Exploration history of East Greenland 69°–82°N PRE-1918 c. 4300 BC – 1823 Paleoeskimos About 6300 years ago, long before European whalers and explorers set foot on the east coast of Greenland, the entire region had been settled by paleoeskimos. The Independence I culture had spread from Ellesmere Island (Canada) across North Greenland and down the east coast as far as Scoresby Sund (70°N). A thousand years later a new wave of paleoeskimos, the Independence II culture, retraced their predecessors footsteps. Both phases of paleoeskimo expansion coincided with climatic optima, and both cultures depended for their existence on muskox, hares, birds and fish; their tent rings are widely distributed along the coasts of East Greenland. About 1100 AD another wave of paleoeskimos, the Thule culture, reached East Greenland, also via North Greenland. They were whale-hunters and possessed skin boats (kayaks and umiaks). Their meeting with another group of eskimos which had spread around South Greenland and up along the east coast produced the so-called North Greenland mixed culture, which thrived in northern East Greenland until the 1700s. Climatic changes subsequently caused a dramatic population decline, and the last remnants of this population north of 69°N latitude may have been the group of 12 encountered by Douglas Clavering at Clavering Ø (74°15N) in 1823. Ruins of their stone and turf winter houses, and their summer tent rings, are common throughout northern East Greenland. c.1000–1250 Viking voyages The Icelandic sagas include accounts of a number of voyages to Greenland, although most of the place names recorded have usually been identified with locations in South or West Greenland. Some names have appeared in a variety of positions on old charts which were based partly on interpretations of the sagas . The Icelandic Annals refer to the discovery in 1194 of Svalbardr, or Svalbarda í Hafsbotn, the “country of the cold coasts”, which some authorities identify with the Scoresby Sund region (70°–72°N) of East Greenland, and others with Jan Mayen or Spitzbergen. Svalbard is today the official name of the group of islands including Spitzbergen which were placed under the sovereignty of Norway by the Treaty of Paris. Direct evidence of a Viking presence in East Greenland north of latitude 69°N is limited to finds in eskimo graves at Scoresbysund of silver buttons and beads and of an ornamented bone comb; these have been taken to indicate some contacts between the Vikings and the former eskimo population. 1607 Henry Hudson’s voyage In 1607 Henry Hudson was sent out by the Muscovy Company with a crew of 11 in the HOPE-WELL to seek a passage to Japan and China across the North Pole. He sighted the coast of East Greenland on several occasions between latitudes 68°N and 74°N, and on June 22nd 1607 lay off Hold with Hope (73°30N). The only account of his observations records – “It was a mayne high land, nothing at all covered with snow: and the North part of that mayne high Land was very high Mountaynes....wee thought good to name it, Hold with hope, lying in 73. degrees of latitude”. Hold with Hope is the oldest place name currently in use in East Greenland. While Hudson failed in the main purpose of his voyage, his accounts of the abundant whales in the waters near Spitzbergen led to the development of the northern whale-fishery. c. 1614 – c. 1910 Northern whale-fishery Until the pioneer charting of the coast of East Greenland by William Scoresby in 1822, the only information on the region north of latitude 69°N came from the chance sightings of whalers. British whalers began to sail to Spitzbergen waters in 1608, and as a result of their success were joined in 1612 by Dutch whalers, and subsequently by French, Spanish, Danish and other nations. Whales became scarce in the bays of Spitzbergen after 1630, leading to a temporary decline in British whaling. After 1720 whales had left Spitzbergen waters and were then sought along the edge of the pack ice. Revival of 1 © A.K. Higgins British whaling about 1750 was linked to the introduction of a government bounty. Fluctuations in whaling returns, especially in the British trade, were influenced by variations in the bounty (which lasted until 1824), the attacks of hostile privateers (Britain was often at war with France, and in 1814 at war with France, Denmark and the USA), the weather conditions and whale migrations. In view of the numbers of whalers engaged in the fishery, there were probably numerous sightings of the Greenland coast, but records are few. No deliberate attempts were apparently made to penetrate the ice belt before 1822, the general opinion among whalers up to about 1818 