Henryk Bull
Henryk Johan Bull (born October 13, 1844 in Stokke , † June 1, 1930 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian polar explorer who was one of the first people to set foot on the Antarctic mainland .
Life
Henryk Johan Bull was born as the son of the polar sea fisherman Cornelius Bull (1808–1860) and his wife Sibylle (1806–1889) in Stokke, southern Norway. After leaving school, he worked as a businessman in Tønsberg for several years , where he married his wife Agnes (1847–1921) in 1869. In 1888, the couple immigrated to Australia , where Bull in Melbourne employment with the trading company Trapp, Blair & Co. found. When whaling gained importance in Antarctic waters around 1890 , Bull showed a growing interest in opening up new business areas in this area. He returned to Norway in 1893 to attract investors for an exploration trip to the Ross Sea .
The whaling magnate Svend Foyn finally promised him the financing of an Antarctic expedition to search for right whales , which Bull was to lead. The expedition's ship was called Antarctic and was equipped with eleven of the harpoon cannons developed by Foyn , an arsenal of explosive devices, eight boats and a crew of thirty-one. On September 20, 1893, the Antarctic under captain Leonard Kristensen left the port of Tønsberg heading south. Before the Kerguelen , the team only went seal hunting in the first summer of the trip, before heading for the port of Melbourne for wintering. It was not until September 28, 1894 that the Antarctic continued its voyage with Bull and the Norwegian Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink , who had persuaded Bull to take a ride.
On January 17, 1895, a small group landed in the western Ross Sea on Possession Island , a rocky island about three kilometers off the coast of Victoria Land , on which James Clark Ross had hoisted the Union Jack in 1841 . Bull and Borchgrevink left a message in a tin can on the island to prove they had set foot on the island. On January 24, 1895, the Antarctic reached Cape Adare . The landing of Bull, Borchgrevink, Captain Kristensen and a few other men turned into a race, at the end of which a dispute broke out as to who was the first to set foot on the mainland of the Antarctic continent. Presumably, however, the American whaling captain John Davis had anticipated them as early as 1821 when he allegedly landed on the Antarctic Peninsula .
After the end of the voyage, Bull took on a consultancy activity for the Norwegian whaling fleet. In 1906 he took part again in a seal hunt and was shipwrecked with the Cathrine off the Île de la Possession , one of the Crozet Islands . In his final years he devoted himself to genealogy and wrote his memoirs.
The Bull Nunatak and Bull Island in Antarctica are named after Henryk Johan Bull.
Travel report
- The Cruise of the 'Antarctic' to the south polar regions . Edward Arnold, London and New York 1896 (Norwegian edition: Sydover. Expeditions til Sydishavet 1893–1895 . Det Norske Artieforlag, Kristiania 1898. German edition: Südwärts! The expedition from 1893–1895 to the southern Arctic Ocean . Haessel, Leipzig 1904)
Web links
- Bjørn L. Basberg: Henrik Bull . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The wrecked Barque Catherine , The Advertiser, February 15, 1907 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bull, Henryk |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bull, Henryk Johan (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian-Australian businessman and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1844 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stokke |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 1, 1930 |
| Place of death | Oslo |