Otto Sverdrup | |
|---|---|
 Otto Sverdrup in 1898 | |
| Born | (1854-10-31)31 October 1854 Bindal,Norway |
| Died | 26 November 1930(1930-11-26) (aged 76) |
| Known for | Arctic explorer |
Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup (31 October 1854, inBindal Municipality inHelgeland – 26 November 1930) was a Norwegian sailor andArctic explorer.
He was born inBindal Municipality as a son of farmer Ulrik Frederik Suhm Sverdrup (1833–1914) and his wife Petra Neumann Knoph (1831–1885).[1] He was a great-grandnephew ofGeorg Sverdrup andJacob Liv Borch Sverdrup, first cousin twice removed ofHarald Ulrik andJohan Sverdrup, second cousin once removed ofJakob,Georg andEdvard Sverdrup, third cousin ofGeorg Johan,Jakob,Mimi,Leif andHarald Ulrik Sverdrup.[2] He was a brother-in-law ofJohan Vaaler, and Otto himself married his own first cousin, Gretha Andrea Engelschiøn (1866–1937), in October 1891 inKristiania.[1] Their daughter Audhild Sverdrup (1893–1932) marriedCarl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander.[3]
His father was born on Buøy inKolvereid Municipality. As oldest son Otto was heir to the Sverdrup properties at Buøy. However, he left it all to his younger brothers and went toÅbygda in Bindal, to the farm named Hårstad, where Otto Sverdrup was born. In 1872, at the age of 17, Otto Sverdrup returned toNærøy Municipality, toOttersøy where his uncle Søren worked in transportation with his own vessels. Here Sverdrup started his career as a seaman and after a while he was sailing abroad. In 1875, he passed his mate's examination, and some years later the shipmaster's examination.
In 1877 Sverdrup's parents moved from Bindal to the farm Trana outside the town ofSteinkjer. At this time O. T. Olsen, a teacher and employee in the bank at Kolvereid and a relative of his mother, had purchased the steamboatTRIO. Sverdrup was employed as captain. Around this time Sverdrup also met the lawyer Alexander Nansen who lived in the town ofNamsos. He was the brother ofFridtjof Nansen and through him Sverdrup and Fridtjof Nansen learned to know each other.
Sverdrup joinedFridtjof Nansen's expedition of 1888 acrossGreenland. In 1892 he was an advisor toFridtjof Nansen when the shipFram was built. In 1893 Sverdrup was given command of the ship, and in 1895 he was left in charge of it while Nansen attempted to reach theNorth Pole. Sverdrup managed to free the ship from the ice nearSvalbard in August 1896 and sailed toSkjervøy, arriving just 4 days after Nansen had reached Norway.[1]
In the summer of 1897 Sverdrup worked as the shipmaster ofLofoten, a passenger ship to and from Svalbard. In 1898 heembarked on another expedition withFram.[1] Sverdrup attempted to circumnavigate Greenland viaBaffin Bay but failed to make it through theNares Strait. Forced to overwinter onEllesmere Island, he and his crew explored and named many uncharted fjords and peninsulas on the western shores of the island, explaining the Norwegian names, such asHoved Island ("main island") andPrince Gustav Adolf Sea (after the Swedish kingGustav VI Adolf)[4][5] in theCanadian Arctic.
Between 1899 and 1902, he overwintered three more times on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic with theFram, continuing to explore and map, culminating in the discovery of the islands to the west of Ellesmere Island, namelyAxel Heiberg,Amund Ringnes andEllef Ringnes, collectively known as theSverdrup Islands.[1] In adoptingInuit methods, Sverdrup and his crew were able to chart a total of 260,000 square kilometers - more than any other polar exploration.[6] The area was famously mapped by his topographer,Gunnar Isachsen, and 35 academic publications were penned as a result of the expedition.[1] Upon Sverdrup's return in Norway, he was treated as a national hero. However, he remains relatively unknown in North America, and relatively unknown for his Canadian exploration in Norway.
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Sverdrup officially claimed all three islands he discovered for Norway in 1902, setting off a sovereignty dispute withCanada, which claimed sovereignty over all land, discovered or undiscovered in what is now the Canadian Arctic. The dispute was not settled until 1930 when Norway ceded the islands to Canada.[6] In that year Sverdrup signed a deal with the Canadian Government, who would buy the records of Sverdrup's expeditions for $67,000 Canadian dollars. Sverdrup died just two weeks after the deal was signed, but the money secured the future of his family.[1] The records were archived in theNational Archives of Canada,[6] but were later returned to theNational Library of Norway.[1]
One of Sverdrup's lesser known exploits was a search-and-rescue expedition aboard shipEklips in theKara Sea in 1914–1915.[1] His aim was to search for two missing Arctic expeditions, that of CaptainGeorgy Brusilov on theSt. Anna and that ofVladimir Rusanov on theGerkules. Sverdrup's fourth and last expedition in Arctic Siberian waters was in 1921, when, from the bridge of theSovietIcebreaker Lenin, he commanded a convoy of five cargo ships on an experimental run through theKara Sea to the mouths of theOb andYenisei. The ships reached their destinations and returned safely. This was considered an important step in the development of the Kara Sea sector of theNorthern Sea Route.[7] Sverdrup also has an unsuccessful business venture inCuba, a plantation project in theOriente Province in 1904.[1]
The last years of his life he lived inSandvika, at the propertyHomewood on a hill overlooking the town.[8] He died in November 1930. A statue of Sverdrup was erected inSteinkjer in 1957, and in 1999 a statue of Sverdrup was erected in Sandvika, in the square named after him,Otto Sverdrups plass.[1] In 2008, theRoyal Norwegian Navy commissioned theHNoMS Otto Sverdrup, aNansen class frigate, in honor of the mariner and explorer.
He was made a Commander 1st Class of theRoyal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1896, and promoted to Grand Cross in 1902. In addition, he was awarded gold medals from theNorwegian Geographical Society in 1889 and theRoyal Geographical Society in 1903, and received anhonorary degree at theUniversity of St Andrews.[1]
Sverdrup had also been made a Knight 1st Class of the PrussianOrder of the Crown in 1902,[9] but in an open letter to the Germanlegation in Oslo on 25 October 1917 declared that he was returning the order in protest against theunrestricted warfare thenbeing waged by the GermanU-boats in the First World War, causing the deaths of hundreds of Norwegian sailors. The day before Sverdrup's return of his order, fellow explorerRoald Amundsen had also returned his German awards.[10]
