Imerissoq

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imerissoq (who has nice fresh water)
Kitsissut (the Western)
Kronprinsens Ejland (Crown Prince Island )
Imerigsoĸ / Kitsigsut
Commune Qeqertalik municipality
District Qeqertarsuaq
Geographical location 69 ° 0 ′ 47 "  N , 53 ° 18 ′ 51"  W Coordinates: 69 ° 0 ′ 47 "  N , 53 ° 18 ′ 51"  W
Imerissoq (Greenland)
Imerissoq
Residents 0
(1968)
founding 1778/1888
Time zone UTC-3

Imerissoq [ imɜˈʁisːɔq ] (according to the old spelling Imerigsoĸ ; also Kitsissut ; Danish Kronprinsens Ejland ) is a desolate Greenlandic settlement in the district of Qeqertarsuaq in the municipality of Qeqertalik .

location

Imerissoq located in the south of the island of the same name in the north of the archipelago Kitsissut (Kronprinsens Ejlande) in the middle of Disko Bay . No place in Greenland is so far from the mainland. The original place was in the south of the archipelago. Imerissoq is located 27 km south of Qeqertarsuaq and 19 km north of Kitsissuarsuit .

history

Before the colonial era

Imerissoq and Kitsissut are actually two different places, but their history is closely linked.

Before the colonial era, the archipelago was frequently visited by Dutch whalers, who they called Walvis Eylanden ("Whale Islands "). The Dutch often buried sailors who had died at sea there. On September 1, 1736, Poul Egede visited the archipelago for three days. At that time, several of the islands were inhabited. In 1738 he visited the islands again. On a third visit in 1739 he found only a few residents, probably most of them were on summer trips. In 1776 only three families lived in one house on the archipelago. At that time the islands were visited not only by Dutch, but also by English. Svend Sandgreen saw 34 ships between the islands on April 28, 1776. In 1787, to the chagrin of the Danes, the Greenlanders were still cooperating with English whalers.

Foundation phase

After a visit by the assistant Adam Christian Thorning in the spring of 1777, it was decided to set up a whaling experiment under the Godhavn Lodge in the autumn of the same year. Since the ship arrived late in the box, it had to spend the winter there. Meanwhile, Ove Høegh-Guldberg recommended the establishment of a plant on January 5, 1778. On 9 February 1778 Islands in honor of Crown Prince Frederik, later King were Frederick VII. , In Kronprinsens Ejlande renamed.

In the summer of 1778 the whaling facility, which belonged to the Egedesminde colony, was founded because the lodge had stated that the archipelago was too remote from there and that the connection was cut off by ice at the best hunting season. Three houses were built in Kitsissut for the colonists.

Not a single whale was caught in the first few years, but the facility still received economic income from wintering ships. On May 11, 1782, the plant became independent. Only a year later, whaling was temporarily abandoned and ships no longer wintered in the facility. Inspector Johan Friedrich Schwabe therefore ordered one of the houses to be relocated to the Egedesminde colony, but soon revised this and ordered the former whaling facility to be turned into a storage area. In 1784 the complex was named a lodge. In 1787 a senior assistant, a bacon cutter, a carpenter, a cooper, a cook and two sailors worked there. At the same time, there were three storey houses as well as two material houses and a brewery as peat wall houses in the box. In 1789 two more sailors were hired. In 1790 a 113 m² half-timbered house was built.

Difficult years

The great epidemic of 1785/86 raged heavily in Kitsissut. In November 1785 there were infected people in every house. By February 1786, 60 people had died. The lodge got into economic distress. In 1787 the plant was founded in Kitsissuarsuit to promote whaling, but a year later it was placed under the colony of Egedesminde. In 1789, 19 men and 28 women lived in Kitsissut. In 1790, all materials and goods from the abandoned Upernavik were stored in Kitsissut. In 1791 58 people lived in the lodge. In the same year a house was built on each of the islands of Oqaq and Qummarfik in order to operate whaling from there. In 1794 it was said that Kronprinsens Ejlande could only survive by whaling, as the population was too small for trade. However, whaling was still quite unsuccessful. A total of only 44 whales were caught between 1782 and 1798. This was mainly due to the competition from English whalers who hunted nearby. In 1796 the plant in Kitsissuarsuit was again assigned to Kronprinsens Ejlande and whaling yields improved. In 1805 there were only 77 inhabitants again.

