of the population of Greenland including population density, ethnicity, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Populations the resident population of Greenland was estimated at 56,562, ...
who came aboard in Iceland and the Faeroe Islands along with a hundred sled dogs. Among the scientists was German meteorologist Alfred Wegener. Georg Carl Amdrup was in charge of writing the official history of the expedition. Northbound sled journeys began in autumn 1906 in order to lay depots along the route that the two groups of the long northern explorations would take in the spring of the following year.


The main exploration teams

Finally ten sleds led by Mylius Eriksen left Danmarkshavn at the end of March 1907, heading north on the coastal ice. Along Jokel Bay, where the Greenland ice sheet comes down to the sea buckling and cracking the ice near the shore, travelling was difficult and sleds broke and had to be continually repaired. The harsh ice conditions continued along Hovgaard Island further north. At Mallemuk Mountain in SE Holm Land the coastal ice of the Dijmphna Sound gave way to a polynya and, as the sleds tried to find a way around the open water, the first supporting party returned to Danmarkshavn. The eight dogsleds continued northwards and found remains of ancient Inuit dwellings at Eskimonaesset, in the northeastern end of Holm Land. A few days later, off
Amdrup Land Amdrup Land is a land area in the Crown Prince Christian Land peninsula, King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the NE Greenland National Park area. Numerous fossils of the Carboniferous and Palaeozoic p ...
, a second support section of two dogsleds returned south and split. As they traveled back to Danmarkshavn, one of the dogsleds —led by Gustav Thostrup and Alfred Wegener— mapped the shoreline, while the other one —led by Henning Bistrup and Carl Johan Ring— mapped the numerous offshore islands. As the six northbound dogsleds sped along the eastern coast of the
Crown Prince Christian Land Crown Prince Christian Land ( da, Kronprins Christian Land) is a large peninsula in northern Greenland. It is a part of King Frederick VIII Land and administratively it belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park. It was named after Crown Pri ...
peninsula, Mylius Eriksen was feeling uneasy because the shore was leading them further to the northeast, which was not what he had expected. The distance to their goal was increasing, while time and provisions were running out. Finally, at the end of April, they rounded the northeastern end of Greenland, an inconspicuous point where the ice slope of the
Flade Isblink Flade Isblink is an ice cap on the Crown Prince Christian Land peninsula, King Frederick VIII Land, NE Greenland. Station Nord, the only inhabited place in the region, lies to the northwest, off the ice cap area. History The Flade Isblink was ...
met the frozen sea, and began traveling northwestwards, in the direction they had hoped for. Shortly thereafter, they split into two teams of three dogsleds each; Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, Niels Peter Høeg Hagen and Jørgen Brønlund, went westward hugging the coast, in the direction that they deemed would lead them to Gletscher Cape and Navy Cliff —at the head of Independence Fjord. Meanwhile the other team —with
Johan Peter Koch Johan Peter Koch (15 January 1870 – 13 January 1928) was a Danish captain and explorer of the Arctic dependencies of Denmark, born at Vestenskov. He was the uncle of the geologist Lauge Koch Career J.P. Koch participated in Amdrup's expediti ...
, Aage Bertelsen and Tobias Gabrielsen— sped northwestwards across the sea ice towards Cape Bridgman in order to map the uncharted coast sections of eastern Peary Land.


