Carl Petersen (polar explorer)

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Carl Petersen (1860)

Johan Carl Christian Petersen (born June 28, 1813 in Copenhagen ; † June 24, 1880 there ) was a Danish polar driver, translator and author.

Life

Petersen first became a seaman and went to Iceland . After training as a cooper , he found a job in Godhavn (today's Qeqertarsuaq ) on Greenland in 1833 . After injuring his right hand in an accident, he was no longer able to do his job. He now worked for the Danish administration in Godhavn and from 1840 in Upernavik . In 1838 he married Ida Berthe Seyer (1807–1874), daughter of a Danish sailor and a woman from Greenland. He learned the Inuit language and became a skilled hunter and dog sled driver .

In the 1850s, Petersen was hired as an interpreter and dog sled driver for three British and American expeditions to investigate the fate of the missing Franklin expedition . 1850-1851 he accompanied the whaler William Penny , who searched the Wellington Channel for traces of John Franklin on behalf of Lady Jane Franklin with the ships HMS Lady Franklin and HMS Sophia . From 1853 to 1855 Petersen took part in the dramatic 2nd Grinnell Expedition, which, under the leadership of the American Elisha Kent Kane , advanced through Smithsund to the Kane Basin , where the ship, the brig Advance , had to be abandoned. After spending a year on a Danish merchant ship, Petersen began his third Arctic voyage, this time on board the Fox , a small steam yacht under the command of Francis Leopold McClintock . The expedition found the last evidence of the Franklin expedition to the west of King William Island .

In 1874 Petersen returned to Denmark and became a lighthouse keeper on the island of Hjelm . In the last year of his life, he received a British pension in recognition of his services. Carl Petersen died in Copenhagen in 1880.

power

Petersen was undoubtedly of great value to the expeditions he accompanied. Of four expeditions sent out to look for Franklin in 1850, William Pennys was the only one who had sled dogs on board thanks to Petersen . During the voyage he also trained the seaman Alexander Thompson on dog sledding, so that in May 1851 Penny was able to send two dog sleds about 200 km north to explore the east coast of Cornwallis Island . Penny's thanks to Petersen included giving the name “Point Petersen” (now Petersen Point ) to a cape on this island. Thompson ran the HMS Resolute dog sled from 1852 to 1854 . Both men played a role again on Francis Leopold McClintock's expedition. He refined the trend-setting method for later polar expeditions of using sleds pulled by men or dogs to explore long distances and setting up food stores. With Petersen as a dog sled driver, he circumnavigated King William Island and was able to use the findings to clarify the fate of the Franklin expedition.

Carl Petersen has two books on his Arctic journeys, which he published in Danish in 1857 and 1860. His report on the 2nd Grinnell Expedition is in critical contrast to Kane's official travel book.

Honors

Following his third trip, Petersen was awarded the Silver Dannebrog Cross by the Danish King in 1859 .

In addition to Petersen Point, Petersen Bay, a bay on King William Island, on which the settlement of Gjoa Haven is located today , is named after Carl Petersen.

Works

  • Erindringer fra Polarlandene , PG Philipsens Forlag, Copenhagen 1857 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  • The most recent Franklin expedition with "Fox", Captain McClintock , Ms. Wøldikes Forlagsboghandel, Copenhagen 1860 ( digital copy )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b William Barr: The Use of Dog Sledges during the British Search for the Missing Franklin Expedition (PDF; 2.8 MByte). In: Arctic . Volume 62, No. 3, 2009, pp. 257-272 (English).
  2. ↑ Peter C. Sutherland: Journal of a voyage in Baffin's Bay and Barrow Straits in the years 1850-1851 performes by HM ships “Lady Franklin” and “Sophia” under the command of Mr. William Penny in search of the missing crews of HM ships Erebus and Terror . Volume 2, London 1852, Appendix, S. LXXV (English).
  3. ^ Clements R. Markham : Life of Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock . John Murray, London 1909, p. 345 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Petersen, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petersen, Johan Carl Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish polar sailor, translator and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1880
Place of death Copenhagen