Nicolai Hanson

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Nicolai Hanson (1898 or 1899)
Nicolai Hanson measuring the water temperature (1899)
Hanson's grave at Cape Adare (1899)

Nicolai Hanson (born August 24, 1870 in Kristiansund , † October 14, 1899 at Cape Adare , Antarctica ) was a Norwegian zoologist and polar explorer . He was the first person to be buried on the Antarctic mainland .

Life

Nicolai Hanson was born in Kristiansund in 1870 as the eldest son of shipbroker Anton Hanson (* 1836) and his wife Sophie Hanson (* 1844). He studied biology with Robert Collett (1842–1913) at Kristiania University and then produced specimens for the collections of the British Museum in London and the Zoological Museum in Kristiania in Northern Norway . It was also Collett who recommended the young scientist for the Southern Cross expedition to Antarctica. The leader of this private expedition, financed by the publisher Sir George Newnes (1851-1910), Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink , hired him as a zoologist and taxidermist . On the crossing, Hanson fell seriously ill with typhus in September 1898 , but recovered completely by the time he arrived in Antarctica. The expedition wintered in 1899 at Cape Adare in Victoria Land . Hanson, who was a skilled hunter and skier, used the time to create an extensive collection of specimens of the Antarctic fauna with the help of his assistant Hugh Evans (1874–1975). In July Hanson fell ill, presumably from moist beriberi , aggravated by his previous intestinal infection. He died on October 14, 1899 and was buried on October 20 high above Cape Adare in a place he had chosen himself. He was the first person to be buried on the Antarctic mainland. Hanson left behind his wife and young daughter Johanne Hanson Vogt (1898-1999).

Hanson's grave was visited by Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition in 1902 . Ten years later, the northern group of the Terra Nova Expedition was looking for their ship at Cape Adare. The boatswain Frank Vernon Browning (1882–1930) cleaned the grave and put the words "Hanson" and a white cross on a black basalt background with white quartz stones . Today it stands as a Historic Monument HSM-23 under the protection of the Antarctic Treaty .

Scientific legacy

Hanson's zoological specimens were handed over to the Natural History Museum after the Southern Cross returned in October 1900 . A dispute broke out between the museum and Borchgrevink over the scientific notebooks that, according to Louis Bernacchi , the expedition's meteorologist, had given Borchgrevink at the death camp, which was publicly reported in the press. The fact that the notes remained missing made it difficult to assign the preparations, which were largely unlabelled. The museum then contacted Hanson's widow, who released his personal diary, insofar as it contained biological observations. In 1902 the zoological results of the Southern Cross expedition were published by the museum director Ray Lankester as Report on the Collections of Natural History made in the Antarctic Regions during the Voyage of the "Southern Cross" on over 300 pages.

Honors

The 1255  m high Hanson Peak , which rises six kilometers south of Cape Adare, is reminiscent of Nicolai Hanson. In addition, Hanson is the namesake for the Hansen Nunatak [sic], which, like Hanson Peak, is located in Viktorialand. George Albert Boulenger named the Antarctic cod Trematomus hansoni after him.

Web links

Commons : Nicolai Hanson  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1885 census , accessed December 20, 2013
  2. ^ Report on the Collections of Natural History made in the Antarctic Regions during the Voyage of the "Southern Cross" , London 1902, p. 79 (English)
  3. ↑ Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink: Nærmest sydpolen aaret 1900 , Gyldendal, Copenhagen and Kristiania 1905, p. 44 (Danish)
  4. ↑ HR Guly: 'Polar anemia': cardiac failure during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration (PDF; 131 kB). In: Polar Record 48, 2012, pp. 157-164. doi : 10.1017 / S0032247411000222 (English)
  5. ↑ a b Louis Bernacchi: To the South Polar regions , Hurst and Blackett, London 1901, p. 185 (English)
  6. ↑ David Vogt: En miskjent polarhelt ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) in Aftenposten from December 13, 2008 (Norwegian)
  7. ^ Robert Falcon Scott: The Voyage of the Discovery . Vol. 1, Smith, Elder & Co, 1905, p. 102
  8. ^ Raymond E. Priestley : Scott's Northern Party , Dutton, New York 1915, p. 60
  9. ↑ HSM 23: Hanson's Grave in the Antarctic Protected Areas Database on the website of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (English, Spanish, French, Russian), accessed on November 16, 2019
  10. ↑ Where are Hanson's Notebooks? in Auckland Star (English), recalled from September 20, 1902 on December 21, 2013
  11. ↑ Hanson Peak in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
  12. ↑ Trematomus hansoni on Fishbase.org (English)

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the literature you can still find the name spellings Nicolai / Nikolai and Hanson / Hansen . He himself wrote the name in his diary Nicolai Hanson . The expedition reports of Borchgrevink and Bernacchis as well as the scientific description of his biological preparations published by the Natural History Museum London use this notation.
personal data
SURNAME Hanson, Nicolai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian zoologist and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Kristiansund
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1899
Place of death Cape Adare , Antarctica