MajorClaus Enevold Paarss (18 February 1683 – 26 May 1762) was aDanish military officer and official. Retired from service,[1] he was appointed governor of Greenland by KingFrederick IV between 1728 and 1730.[2]
Paarss was born inThy in thenDenmark–Norway in 1683 and commanded a Danish man-of-war and three[3] or four other ships toHans Egede's "Haabets Koloni" onKangeq, which he removed to the mainland opposite and fortified under the name "Godt-Haab",[2] later known asGodthåb and thenNuuk. His contingent of colonists consisted of twenty soldiers, three sergeants, and two officers from the Danish artillery corps, along with twelve military convicts, ten unmarried mothers, and two female convicts who were to be wed to one another according to lots. He also carried a dozen horses.[1]
After putting down a general mutiny,[3] Paarss tried and failed twice to cross the island from theAmeralik Fjord in search of resources and a connection to the supposed location of the oldNorseEastern Settlement. He also proposed a scheme to populate Greenland with fallen Danish aristocrats and their households on the model of theFrench colonies in Canada.[1] Meanwhile, forty of his colonists died of scurvy and other complaints, leading to the abandonment of the colony even by thenative Greenlanders.[2]
Paarss died inKorsør in 1762.
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