Willem Barents

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Willem Barents

Willem Barents ( Dutch : Willem Barentsz ; * around 1550 on the island of Terschelling in the village of Formerum; † June 20, 1597 on the Novaya Zemlya group of islands ) was a Dutch navigator and explorer of the late 16th century . The Barents Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean ), the Barents Island (part of the Spitzbergen archipelago ) and the Barentsburg miners' settlement were named after him. Willem Barents is considered to be the discoverer of Svalbard . He was the first modern European explorer to spend the winter in the Arctic .

Life

Barents, little known about his youth, was trained as a helmsman in Amsterdam . He was married and had five children. Barents was a skilled seaman and also known as a cartographer in the mid-1590s . In 1594 his map book of the Mediterranean countries appeared. In Den Nieuwen Spieghel der Zeevaert by Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer , published two years later, he made a map of Ireland and a map of Northern Norway. On his last trip, he drew a map of the Arctic, which for the first time showed the North Pole lying in a sea surrounded by continents. Barents was involved in three voyages to discover the Northeast Passage from 1594 to 1597 . On his last trip, he discovered the island of Svalbard and Bear Island in 1596 . Barents probably died of scurvy after an unplanned hibernation on Novaya Zemlya .

Voyages of discovery

predecessor

At the end of the 16th century, Dutch merchants were very interested in an alternative sea route to the Far East . The only known route around Africa and across Southeast Asia was long and dangerous because of the competition with the other sea powers. An expedition to search for the Northeast Passage under Olivier Brunel , who had previously reached the Ob as the first Western European , was shipwrecked in the mouth of the Pechora in 1585 on the return trip from the Kara Sea . On the initiative of Balthasar de Moucheron (1552 – approx. 1630), a merchant from Middelburg who had financed the trip, the search for the passage was resumed in 1594.

First voyage 1594

Three ships were available for the first voyage: the Merkur , financed by the Amsterdam merchants , commanded by Willem Barents, the Middelburg Swan and an Enkhuizen ship, also called Merkur . Since the influential cosmographer Petrus Plancius had advised against driving along the Jugor Strait between the island of Waigach and the mainland, it was decided that Barents should try to bypass Novaya Zemlya to the north. Cornelis Nay was to take the other two ships on course for Jugorstrasse. Barents met the rest of the fleet with his ship on June 23 on the island of Kildin off the Murman coast . On June 29, he continued his journey north-northwest, while Nay was four days from Kildin. Barents saw Novaya Zemlya for the first time on July 4th and determined its polar elevation to be 73 ° 25 ′. To the south-east of it he reached a promontory that he called Langeness (today Suchoi Nos). He continued his voyage along the west and north coast of the island until, on July 30, within sight of the Orange Islands north of Novaya Zemlya below 77 ° north latitude, the ice prevented him from continuing his journey. Since Nay, meanwhile, had passed through the yugorsky strait and in the Kara Sea to the mouth of Karaflusses had arrived, the trip was a success and the access to the Northern Sea Route as found.

Second voyage 1595

In 1595 a fleet of seven ships was put together, which were loaded with trade goods as well as provisions and ammunition for two years. The command was again entrusted to Cornelis Nay. Barents drove as chief helmsman under Captain Jacob van Heemskerk on the Golden Greyhound , one of the two ships financed by Amsterdam. The departure of the fleet was delayed until July 2nd. The North Cape was not bypassed until August 10th and the Jugor Strait, which they found full of ice, was reached on August 19th. On September 2, the passage into the Kara Sea succeeded. On September 6th, two members of the expedition were killed by a polar bear . Barents urged Nay to leave at least some ships to winter on the Kara Sea. While the latter was still hesitating, a mutiny broke out on September 8th . After five rioters were executed, the ships tried unsuccessfully to advance further east. Nay broke off efforts on September 15 and led the entire fleet back to Holland, where it arrived on November 18.

Third voyage 1596–1597

Barents' Map of Northern Norway (1596)
Christiaan Portman : Willem Barents' Death (1836)

Although the second voyage did not meet expectations, Amsterdam sent two more ships north in 1596. Barents was again chief helmsman under Captain van Heemskerk. The second ship was led by Jan Corneliszoon Rijp . They left Amsterdam on May 10th. Soon there were differences between Barents and Rijp, because Barents felt that they had strayed too far west, but Rijp did not want to admit this. On June 9, 1596, they discovered Bear Island and, after a three-day stay, drove further north until they hit the ice line. Dodging to the east, they discovered the island of Spitsbergen on June 19 at 80 ° 11 ′ north latitude. They returned to the Bear Island area and discussed the situation. Rijp wanted to take a northerly course east of Spitsbergen, Barents wanted to try again as in 1594 to find a way around the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya. Since there was no agreement, the ships parted. On July 17, 1596 Barents met again on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya and followed her until he circled the northern tip on August 6. On August 19, the ship reached the north-eastern cape of the island, which Barents christened the "Desired Cape" ( Dutch Hoek van Begeerte , today Mys Schelanija ). Once again, masses of ice prevented his penetration into the Kara Sea . He found refuge in the nearby ice harbor, where he and his companions had to endure all the hardships of an arctic winter.