being that the land was inaccessible. A note on an Italian map of 1690 by Coronelli records that the Dutch sighted the coast of East Greenland at about 79°N in 1614, that Broer Ruys reached land at c. 73°N in 1654, and that Gael Hamkes Land was found in 1654. A collection of Dutch charts, “De groote nieuwe Zee-Atlas door Gerrit van Keulen” from 1706, includes a chart recording the discovery of t’land v. Broer Ruys in 1655 at 73°30N, t’bay v. Gale Hamkes in 1654 at 74°N, t’land v. Adam in 1655 at 77°NN and t’land v. Lambert in 1670 at 78°30N. Nearly all these names were preserved by subsequent explorers, and were later approved in Danified form. In 1761 a Danish whaler, Volquaart Boon, aboard a Dutch or German ship, followed the coast from 76°30–68°40N, and at about latitude 70°20N was dragged by a strong current into a wide and deep fjord, the present Scoresby Sund. Other whalers known to have sighted the coast, usually reported as Gale Hamkes Land, include DIE FRAU MARIA ELISABETH in 1769, DE SANKT PETER in 1773 and WILLEMINA in 1777. In 1798 British cruisers had captured the Dutch whaling fleet, and by the early 1800s the northern whale fishery was largely in British hands. A series of prosperous whaling years lasted until about 1826, although with a progressive shift in interest from the Greenland Sea to the Davis Strait (offshore West Greenland). William Scoresby Senior and his son had notable success in East Greenland waters, and their search for the declining whales led to attempts to penetrate the pack ice. William Scoresby Junior sighted land at 74°N in 1817, and in 1821 observed the coast from 74°30 to 73°30N. His father also followed the coast in 1821 from 74° to 70°N. However, all these observations were from a great distance, and it was only in 1822 that William Scoresby Junior came close enough to the coast to construct a chart (see below). Other whale fishers also approached the coast and good catches were made. From about the 1750s whalers had begun to take seals in increasing numbers. Hamburg and Altona ships are recorded to have taken 50–60,000 seals in the Greenland Sea in 1787. As whaling declined, sealing gained in importance, and Scottish ships began intensive sealing in 1831, and were joined in 1847 by Norwegian sealers who subsequently dominated the trade (see below). Whaling in East Greenland waters was maintained largely due to the enterprise of a few notable whaling skippers. Following the retirement of the Scoresbys’ after 1822, members of the Gray family of Peterhead were most celebrated, with their equally notable ships, ACTIVE, ECLIPSE and HOPE. They were among the few to make paying voyages to the Greenland Sea in the 1870s, and the Peterhead fishery ceased with the retirement of David Gray in 1891. Tom Robertson was among the last to seek whales off East Greenland, and made regular voyages from 1895 until 1907 with ACTIVE and BALAENA with moderate success, and occasionally reached land. In 1899 he assisted A. G. Nathorst’s expedition, and took home 10 muskox. The effective end of the Greenland whale fishery is placed at about 1910. 1822 William Scoresby’s whaling voyage William Scoresby Junior and his father were important figures in the history of arctic whaling, but were also natural scientists, and even while engaged in the search for whales concerned themselves with scientific observations of all kinds. One major result of Scoresby Junior’s whaling career was his celebrated “An account of the Arctic regions” (published 1820), and another the journal of his 1822 voyage which brought back for the first time anything approaching accurate information on the coastal region of East Greenland (published 1823). Between June and August 1822 Scoresby in the BAFFIN was on numerous occasions close to land, sometimes in company with his father in the FAME, sometimes with other whalers – up to 20 or 30 whalers were at times reported in sight. Scoresby succeeded in laying down a chart of the East Greenland coast between latitudes 69°–75°N, the original of which is now in Whitby Museum. The most accurate portion is that from 70°–72°30N, where landings were made at Kap Lister, Neill Klinter, 2 © A.K. Higgins Kap Brewster and Kap Moorsom, the first recorded by European visitors; areas farther north were observed from a great distance. Scoresby recorded geological, botanical and zoological observations. Scoresby Sund received its name after William Scoresby Senior, and Hurry Inlet was explored. One of the most important results of Scoresby’s survey was a correction of the serious errors of longitudes on earlier charts, which had placed the coast of East Greenland between 7° and 14° too far to the east.