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Larsen: Sailor & Explorer

By the early 1890s whaling in the Arctic, an industry dominated by Norway and Scotland, was in decline. Over exploitation forced the attention to the possibilities of new whaling grounds in the south. Whale sightings by James Clark Ross and other explorers in the early 1800s, brought whaling ships to Antarctic waters.

Whaling companies funded two important expeditions in the search for whales, one from Dundee and one from Norway. The Dundee Whaling expedition, 1892-1893, was led by Alexander Fairweather aboard the wooden whaling barque Baleana. The Norwegian Whaling expedition, 1892-1894, was led by Carl Anton Larsen, Captain of Jason.

The renewed economic interest, combined with a growing scientific interest started the ‘push to the south’. The numerous, groundbreaking Antarctic expeditions in the 1890s and 1900s have meant that the era today is known as the ‘Heroic Age of Exploration’ – a time often associated with names including Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundson. Despite participating in three Antarctic expeditions in this era, Larsen remains mostly unknown.

Map showing the present state of research of the Antarctic regions in 1898 by J.G. Bartholomew.

While the whalers were trying their luck in the Southern Ocean, numerous institutions were looking to advance Antarctic exploration. Source: National Library of Australia.

Bark Jason, built in Sandefjord, Norway in 1881. Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia.

Early sailing

Larsen was destined for a life at sea. He was born on the 7 August 1860 to Ellen Andrea (née Engelbrightsen) and Ole Christian Larsen. When he was young, the family moved to Sandefjord, one of the major centres of the Norwegian whaling industry. He first went to sea as a boy with his father and by the age of 21 was captain and owner of his own ship.

Whaling was an important industry from the seventieth century. Bottlenose whaling was a relatively new business, having developed in Scotland in 1870s, it quickly caught on in Norway. Larsen was employed as Captain aboard Freden, a ship refitted for northern bottlenose whaling.

Larsen’s talent caught the attention of Christen Christensen, the owner of a Norwegian sealing company looking to expand into bottlenose whaling. Christensen hired Larsen as captain of Fortuna, a new purpose-built whale catcher. Larsen’s continued success as a whaling captain was rewarded in 1890 when Christensen appointed him master of Jason. The 357-ton barque was the company’s finest ship.

Jason 1 - (1892-3)

Jason left Sandefjord in September 1892. The major goal of the first expedition was to find Right whales in the south. The Right whales were prized for their baleen, known to British and American whalers as the Bowhead. They were big, slow swimmers and tended to float after being killed. This made them an ideal target for the whalers.

Larsen was not only interested in the economic potential in Antarctica, he also took an interest in its scientific potential. In December, Larsen and two crew members landed on Seymour Island where they spent time collecting fossils. Larsen’s discovery of fossils on Seymour Island are the first recovered from the Antarctic. The island is now an international Geological Heritage Site.

The Jason expedition was in Antarctic waters at the same time as the Scottish Antarctic expedition with similar goals. Two Scottish expedition surgeons William Gordon Burn Murdoch and William Speirs Bruce were trained to make scientific observations during the journey. William Speirs Bruce published an account of the expedition upon their return to Scotland.

Neither the Norwegian nor the Scottish ships saw any Southern Right whales. When the expedition returned to Norway in June 1893, Larsen reported high numbers of Fin and Blue whales around South Georgia and in the Weddell Sea. The speed and behaviour of these rorquals made their capture beyond the whalers’ capabilities at the time. This left the financiers of the expedition unconvinced of whether whaling in the Antarctic would be worth the expense of start-up.

“The fleet consisted of the Balænaa, in which Mr. Burn-Murdoch and myself sailed, the Active, the Diana, and the Polar Star. Our vessels, after a voyage which was prolonged to thirty or forty days beyond the calculated time, met at the southern ice in Erebus and Terror Gulf. There we found an earlier arrival, the Norwegian sealing vessel Jason (Captain Larsen) – the ship in which Nansen set out from Iceland for his famous crossing of Greenland. The Jason was strictly on commerce bound, though the spirit of the great explorer, who had sailed in her, had in some measure descended on Captain Larsen, for, without any special resources, he showed a zeal for extending our knowledge of these regions that would not have been unworthy of the leader of a purely scientific expedition.”

From Edinburgh to Antarctica, 1894 William Speirs Bruce

Dundee Antarctic Whaling Expedition (1892-1893), William Gordon Burn-Murdoch. Source: Dundee Art Galleries & Museums Collection.

Map of the South Pole, by Vincenz von Haardt, published by E. Hoelzel in Vienna, 1895. Vincenz von Haardt's map of the South Polar regions is regarded as the first modern wall map of the South Pole and provides a highly detailed treatment of the tracks of explorers during the great period of Antarctic exploration. In the news at the time of the creation of this map was the Norwegian expedition led by Captain Carl Anton Larsen, which aboard the barque Jason explored the continent's coastal waters in 1892. The Geographical Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 6 (July to December 1895), notes: Haardt's map is the most detailed cartographic record of Antarctic Exploration made just before the legendary expeditions of Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott. Source: Copyright Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.

