Størker Størkersen

Størker Teodor Størkersen , also Storker Storkerson (born June 26, 1883 in Trondenes , Norway , † March 22, 1940 in Sørøysund , Norway) was a Norwegian seaman and polar explorer who took part in several scientific expeditions in the North American Arctic . He was the first to use an ice drift station (without a ship) to explore the Arctic.

Life

Størker Størkersen was the oldest of 13 children of Søren Kristian Størkersen and Andrea Martine Arctander Størkersen, née Hansdatter. At the age of 16 he became a seaman in the merchant navy. Størkersen was 22 years old when he in 1906 in the port of Victoria (British Columbia) Ejnar Mikkelsen and de Koven Ernest Leffingwell , met (1875-1971) who together form the Anglo-American Polar Expedition (1906-1908) with the ship Duchess of Bedford introduced . The expedition, partially funded by the British Royal Geographical Society , had the primary objective of searching for unknown land off the coast of Alaska , particularly the hypothetical Keenan Land . In addition, geological and, by Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, ethnological work should also be carried out. Størkersen joined the expedition as a simple seaman, but soon replaced the helmsman of the Duchess of Bedford , who had to disembark due to illness. On their way along the north coast of Alaska, the expedition met Roald Amundsen's Gjøa , which was just finishing the first Northwest Passage . When heavy pack ice made it impossible to progress, Mikkelsen anchored the Duchess of Bedford behind Flaxman Island , where the men spent the winter. Størkersen was now responsible for the regular meteorological record. In spring 1907 he accompanied the two expedition leaders and the Inupiaq Sachawachick on a two-month journey across the ice of the Beaufort Sea . They moved 200 km from the coast, beyond the edge of the continental shelf , and were able to show that there was no land to discover here. In July, Størkersen shot himself in the foot while hunting. He then left the expedition in August 1907. In 1908 he returned to Flaxman Island to support Leffingwell in his work. When he did not find him, he worked briefly for the Stefánsson-Anderson expedition. In 1909 and 1910 he worked for the returned Leffingwell.

In 1910 Størkersen married on Herschel Island Uiniq (also Elvina , 1895? –1931), the daughter of the Dane Christian Klengenberg (1869–1931) and the Inupiaq Kemnik. The couple lived in the delta of the Mackenzie River until Stefánsson, who returned to the Beaufort Sea in 1913 as head of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, was looking for replacements for his men who had disappeared with the Karluk in February 1914 . He signed both of them. In March 1914 Stefánsson, Størkersen and Ole Andreasen (1882–1947) made an advance along the 140th west longitude to the Beaufort Sea. Without large food reserves and with only six sled dogs, they tried to make a living from hunting on their own. When the ice began to break, they marched to the east Banks Island . After 96 days on the ice, they reached Norway Island and for the first time back on land. Their depth soundings had shown that the continental shelf was only about 80 km wide. The existence of as yet unknown land in this area was therefore unlikely. In 1915 they moved again to the northwest on the Beaufort Sea, found no land and turned to the east. On the Prince Patrick Island coast they swung north again, and on June 18 Størkersen sighted new land they named Brock Island . In winter, Størkersen began mapping the not yet mapped north coast of Victoria Island . In 1917 he was able to largely complete this work. Due to illness, Stefánsson was unable to implement his project of setting up a camp on a floating ice floe in order to find out more about the flow conditions in the Beaufort Sea. Størkersen therefore took over the management. From March to November 1918, five men lived on an ice floe, which in that time covered a distance of 700 km. They regularly recorded meteorological and oceanographic data. The drift was supposed to last a year, but had to be stopped early because Størkersen fell ill with asthma .

After the expedition, Stefánsson invited him to Banff , Alberta , to write the chapter on ice drift for Stefánsson's book The Friendly Arctic . During the meeting, they developed the idea of running reindeer farming in the Canadian Arctic, modeled on the Scandinavian Sami . Stefánsson founded the Hudson's Bay Reindeer Company with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) , which acquired grazing rights to 260,000 km of land on Baffin Island . Størkersen was hired by HBC to lead the project. He traveled to Norway in 1920 to prepare for the purchase and transportation of the animals. In the meantime, building materials and furniture were delivered to Amadjuak Bai, where Størkersen wanted to live with Elvina and his three daughters Martina Novaluk (1911–1931), Aida Mamaginna (1915–1986) and Bessie Povlirak (1918–1998). Before that happened, however, there was a break with HBC, which Størkersen did not give the freedoms he claimed. He started his own reindeer herding project, but failed and was bankrupt in 1925. He was unable to implement his plan of his own multi-year polar expedition, during which he wanted to cross the North Pole in a dog sled , as he could not find any sponsors. In 1927 he experienced a total breakdown and spent the rest of his life in the mental hospital Sørøysund, where he died in 1940.

Honors

Several geographical objects are named after Størker Størkersen:

• Storkerson Peninsula , a peninsula on Victoria Island,
• Storkerson Bay, a bay on the northwest coast of Banks Island,
• Storkerson River, a river on Banks Island,
• Storkerson Lake, a lake on Banks Island,
• Point Storkersen, a headland in Alaska.

literature

• Ejnar Mikkelsen: Conquering the Arctic Ice , William Heinemann, London 1909 (English).
• Vilhjálmur Stefánsson: The Friendly Arctic . Macmillan, New York 1921, pp. 689-703 (English).
• Jette Elsebeth Ashlee: An Arctic Epic of Family and Fortune. The Theories of Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Their Influence in Practice on Storker Storkerson and His Family . Xlibris, 2008, ISBN 1-42577-392-3 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 2 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 633 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ↑ Størker Størkersen on MyHeritage, accessed May 7, 2018.
3. ↑ Ejnar Mikkelsen: Conquering the Arctic Ice , p. 12.
4. ^ Ejnar Mikkelsen: Conquering the Arctic Ice , p. 437.
5. ↑ Ejnar Mikkelsen: Conquering the Arctic Ice , p. 298 f.
6. ^ Ejnar Mikkelsen: Conquering the Arctic Ice , p. 320.
7. ^ Vilhjálmur Stefánsson: My Life with the Eskimo . Macmillan, New York 1913, pp. 49 ff. (English).
8. ^ Ernest de Koven Leffingwell: The Canning River Region, Northern Alaska (=  United States Geological Survey Professional Paper . Volume 109 ). Washington 1919 (English, digitized [PDF]).
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jette Elsebeth Ashlee: Storker Teodor Storkerson . Short biography on the Canadian Museum of History website , accessed May 2, 2018
10. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 2 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 631 f . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
11. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 102 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
12. ↑ Størker Størkersen: Drifting in the Beaufort Sea . Appendix in: Vilhjálmur Stefánsson: The Friendly Arctic . Macmillan, New York 1921, pp. 689-703 (English).
13. ^ Gisli Palsson: Traveling Passions. The Hidden Life of Vilhjalmur Stefansson . University of Manitoba Press, 2005, ISBN 0-88755-179-3 , pp. 154 f . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).