Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen

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Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen (around 1900)

Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen (from 1911 Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen Bildsøe ; * July 24, 1849 in Flensburg , † November 24, 1936 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish naval officer , polar explorer , author and civil servant . In 1878 he penetrated the Greenland Ice Sheet as far as none before him.

Life

Jensen's march across the inland ice (drawing: A. Kornerup, 1878)

Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen was the son of the businessman and factory owner Hans Jensen (1816–1876) and his wife Magdalene Ahlers (1811–1881). He embarked on a military career in the Royal Danish Navy , which raised him to Kaptajn until 1886 and Komandør in 1901.

As a first lieutenant , Jensen took part in the expedition led by the geologist Knud Steenstrup to the West Greenlandic district of Frederikshåb (Paamiut) in 1877 . The aim was to map the coast, which is strongly indented by fjords, and, if possible, to advance onto the inland ice. The latter did not succeed due to unforeseeable difficulties and adverse weather conditions. The coast was mapped by Jensen and the most prominent mountains were measured. The expedition participants collected minerals and determined the flow speeds of glaciers .

In the following year, the work - now under Jensen's direction - continued and the coast between the fjords of Ameralik and Tininnertooq mapped. Particular attention was paid to the ruins of the west settlement of Grænlendingar . A remarkable pioneering achievement was a three-week advance on the ice sheet. With the engineer Andreas Kornerup (1857–1881), the architect Thorvald Groth (1847–1891) and the Inuk Habakuk he rose over the Frederikshåb Glacier ( greenl . : Sioqqap Sermia ). The men carried 200 kg of equipment and provisions on their sledges. Plagued by snow blindness , they marched on the surface of the ice sheet , which is shaped by crevasses and meltwater rivers, 70 km to a group of nunataks who today bear the name JAD Jensen Nunatakker . The expedition reached a maximum height of 1543  m and provided information about the glaciological conditions in this region, which is rich in Nunataks. Jensen's astronomical and meteorological observations, as well as the plants and rock samples collected at the nunataks, were also of scientific value.

In 1879 Jensen led another expedition to West Greenland and explored and mapped the coast between Kangaatsiaq and Holsteinsborg ( Sisimiut ). In the years 1881-1883 he headed the military survey in Danish waters before returning to Greenland in 1884 and 1885 to re-map stretches of coast, collect stones and plants and explore the ruins of the Grænlendingar.

From 1887 to 1888 Jensen was the captain of the steamship Hvidbjørnen, which was used in the Greenland trade . He gave the command to Vilhelm Garde when he was appointed navigator , the official responsible for the Danish nautical schools . In this role he wrote several navigation textbooks and a book on Danish maritime law . He published his expedition reports in the Meddelelser om Grønland . In 1921 he retired, but remained on the examination board of the Danish nautical schools until 1926. He died in Copenhagen in 1936 at the age of 87.

Bildsøe - he had changed his surname on November 25, 1911 - was a board member of the Royal Danish Geographical Society from 1914 to 1931, then an honorary member .

Familiar

Jensen married Manna Helene Grove (1861-1903) on March 31, 1887. After her death, he married Frederikke Magdalene Bendz Kielland (1880–1943) on May 18, 1904.

Honors

Jensen received the following medals and orders:

The following geographical objects are named after him:

Fonts (selection)

  • Om indlandsisen i Greenland: i anledning af Dr. Nansen's expedition , 1888.
  • Grundrids af Læren om Ebbe og Flod , 1899.
  • Lærebog i Navigation , 2 volumes, 1903-04.
  • Kortfatt navigator , 1908.
  • Danske Søfartslove i Uddrag , 1908.
  • Nautisk Almanac , before 1891–1930.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Frederik change : Scientific Investigations in Greenland . In: M. Vahl, GC Amdrup, L Bobé, Ad. S. Jensen (Ed.): Greenland, Volume 1, Reitzel, Copenhagen 1928, pp. 37-136, here p. 113 .
  2. ^ Fridtjof Nansen : On snowshoes through Greenland . Second volume, Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei AG, Hamburg 1891, p. 53 ff.
  3. ↑ N. Lindenberg: Skibe i Grønlandsfarten 1721-1971 . National Maritime Museum of Denmark , Helsingør 1971 ( PDF ; 2.57 MB).
  4. ^ Charles M. Heyda, Edward Szymanski: Gazetteer of Greenland . Defense Mapping Agency, Washington, DC 1983, pp. 95 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Jensen, Jens Arnold Diderich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bildsøe, Jens Arnold Diderich Jensen (from 1911)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish naval officer and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1936
Place of death Copenhagen