Tragic end of the chief team

Mylius-Erichsen entered the unknown
Danmark Fjord Danmark Fjord (), also known as Denmark Sound, is a fjord in northeast Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park. The fjord was explored and named after the expedition ship '' Danmark'' at the time of the ill- ...
without having doubts about where it was leading to. The team traveled southwestwards until the head of the fjord and, becoming aware that it was a dead end, they backtracked to the northeast. By the end of May Mylius-Erichsen's team was back again at the mouth of the fjord. As they met Koch's team at Cape Rigsdagen, already on their way back from
Cape Bridgman Cape Bridgman ( da, Kap Bridgman) is a headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northeast Greenland. The cape was named by Robert Peary after Herbert L. Bridgman, one of the members of the Peary Arctic Club in New York. Geography Cape Bridgman ...
, Mylius-Erichsen realized that they had wasted precious time and provisions by entering the long unexplored fjord. Koch and Mylius-Erichsen considered the situation. It was getting late in the season and it would be dangerous to get stuck in the inhospitable area during the summer without adequate equipment and supplies. Melting ice would make travel back to Danmarkshavn impossible. Initially Mylius-Erichsen agreed to go back with Koch to the ship, but then he took the fateful decision to head west, leaving on 28 May. Thus Koch departed without suspecting that he would never see the leader of the expedition again —he and his team arrived to the ship almost one month later. Mylius-Erichsen travelled west following the southern side of Independence Fjord and reached Academy Glacier at the head of Independence Fjord on 1 June, discovering that the Peary Channel did in fact not exist. On the way back, the team explored Brønlunds Fjord and Hagens Fjord. Sudden mild weather then impeded their progress, and when they reached the western side of Danmarks Fjord on 12 June, they found their way across the ice blocked by open water. They had relied on hunting for their sustenance in order to supplement their fast dwindling provisions, but hunting was poor. The stony ground had worn their footwear and Brønlund summed up their desperate situation: It is known that when the weather became colder the three men took the same route along the coast of the farthest northeast point of Greenland where depots had been laid. By then they had only four dogs and a sled. They reached the cliffs of Mallemuk Mountain, but found open water that made it impossible for them to travel straight southwards, so the exhausted men had to travel inland on 19 October 1907, the day the sun disappeared below the horizon. Walking on the ice in the darkness Høeg Hagen was the first to die of exhaustion in the
Nioghalvfjerd Fjord Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (), sometimes referred to as "79th parallel north, 79 N Glacier", is a large glacier located in King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. It drains an area of of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux (quantity of ice moved ...
area, followed shortly thereafter by Mylius-Erichsen. Jørgen Brønlund reached Lambert Land in the moonlight and his body was found there by Koch in mid March 1908. Brønlund had his diary and Hagen's cartographic sketches. He was buried at Kap Bergendahl in southeast Lambert Land, the spot where he was found, which is today known as Brønlund's Grave ( da, Brønlunds Grav). Brønlund was only some 140 miles as the crow flies from Germania land. The expedition had covered 350 miles, of the 500 that they needed to cover from Navy Cliff to Germania Land.


Aftermath and legacy

When the death of expedition leader Mylius-Erichsen was confirmed, Captain Alf Trolle took formal command of the venture. Although the original plan to move the ship to Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord in the second year was called off, Trolle carried on with the objectives of the expedition in the area during the remaining time. An exploration team was sent in April 1908 to
Ardencaple Fjord Ardencaple Fjord is a fjord in King Christian X Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park. History Ardencaple Fjord was named by Douglas Clavering as "Ardencaple Inlet" in 1823, but the inn ...
, where the inner reaches had not yet been explored because previous expeditions could not go beyond its mouth on account of deep snow. A second weather station was established at
Mørkefjord Mørkefjord, meaning in Danish "The dark fjord," is a fjord in King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. History Mørkefjord was named by the 1906-1908 Denmark expedition, which established a second weather station at Mørkefjord, in order ...
, west of Danmarkshavn, in order to compare meteorological observations. Also the islands, the glaciers and the coastline of Dove Bay were explored, as well as mountains and lakes in Germania Land. Although no living Inuit were found, the expedition discovered abundant evidence of their former habitation, such as tent rings, winter dwellings, meat caches and tools, all along the coast up to Danmark Fjord in the far north. The Danmark left Greenland on 21 July, arriving to Copenhagen one month later. Since the unfortunate circumstances of Mylius-Erichsen's death cast a pall over the whole expedition, its results didn't receive the attention they deserved. Even so over 51 reports were published by its members, including those by the numerous scientists. Many of them continued the work in the same field, returning to Greenland in the decades that followed, such as Peter Freuchen. The Danske Islands were given their name by John Haller during the 1956–1958 Expedition to East Greenland led by Lauge Koch, in order to pay due homage to the authoritative work of the 1906–08 Denmark expedition.Place names, NE Greenland – GEUS
/ref>


Literature

* G. Amdrup:
Report on the Danmark Expedition to the North-East Coast of Greenland 1906–1908
'. In: ''Meddelelser om Grønland'' 41, 1913, pp. 1–270 * Spencer Apollonio, ''Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland,'' 2008


See also

* Cartographic expeditions to Greenland * Denmark Expedition Memorial


References


External links


A. Trolle, "The Danish North-East Greenland Expedition", ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 33, No. 1 (January, 1909), pp. 40–43, 45–47, 49, 51–53, 55–57, 59–61
{{Authority control Arctic expeditions 1900s in Greenland Expeditions from Denmark 20th century in the Arctic