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Otto Sverdrup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Neumann Sverdrup (1854–1930) was a Norwegian Arctic explorer.
Sverdrup joined Fridtjof Nansen's expedition of 1888 across Greenland. In 1893 he was given command of the Fram, and in 1895 he was left in charge of it while Nansen attempted to reach the North Pole. Setting out in 1898, Sverdrup attempted to circumnavigate Greenland via Baffin Bay but failed to make it through the Nares Strait. Forced to overwinter on Ellesmere Island, he and his crew explored and named many uncharted fjords and peninsulas on the western shores of the island (explaining the Norwegian names in the Canadian Arctic).
Between 1899 to 1902, he overwintered three more times on Ellesmere Island, continuing to explore and map, culminating in the discovery of the islands to the west of Ellesmere Island, namely Axel Heiberg, Amund Ringnes and Ellef Ringnes, collectively known as the Sverdrup Islands. In adopting Inuit methods, Sverdrup and his crew were able to chart a total of 260,000 square kilometers - more than any other polar exploration. Upon his return in Norway, he was treated as a national hero. However, he remains relatively unknown in North America.
Sverdrup claimed all three islands he discovered for Norway, setting off a sovereignty dispute with Canada, which was not settled until 1930 when Norway ceded its claim. Canada bought the records of Sverdrup's expeditions in 1931 for $67000 and are now archived in the National Archives of Canada.
- Gerard Kenney Ships of Wood and Men of Iron: A Norwegian-Canadian Saga of Exploration in the High Arctic, ISBN 0-88977-168-5, 1984
- http://www.explorenorth.com/explorers/sverdrup.html
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