Louis Palander

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Louis Palander

Adolf Arnold Louis Palander af Vega (born October 2, 1842 in Karlskrona , † August 7, 1920 in Djursholm ) was a Swedish admiral and polar explorer .

Life

Palander's parents were Axel Fredrik Palander , a frigate captain (Swedish commendörkapten ) in the Swedish Navy , and his wife Emelie Jacquette Constance du Rées. From 1856 he attended the Karlberg Castle Military Academy . In the spring of 1864 he was promoted to sub-lieutenant (in Swedish seconds ) and in the following years was a member of the crew of several expeditions that took him to Sierra Leone and Liberia , among others . He took part in his first polar expedition, the Spitsbergen Expedition of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , in 1868. Promoted to lieutenant in 1870 , he spent the winter of 1872/73 as a participant in another Nordenskiöld expedition on Spitzbergen. For this he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Wasa Order in 1874 .

On Nordenskiöld's expedition from 1878 to 1880, he was in command of the ship Vega . The Northeast Passage was conquered on this expedition . The experience and prudence of his management of the ship earned him the title of Baron af Vega (German: Baron von Vega). After his return he was promoted to lieutenant captain (Swedish Kapten i flottan ) in 1880 and made a knight of the North Star Order . He was also awarded several high medals abroad, including the Commander's Cross 2nd Class of the Danish Dannebrog Order .

In the following decades, Palander rose to both political and military importance. In 1901, meanwhile Rear Admiral , he was finally appointed Minister of the Navy of Sweden and in 1903 promoted to Vice Admiral. He had to give up his post as Minister of the Navy in 1905 in the wake of a government crisis. In 1908, Palander was honored in Great Britain as the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order . In 1910 he was promoted to Admiral of the Reserve.

Palander was married to Anna Katharina Grischotti (* 1847) since 1868. The couple had four children.

In the Svalbard Archipelago , an island in the Hinlopenstraße , a mountain in Wedel-Jarlsberg-Land , part of the Austfonna glacier and a bay, a valley and a glacier on the island of Nordostland are named after Louis Palander.

literature

  • Fernand Salentiny: The Lexicon of Navigators and Explorers. Horst Erdmann Verlag for International Cultural Exchange, Tübingen 1974.
  • Harald Ossian Wieselgren u. a. (Ed.): Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. Örebro, 1857-1907.
  • Erik Thyselius: Vem är det ?: uppslags- och handbok över samtida kända svenskaoman och kvinnor. Norstedt, Stockholm 1912.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Geographical objects named after Louis Palander in The Place Names of Svalbard ; Norsk Polar Institute ; Oslo 1942-2010; ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (2001 edition) (English / Norwegian)
personal data
SURNAME Palander, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Palander af Vega, Adolf Arnold Louis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish admiral and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlskrona
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1920
Place of death Djursholm