Since their ship remained frozen in the ice the following spring, they had to leave it behind and flee in two open boats on June 14 to the Pechora estuary in Russia. Five participants in the expedition, however, succumbed to the hardships, including Barents on June 20, who was buried on the Novaya Zemlya coast. The rest of the crew finally reached the Kola peninsula under Heemskerk , where they met Rijp, who brought them back to Holland.

Discovery of the winter house in the 19th century

The northeastern part of Novaya Zemlya was explored much later by the Norwegians Edvard Holm Johannesen and Elling Carlsen . In 1871 the latter found the still well-preserved winter house of Barents and in it many devices, books, etc., which he brought back after being buried in the ice for almost 300 years. Today they are part of the permanent exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam . Investigations by Russian and Dutch archaeologists in the 1990s gave further insights into the course and end of the Barents' voyages.

reception

Gerrit de Veer , who had taken part in Willem Barents' second and third voyages as a mate, published his diaries immediately after their happy return home. The German edition Warhrachtige Relation der dreyen newen vnerhörten strange kind of ship so the Dutch and Zealand ship around midnight three years after each other as Anno 1594, 1595, vnd 1596 verricht appeared in 1598 at Levinus Hulsius in Nuremberg .

The youth author Herbert Friedrich made Willem Barents' third trip on the subject of his novel Die Eissee , which appeared in 1968. The plot of the historical film Nova Zembla by the Dutch director Reinout Oerlemans from 2011 is also based on the story.

literature

  • Gerrit de Veer: True description of the north voyage of the captain van Heemskerck and the chief helmsman Willem Barentsz. In: The dangerous voyage of Captain Bontekoe and other logbooks and ship journals of Dutch navigators of the 17th century. Erdmann-Verlag, Tübingen / Basel 1972.
  • Gerrit de Veer: Barentz et Heemskerck , voyageurs hollandais . Paris 1857.
  • Louwrens Hacquebord: Barents, Willem . In: Mark Nuttall (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Arctic . tape 1 . Routledge, New York and London 2003, ISBN 1-57958-436-5 , pp. 201–202 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Julius Löwenberg :  Barendsz, Willem . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 59.
  • Michael Recke: Willem Barents and the search for the Northeast Passage . Edition Stiedenrod, Wiefelstede 2010, ISBN 978-3-86927-110-1 .
  • Klaus Stiedenrod: Description of the three new boat trips in 1594, 1595 and 1596, with the intention of coming to the Kingdom of Cathay and China . Transcription of the Hulsius edition from 1598, Edition Stiedenrod, Wiefelstede 2010, ISBN 978-3-86927-109-5 .
  • A good relation of the three new, unheard-of strange types of ship, so the Dutch and Zeeland ships did three years one after the other around midnight as Anno 1594, 1595, and 1596 . Facsimile of the Hulsius edition from 1598. Edition Stiedenrod, Wiefelstede 2010, ISBN 978-3-86927-108-8 .
  • Herbert Friedrich : The ice lake. Willem Barents' last voyage . Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1968. (8th edition. 1990, ISBN 3-355-00429-4 )
  • From Hoving: Het schip van Willem Barent . Edition Verloren, Hilversum 2004, ISBN 90-6550-772-8 .

Web links

Commons : Willem Barents  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Louwrens Hacquebord: Barents, Willem . In: Mark Nuttall (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Arctic . tape 1 . Routledge, New York and London 2003, ISBN 1-57958-436-5 , pp. 201–202 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Louwrens Hacquebord: In Search of Het Behouden Huys: A Survey of the Remains of the House of Willem Barentsz on Novaya Zemlya (PDF; 780 kB). In: ARCTIC Volume 48, No. 3, 1995, pp. 248-256 (English).
  3. ↑ Gerrit de Veer: Description of the Dutch and soulful three types of ships to sail after midnight in Cathay and Chinam . Hulsius, Nuremberg 1598, p. 4
  4. ^ Friedrich Litke : Four trips through the northern Arctic Ocean on the brig Nowaja Zemlya in the years 1821 to 1824 . Reimer, Berlin 1835, p. 20 .
  5. ↑ Gerrit de Veer, 1598, p. 9
  6. ↑ Gerrit de Veer, 1598, p. 17
  7. ^ A b William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 62–65 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  8. ↑ Gerrit de Veer
  9. ↑ Геррит Де-Фер. Плавания Баренца
  10. ↑ Gerrit de Veer, 1598, p. 43
  11. ↑ Nova Zembla (2011) on www.film1.nl
personal data
SURNAME Barents, Willem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barendsz von Terschelling, Willem; Barent von Terschelling, Willem; Barentzen von Terschelling, Willem
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch navigator and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1550
PLACE OF BIRTH Terschelling island
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1597
Place of death at Novaya Zemlya