First German north polar expedition

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The expedition ship Greenland

The first German Arctic expedition is the research trip of 1868, inspired by August Petermann , which led along the east coast of Greenland under Captain Carl Koldewey and finally to Spitzbergen and the Hinlopen Strait . Their goal was to prepare for a larger expedition by exploring a possible sea route into the Arctic Ocean .

prehistory

The expedition leader. Left to right: Carl Koldewey, August Petermann and Richard Hildebrandt (1868).

The geographer August Petermann had been involved in  polar research since the beginning of the 1850s - inspired by the search for the missing Franklin expedition . When a British expedition to the North Pole was discussed as a combined ship and sled trip through Smithsund in 1865 , Petermann interfered vehemently in the discussion. He was a supporter of the theory of the ice-free Arctic Ocean , which is navigable but blocked by a belt of pack ice that can be broken through with a suitable ship. He proposed a pure ship expedition that should lead north along the east coast of Greenland. Petermann's proposals were discussed at length in the Royal Geographic Society , but did not find a majority. The expedition itself did not initially take place either.

To confirm his theories, Petermann sought help in Germany, which had not yet participated in international polar research. He managed to win the support of Otto Volger and Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair , who had led the Novara expedition in 1857 . Volger called a geographic assembly under the umbrella of the Free German Hochstift , which met on July 23, 1865 in Frankfurt am Main . The meeting, in which 71 geographers from the German-speaking countries of Central Europe and interested laypeople from the Frankfurt area took part, basically agreed to a trip in the following year. That was not enough for Petermann - he offered a price to the captain who was still making a pioneering voyage to the region between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya in 1865 to investigate the current conditions. A trip on the Queen of the Isles , chartered in England, failed just nine hours after leaving the port of Hamburg due to an engine failure .

In 1866, Petermann favored a state-funded joint voyage between a Prussian and an Austrian ship. When the German War broke out , this plan failed. The initiative for a German north journey has now passed to Bremen personalities. Arthur Breusing , the director of the local helmsman school, suggested his pupil Carl Koldewey as helmsman under the Austrian ship's lieutenant Carl Weyprecht . After Petermann and Koldewey in particular had raised the funds for the expedition and Weyprecht was not available due to illness, Koldewey was given the management of the research trip for 1868.

Expedition destination

On May 19, 1868, Petermann handed Koldewey an "Instruction for the Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition" consisting of 38 paragraphs. This should penetrate northwards by ship along the east coast of Greenland. The aim was to achieve the greatest possible latitude and determine how far to the north Greenland extends. The expedition was not supposed to dwell on a thorough investigation and mapping of the coast. This task should be left to a second expedition, which was planned for the coming year. If the coast of Greenland cannot be reached, Koldewey should try to reach the island "Gillis-Land" ( Kvitøya ), which was supposed to be northeast of Svalbard, without knowing its exact position.

Preparations

Koldewey arrived in Bergen on April 9, 1868 and found a suitable ship that same day, which he bought. It was Greenland , built in Norway a year earlier , a single-masted cargo ship with a gaff mainsail and two additional square sails . Koldewey had the foredeck reinforced against ice and the mast and rigging replaced. While the almost 30-meter-long and six-meter-wide ship was being rebuilt, Koldewey took care of ordering provisions, while his helmsmen in Germany put the crew together. At the beginning of May, when the ship could leave the shipyard , the remaining crew members arrived and brought the nautical and scientific instruments with them.

Expedition participant

The sailors of the Arctic expedition in winter clothing (1868).

The expedition leader and captain of Greenland was Carl Koldewey. Richard Hildebrandt was hired as first helmsman and Heinrich Sengstacke (1824–1917), both also pupils of Breusing, as second helmsman. The crew consisted of the sailors Johann Werdelmann, Camp Wagener, Paul Tilly, Daniel Heinrich Büttner, Hans Peter Iversen, Albert Konrad Olsen, Nils Peter Erikson Lian and Gerhard J. de Wall as well as the cook Friedrich Rössing. Scientists weren't on board.

course

Route of the First German North Polar Expedition
Last part of the route in the southern Hinlopenstraße

