Exploration history of northern East Greenland This section comprises brief summaries of all activi- Note that in the following accounts of activities offi- ties in northern East Greenland from c. 2500 BC up to cially authorised place names are in normal type, the present day. These activities range from large whereas unofficial place names, or unapproved varia- scientific expeditions with more than 100 partici- tions of names, are given in italics. The names of ships pants to minor tourist visits by a few persons. Due to are given in capitals, e.g. the HOPEWELL. the remote and isolated situation of northern East Note that hunting trips made by the residents of Greenland, virtually all visiting groups need to be Scoresbysund / Illoqqortoormiut (Ittoqqortoormiit) self-supporting and are therefore characterised as are not included in this volume, although such tours ‘expeditions’. may extend northwards into the North-East Green - The various activities are presented chronologi- land National Park and southwards along the cally, with brief information on the nature of the Blosseville Kyst. Local excursions organised by the objectives and results of scientific investigations, and travel agents Nanu Travel Aps for groups visiting with particular emphasis on place names proposed by Scoresbysund / Illoqqortoormiut (Ittoqqortoormiit) the participants. In general the name of the expedi- are in general outside the scope of this volume. tion is given in the original language, followed by the Similarly, excursions by personnel from Danmarks - expedition name in English (where relevant) and the havn weather station (or the former weather and/or name of the leader. radio stations at Daneborg and Kap Tobin) are not In 1979, Greenland was granted Home Rule, and generally on public record. The numerous scientists took over many of the responsibilities formerly car - that visit the Zackenberg Ecological Research Opera - ried out by Denmark on its behalf. From 1989 until tion (ZERO) are mainly involved in projects in the 2009 the Danish Polar Center (DPC) undertook the vicinity of the research station, but a few projects issue of permits to visit northern East Greenland and range more widely afield (see Meltofte et al. 2008); a the North-East Greenland National Park. One of the few ZERO projects merit mention below, but most conditions of the permits was that a report should be projects are included in the general descriptions of submitted to DPC, but some expeditions have failed activities – see: ‘1997–present Zackenberg Ecological to submit reports and the expedition list that follows Research Operations (ZERO)’. Cruise ships have is therefore incomplete. occasionally visited East Greenland since the early Many of the modern activities, from about 1961 1970s, and many cruise organisations now include onwards, are recorded only in unpublished expedi- regular visits to East Greenland in their schedules; up tion reports deposited with the organisations that to 17 ships annually have been recorded carrying a supported the activity, or from 1989 with the Danish total of about 1000 passengers – see: ‘1998–present: Polar Center. Where such reports have been located Nuna Travel Aps’. With few exceptions these cruises at the British Mountainering Council in Manchester are not individually listed here. The Sirius Sledge [BMC report archive], Royal Geographical Society in Patrol covers a total of 20 000 km on patrol with dog- London [RGS report archive] or the Danish Polar sledge teams in northern East Greenland and North Center in Copenhagen [DPC report archive], this is Greenland during the winter and spring every year. indicated at the end of the activity description. Details of these patrols are confidential, but P.S. In 2009 Greenland acquired a further degree of Mikkelsen (1986, 2005) has provided an informative independence from Denmark, and from 2010 permis- and well-illustrated account of his own experiences sion to visit northern East Greenland must be re - with the Sirius Sledge Patrol. quested from the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, Nature and Environment of the Government of Green land in Nuuk. 17 Pioneer exploration and discovery: c. 2500 BC – AD 1912 in East Greenland. North of latitude 69°N Tornøe sug- gests locations for Bláserkr, Breidi fjórdr, Finns búdir, c c Greipar, Krosseyjar and Òllumlengri. Apart from Blá - . 2500 BC – . 