During the war from 1807 to 1814, the lodge was used as a storage facility for numerous abandoned trading centers in North and South Greenland. Although the Danes now also traded with the English whalers, the lodge, like all colony locations in Greenland, suffered from the war (which was primarily a Danish-English). Whaling has been severely restricted. Qummarfik and Kitsissuarsuit were given up in 1809 and 1813, respectively, and operations in the lodge were reduced so that only a senior assistant, a bacon cutter and five men were employed there. Then the box and the facility in Kitsissut and Kitsissuarsuit were rebuilt. In 1821 there were again a merchant, an assistant, a supervisor, a bacon cutter, a cooper, two carpenters, a cook and five sailors working in the box.

In 1825, smallpox raged in Kitsissuarsuit and whaling in both places had come to a complete standstill, so the lodge was abandoned and the area became part of the colonial district of Egedesminde. Two of the multi-storey houses were brought to Aasiaat, where one became the pastor's apartment.

Kitsissut or Imerissoq is the place of origin of the Greenlandic Sandgreen family.

Kitsissut and Imerissoq as Udsted

As early as 1830 it was decided to turn Kitsissut into an Udsted within the colonial district of Godhavn. The remaining one-story building was used as an apartment for the Udsteds administrator and as a shop. In 1850, 90 people lived in Kitsissut. Later, many of the residents moved to Akunnaaq and Kitsissuarsuit . As a result, Kitsissut's Udstedsstatus was withdrawn.

In 1888 a new Udsted was built further north on Imerissoq because many people from Kitsissuarsuit moved in. Both places were counted together under the Danish name in the 1918 census. There were 93 residents. They lived in eleven Greenland houses. There was also an apartment for the Udsteds administrator, which was renovated in 1912 and was 25 m² in size. A building from 1895 was used as a provisions store and shop. There was also a bacon house and a school chapel, which was built as a peat wall house. In 1935 Imerissoq received a new apartment for the Udsteds administrator and in 1937 a new school chapel was built. There was a small fish house, but in 1952 there was only one fisherman in Imerissoq who caught 9,195 kg of cod. The population increased to 100 by 1960, but after that the number decreased and in 1967 the last inhabitants left Imerissoq. When Kitsissut was abandoned is unknown.

From 1911 Imerissoq was a separate municipality without an associated place to live (actually Kitsissut was a place to live at that time) in the 7th district electoral district of North Greenland and part of the colonial district of Godhavn. Imerissoq was part of the parish of Qeqertarsuaq. In 1950 the place was incorporated into the new municipality of Qeqertarsuaq .

List of colonial employees

Lodge manager

The following people were entrusted with the administration of the lodge.

  • 1778-1782: Adam Christian Thorning
  • 1782–1784: Jens Peter Hansen Glomstad
  • 1784–1785: Caspar Gottlieb Lidemark
  • 1785–1787: Peder Boyesen Dorff
  • 1787–1788: Marcus Nissen Myhlenphort
  • 1788–1789: Johann Friederich Lammerssen
  • 1789–1795: Johan Christian Steen
  • 1795–1799: Peter Hanning Motzfeldt
  • 1799–1800: Christian Frederik Rousing
  • 1800-1803: Michael Olrik
  • 1803–1807: Johan Christian Geisler
  • 1807–1808: Jacob Haagen Bast
  • 1808–1815: Frederik Diderik Sechmann Fleischer
  • 1815-1817: Hans Christian Møhl
  • 1817–1818: Hans Mossin Fleischer
  • 1818–1821: Frederik Friedlieb von Rosbach
  • 1821–1822: Ole Adolf Winding
  • 1822–1825: Christian Ferdinand Plum
  • 1825–1827: Claudius Andreas Stephensen

doctors

The lodge was only provided with its own surgeon for a short time, but he mostly lived in the Egedesminde colony .

  • 1777-1779: Philip Wilhelmi

Sons and daughters

  • Ole Brandt (1918–1981), writer, translator, teacher and regional councilor

Individual evidence

  1. Map with all official place names confirmed by Oqaasileriffik , provided by Asiaq
  2. a b c d e f g h i j Morten P. Porsild , Hother Ostermann : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Nordgrønland: Godhavn Distrikt. Bopladser i Godhavn district. Udstedet Kronprinsens Ejland . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 1 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 324 ff . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  3. Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder og bopladser i Grønland 1901-2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 , pp. 155 ff .
  4. ^ A b Hother Ostermann : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Nordgrønland: Godhavn district. History . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 1 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 308 ff . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).