12/7/2016 The misery of Peary’s elusive channel | The Arctic Journal PRIVACY AND COOKIES RSS FEED ADVERTISING Search REGISTER TODAY to recieve updates TUESDAY and information JULY 12, 2016 CLICK HERE REGIONAL JOURNALISM, GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. HOME BUSINESS POLITICS CLIMATE CULTURE OPINION OIL & MINERALS History The misery of Peary’s elusive channel There was fame, honour and respect to be won by those who explored Greenland around the turn of the last century. For some, there was also death July 7, 2016 ­ 10:33am ­ By Iben Bjørnsson Share this In the previous article, we introduced the Danish Arctic expeditions article and their history. This time, we’ll look into some of them more closely in order to provide a picture of the harsh surroundings and Facebook circumstances in which they took place. Google Twitter You probably had to have been cut from a di焰erent cloth to go on Mail these year-long expeditions, not knowing for sure whether you’d return. But if you made it, there was fame, honour and respect to be won. Names like Knud Rasmussen, Peter Freuchen and Ejnar Mikkelsen were big in their day, but, if you don’t know them, keep reading, you will. The promise of fame was not altogether unattractive. It was something that the participants o蝌en were aware of. Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen leader of the Danish Literary Expedition to Greenland 1902-1904, wrote in his journal: http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2429/misery­pearys­elusive­channel 1/13 12/7/2016 The misery of Peary’s elusive channel | The Arctic Journal As soon as the individual participant in a common expedition realises that it is like those from which men has become famous, he is captivated by an irresistible urge to become number one, to secure for himself material to captivate the world’s interest, especially before the others.* (Cited in Niels Barfoed, Manden bag helten: Knud Rasmussen på nært hold, 2011) Peary and the channel We’ll return to Mylius-Erichsen. Let’s begin with another famous Arctic explorer. Robert Peary was an American Navy o焰icer and civil engineer who was widely known for his Arctic expeditions. He was catapulted to fame when he claimed to be the first man to reach the North Pole in 1909, but our story starts with an earlier expedition of his. In 1891-1892, he explored the northernmost part of Greenland, some of which today is named Peary Land. It was part of the colonial-scientific exploration culture to name the places a蝌er those who ‘discovered’ them, regardless of whether anyone lived there to begin with. Many of these names are the names we know the areas by today. Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen aboard the ‘Danmark’ in 1907 (Photo: Arktisk Institut) Peary Land is a peninsula at the top of Greenland. But Peary had a theory that one of the fjords led to a channel separating Peary Land from the rest of Greenland. If that was the case, it opened the possibility of claiming it for the US, which might have been what Peary had in mind when he said to have claimed the North Pole and its “adjacent regions” in 1909. He named the fjord in question Independence Fjord (he reached it on July 4, America’s Independence Day). The channel he thought lay in extension became known as the Peary Channel. On the south side of Independence Fjord, at a place he named Navy Cli焰, he placed a cairn. You might ask yourself at this point what a cairn is. It is – or was – a paramount feature of an expedition: a pile of rocks built by humans both for navigation purposes and to serve as a communications system: a way of saying ‘somebody was here’. More o蝌en than not, travellers would leave a written message, called ‘cairn reports’, in a bottle, box or some other small container, reporting on the status of the expedition, a description of travel routes and main results. It wasn’t just to mark the territory; the cairns had a more gloomy function as well. They served to secure information in case the expedition members died. The Danmark Expedition: Sledge Team 1 In 1906, a big expedition departed from Copenhagen that was to become probably the most famous, and infamous, Danish Arctic expedition. As was customary, it took its name from the ship that carried it to Greenland: the Danmark. http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2429/misery­pearys­elusive­channel 2/13 12/7/2016 The misery of Peary’s elusive channel | The Arctic Journal The 'Danmark’ in Danmarkshavn, 1907 (Photo: Arktisk Institut) The purpose of the Danmark Expedition was to explore the north-eastern coast of Greenland, which was still a white spot on the map. The ship carried