1823 Inuit (palaeoeskimo) serkr (now Rigny Bjerg) their positions are debate- immigrations able, and none of them have acquired the status of About 4500 years ago, long before European whalers approved names. and explorers set foot on the east coast of Greenland, Òllumlengri or Ollum lengri Fiordr is said to have the entire region had been settled by Inuit (palaeo - been discovered by Norse voyagers from Iceland in eskimos). The Independence I culture, which is close- 1194 or 1195, and here they for many years hunted ly related to the Saqqaq culture of West Greenland seals, walruses, narwhales and bears. Gustav Holm and the early pre-Dorset culture of Canada, had (1925, 1926) considered their description of the ‘fjord spread from Ellesmere Island (Canada) across North longer than all other fjords’ admirably fitted the Greenland and down the coast as far as Scoresby Sund present day Scoresby Sund, a viewpoint supported by (70°N). The Independence I people remained in East Tornøe (1944) and Ejnar Mikkelsen (1989). Scoresby Greenland for up to 600 years (Bennike et al. 2008). Sund with its inner branch of Nordvestfjord is in fact About 1100 years later a new wave of Inuit (pa laeo - the longest fjord in the World. eskimos), the Greenlandic Dorset, retraced their pre - The Icelandic Annals also refer to the discovery in decessors’ footsteps. Both cultures depended for their 1194 of Svalbardr, or Svalbarda í Hafsbotn, the ‘coun- existence on musk oxen, seals, hares, birds and fish. try of the cold coasts’, which some authorities identi- The tent rings of the Greenlandic Dorset are widely fy with the Scoresby Sund region (70°–72°N) of East distributed along the coast of East Greenland, with a Greenland (Rafn 1845; Ryder 1892; Holm 1926), concentration in Dove Bugt and on Île de France (now others with Jan Mayen (Wordie 1922) or Spitsbergen Qeqertak Prins Henrik). The Green landic Dorset (Tornøe 1935, 1944). Svalbard is today the official people lived in East Greenland from about 800 BC to 0. name of the group of islands including Spitsbergen About AD 1200 the ancestors of the present day that were placed under the sovereignty of Norway by Greenlanders, the Thule culture, reached Greenland, the Treaty of Paris in 1920. and via North Greenland soon populated the entire Direct evidence of Norse visits to East Greenland coast of East Greenland. They were whale-hunters north of latitude 69°N is limited to finds in Inuit and possessed skin boats (kayaks and umiaks), but graves at Scoresbysund of silver buttons and beads also depended on musk oxen, seals, hares, birds and (Storgaard 1926) and of an ornamented bone comb fish (Larsen 1970). The last remnants of this popula- (Thalbitzer 1909); these have been argued by Tornøe tion north of 69°N latitude may have been the group (1944) to indicate some contacts between the Norse of 12 encountered by Douglas Clavering at Clavering inhabitants of Iceland and the former Inuit popula- Ø (74°15´N) in 1823 (Clavering 1830). Ruins of their tion. winter houses are common throughout East Green - land. 1607 Henry Hudson’s voyage In 1607, Henry Hudson was sent out by the Muscovy c. 1000–1250 Norse (Viking) voyages Company with a crew of 11 on the HOPEWELL to seek The Icelandic sagas include accounts of a number of a passage to Japan and China across the North Pole. voyages to Greenland, although most of the place He sighted the coast of East Greenland on several names recorded have usually been identified with occasions between latitudes 68° and 74°N, and on 22 locations in South or West Greenland (Rafn 1845). June 1607 lay off Hold with Hope (73°30´N). The Some names have appeared in a variety of positions only account of his observations is reproduced in on old charts which were based partly on interpreta- Asher (1860) and Purchas (1906) – “It was a mayne tions of the sagas (Egede 1818; Steenstrup 1886, 1889; high land, nothing at all covered with snow: and the Bjørnbo 1911; Trap 1928; see Frontispiece). How ever, North part of that mayne high Land was very high Tornøe (1935, 1944) has argued that places described Mountaynes .... wee thought good to name it, Hold with in Landnámabók, Eirik Raudes saga, Tor finn Karls - hope, lying in 73. degrees of latitude” (Asher 1860, p. 3; evnes saga and other sources might have been situated Purchas 1906, p. 297–298). 18 Hold with Hope is the oldest place name current- 70°20´N was dragged by a strong current into a wide ly in use in northern East Greenland. While Hudson and deep fjord, the present Scoresby Sund (Bobé failed in the main purpose of his voyage, his accounts 1928). Other whalers known to have sighted the of the abundant whales in the waters near Spitsbergen coast, usually reported as Gale Hamkes Land, include are said by many authors to have led to the develop- DIE FRAU MARIA ELISABETH in 1769, DE SANKT PETER ment of the northern whale-fishery; other writers in 1773 and WILLEMINA in 1777 (Ryder 1892). give the credit to Nicholas Woodcock’s 1612 voyage In 1798, British cruisers had captured the Dutch (see below). whaling fleet, and by the early 1800s the northern whale fishery was largely in British hands. A series of c c prosperous whaling years lasted until about 1826, . 1614 – . 1910 Northern whale-fishery although with a progressive shift in interest from the Until the pioneer charting of the coast of East Green - Greenland Sea to the Davis Strait (offshore West land by William Scoresby Jr.