On May 24, 1868, the expedition set sail from Bergen. On June 4, the ship reached the first ice fields at 74 ° 52 'north latitude and 6 ° 7' west longitude and continued course on Greenland's east coast, but was stuck in the pack ice on June 9. The Greenland drifted south with the current for two weeks without being able to approach the Greenland coast. After being released, Koldewey sailed north-east along the edge of the ice. Since he could not get through, he set a course for Spitzbergen in accordance with Petermann's instructions in order to search for "Gillis-Land". When attempting to bypass Spitsbergen to the south and thus advance into unknown territory, Koldewey encountered solid pack ice again and had to give up this attempt. He steered the Greenland into the Bellsund in the southwest of Svalbard and anchored here on July 13th. After fresh drinking water had been brought on board, an attempt was made to pass Svalbard in the north, which also failed because the ship was surrounded by ice at 80 ° 30 ′ and could only escape south with difficulty. So Koldewey dared a second foray towards Greenland's east coast, but only came close to the coast to 50 nautical miles due to the ice. Again he turned to Spitzbergen, where it was possible to enter the ice-free Hinlopenstrasse from the north. From August 21 to September 10, the expedition stayed in front of the southern exit of the strait, which, however, was closed by solid ice. Koldewey used the time to map the southern Hinlopen Strait around Wilhelmøya and to assign a number of geographical names. When leaving the road to the north, the Greenland reached her highest northern latitude on September 13 at 81 ° 4 ′ 30 ″.

The expedition returned to Bergen on September 30th, and its participants arrived safely in Bremerhaven on October 10th .

Results

Koldewey himself described the journey as "an unfortunate, completely unsuccessful one" in terms of achieving its main goals, but points out that it has by no means remained without results. Little did he know that the idea of ​​penetrating far north on the east coast of Greenland was based on unrealistic assumptions by Petermann. The fact that "Gillis-Land" could not be reached was due to the unfavorable ice conditions in the summer of 1868.

The expedition returned with extensive meteorological , oceanographic and geomagnetic data. In detail, 54 daily mean values ​​of the current velocity (especially the surface current off the Greenland coast), 39 results of depth plumbing including soil samples, 24 deep sea temperature values and more than 50 results of magnetic measurements, especially of the declination were published. At four-hour intervals, not only were water temperatures measured, but meteorological data were also recorded. The expedition had taken rock samples on Svalbard and collected driftwood for closer examination.

The geographical results relate primarily to the southern Hinlopenstrasse area. Koldewey proved that Wilhelmøya is an island and not - as previously assumed - a cape of West Spitzbergen . It was measured by Koldewey as well as the Bastianøyane . The data were mapped by Petermann and published in 1871.

Koldewey's seafaring achievement is to be valued highly. The fact that the expedition was carried out without serious incidents under the prevailing weather conditions shows him to be a prudent captain. With a northern latitude of 81 ° 4 ′ 30 ″, it reached the most northerly proven position of a sailing ship without auxiliary drive to date . The experience he gained on the trip was of inestimable value for the follow-up expedition of 1869/70, the Second German North Pole Expedition .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in the pack ice (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46 ). Kabel, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 239 .
  2. ^ Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in the pack ice (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46 ). Kabel, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 248 .
  3. ^ Frank Berger: Frankfurt and the North Pole . Researchers and discoverers in the eternal ice (=  writings of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main . Volume 26 ). Historisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-285-7 , p. 61 .
  4. ^ Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in the pack ice (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46 ). Kabel, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 250 .
  5. ^ A b Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in the pack ice (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46 ). Kabel, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 276 .
  6. ^ Karl Koldewey: The first German north polar expedition in 1868 . Justus Perthes, Gotha 1871, p. 4 .
  7. ^ Karl Koldewey: The first German north polar expedition in 1868 . Justus Perthes, Gotha 1871, p. 7 .
  8. ^ Karl Koldewey: The first German north polar expedition in 1868 . Justus Perthes, Gotha 1871, p. 53 .
  9. ^ Karl Koldewey: The first German north polar expedition in 1868 . Justus Perthes, Gotha 1871, p. 54 .
  10. ↑ a b c Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in pack ice (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46 ). Kabel, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 , p. 281 .
  11. ↑ The history of the GREENLAND. The first German polar expedition in 1868 on the website of the Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven, accessed on December 6, 2012