geologists, zoologists, archaeologists, meteorologists etc. Among them was German meteorologist Alfred Wegener, who was later to put forth the theory of continental dri蝌. The expedition was led by Mylius-Erichsen, an explorer and author, and, as noted above, a member of the Literary Expedition. Although not its main purpose, one of the tasks of the expedition was to find out whether Peary Land was indeed an island. Mylius-Erichsen decided to take on that task himself. In March 1907 when the expedition was well under way, he and his Sledge Team 1 le蝌 the ship at its anchorage in Danmarkshavn (meaning ‘Denmark Haven’) to investigate. With him were cartographer Niels Peter Høeg Hagen and Greenlandic musher Jørgen Brønlund. They eventually reached Independence Fjord, more than 600 kilometres north of Danmarkshavn. But they were late. They had lost their way and started exploring the wrong fjord, south of Independence. When they realised this, they decided to go on to Independence, even though they were behind schedule. On June 1, 1907 they spotted Peary’s cairn at Navy Cli焰 and knew that they were in the right place: there place where Peary thought the channel would be. Except, upon investigating they found that it wasn’t. Peary Land is not an island. And with this discovery, they could begin the journey back. “Deep snow and meltwater …” But the journey back proved challenging. They had been gone for too long, and their provisions ran out. On June 4, Brønlund wrote in his journal: We ate the last of the oatmeal. We’re going to have to kill a dog to feed the others. From this moment, we had a series of accidents, of which we never worried before; only rarely did we find anything to shoot, and, when we did, we had bad luck. Our dogs lost their strength day by day, because they were not properly fed. (Cited in Vagn Lundbye, Omkom 79’fjorden, 2006) Just four days later, on June 8, Mylius-Erichsen wrote in a cairn report: Futile hunt for muskoxen and seal, combined with sudden high temperatures, vast fjord- ice melt, deep snow and new snowfall, have delayed the journey and forced us and our dogs to exist on minimal food while facing strenuous work. http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2429/misery­pearys­elusive­channel 3/13 12/7/2016 The misery of Peary’s elusive channel | The Arctic Journal A map of the localities mentioned in this article (Source: nunagis.gl) (click to enlarge) This is why they had planned to return earlier; summer had come and that meant thin, treacherous ice and wet, heavy snow. The exhausted dogs didn’t stand a chance. The three men decided to stay put for the summer and survive on whatever game they could shoot. Which, as it turns out, wasn’t much. Man and beast starved. In a cairn report dated August 8, Mylius-Erichsen described the previous month’s hardships: Suddenly, mild weather set in. Deep snow and meltwater on the ice, lack of game and sickness and fatigue among the dogs hampered and delayed our journey, so we didn’t reach this place until June 12. Any further advance on the ice was impossible. Only 15 dogs were alive then, one has died since. Lacking nourishment for us and the dogs and not having had game since July 16, today we – a蝌er shipping ourselves onto firm ice on an ice floe – with 14 dogs, 2 sledges and all of our gear, have to seek towards more game-rich areas from this locality, totally devoid of game, which we have roamed for a distance of 5 miles**. If we succeed in getting meat, and when the ice is once again passable, probably by the end of this month, we plan to ride the 125 miles back to the ship and hope to arrive by the end of September, with or without dogs. But something went wrong. They got caught on the sea ice, and August came to an end without them getting on their way. On September 12, Mylius-Erichsen wrote yet another cairn report, stating that they, only then, were beginning the journey home: Since we le蝌 the summer camp, approx. 11 miles from here, we have had to slaughter 7 dogs for the sustenance of ourselves and the remaining dogs, while we sat on the sea ice half a mile ashore, stopped by meltwater. Finally, on August 25, we reached land, and shot 4 hares. Since then we have, in one-day journeys, moved the campsite approx. 8 miles into the Danmark Fjord. Progress to more fertile hunting grounds still halted by mild weather, impassable new ice and finally by open water from coast to coast. (All Mylius-Erichsens cairn reports cited in Ole Ventegodt, Den sidste brik, 1997 and Lundbye 2007) Since conditions along the coast were impassable, they thought about going back over the inland ice sheet and still counted on a return – with or without the dogs.