Jason 2 (1893-4)

The scientific observations and insight into the whale population gained during the first expedition on Jason were enough to rally support for a follow-up expedition. Larsen continued exploring and sealing in the Weddell Sea along the Antarctic Peninsula. Today only modern icebreakers can trace this journey into the Weddell Sea.

On the 11 December 1893 he and his first officer, Søren Andersen, went on a ski excursion on an ice shelf off the Peninsula. This was the first documented skiing in Antarctica atop what would be known as the Larsen Ice Shelf. This represent a few of the numerous place names in and around Antarctica introduced by Larsen that are still used today.

On the way North, stopping at the Falkland Islands, Larsen received a telegram from Christensen telling him to go to South Georgia for whaling before returning home. While they were whaling in Royal Bay Larsen noted an abundance of rorquals and studied their migratory patterns. He also took note of the several sheltered bays along the coast that might be used for harbours. These observations fuelled his vision of the possibility of whaling in South Georgia.

The expedition returned to Sandefjord in July 1894. Despite bringing home 13,200 sealskins and 1,100 tons of blubber, it had still lost money. This loss and Larsen’s lack of success finding Southern Right whales left Norwegian financiers unwilling to fund further business in southern waters.

While Larsen’s vision remained unrealised, he did find some scientific recognition. Abstracts of his diary from the second Jason expedition were reproduced in the Royal Geographical Society Journal. In 1895 Larsen won a Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society for his scientific contributions during the expedition.

Home (1894-1901)

With no prospects of Antarctic expeditions on the horizon, Larsen took a job as whaling station manager in Finnmark, Norway. This position helped Larsen expand his experience of shore-based whaling. It also allowed him to spend time with his wife, Andrine (nee Thorsen) and his family.

Andrine had spent the time during the second Jason expedition in financial difficulties. Payments to her during the expedition had been withheld by Christensen who had not wanted to finance the expedition. The 1880s and 90s had already brought great tragedies to the Larsen family. Andrine and Larsen had lost several children during this time, and he had lost his father in 1890. The time spent in Norway was likely much needed.

Working as a whaling station manager, Larsen witnessed the changes in the industry brought on by decreasing whaling stocks. After his position in Finnmark, he became manager at the company Skjold and Værge which was moving operations further north. This was a common response for the Norwegian whaling companies, but it was only a temporary fix. By 1900, the catch per season had dropped to half of the catch from previous seasons. It was clear to Larsen that his vision for Antarctic whaling could offer a solution for the industry.

Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901-3)

Larsen was renowned as a good expedition leader. In 1901 he was appointed as Captain of the Antarctic by Otto Nordenskjöld on the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901-3). A central aim of the expedition was to obtain magnetic and meteorological measurements from a base on the highest possible latitude on the east coast of Antarctica. These were to be compared with measurements from Robert Falcon Scott’s British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-4) and Erich von Drygalski’s German South Polar Expedition (1901-3).

On board the Antarctic in 1901. Carl Anton Larsen; Gösta Bodman, Karl Andreas Andersson; Axel Ohlin; Otto Nordenskjöld; Carl Skottsberg; Erik Ekelöf. Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons/Museum of Gothenburg.

Larsen, Duse and Nordenskjöld in 1901. Source: Eva Marie Widmark.

While scientists were taking measurements from land, the expedition ship would spend the austral winter conducting oceanographic studies around Tiera del Fuego, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

The expedition plan also included sealing and whaling along the way. The profits of this would be distributed between all officers and crew. Larsen joined the expedition hoping to get another chance to gather evidence to support his vision for whaling in South Georgia waters.

The Antarctic sailed from Gothenburg on the 15 October 1901. On the journey south to Antarctica the crew picked up Argentinian naval officer José Sobral who joined the expedition in exchange for help from the Argentinian government plus American Artist Frank Wilbert Stokes.

Antarctic arrived in the South Shetlands in January 1902 and a group of six scientists, which included Nordenskjöld, set up camp on Snow Hill Island off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Antarctic returned to the Falkland Islands to pick up geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson then set sail to explore South Georgia. In late April 1902, they anchored in Jason Harbour where they found a sheltered harbour, a supply of fresh water, and an abundance of whales. Later landing in a cove they named Maiviken, meaning the May Cove.

Gryte (pot) from the early 1800s sealing period found in Grytviken. Source: Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo.

From here Andersson hiked over a pass into a valley where he found the remains of cast-iron sealing trypots (blubber cooking pots) and a sealing shallop (a light sailing boat). He called the place Grytviken meaning the Pot Cove. Wanting to see the place for himself, Larsen moved the Antarctic to Grytviken and became convinced it would be ideal for a whaling station. He described it as “one of the finest harbours imaginable.”

In November the ship returned south, aiming to collect the Nordenskjold’s party from Snow Hill. Unfortunately, the following months were plagued by bad luck and heavy sea ice. Whilst trying to seek ways to collect the land-based party, three members of the crew were dropped off with instructions to collect the Snow Hill party on foot if they had heard no news by early February. Not long after, the Antarctic, became trapped in the sea ice and eventually sank. Larsen and the remaining crew abandoned the sinking ship and trekked, along with the ship’s cat, to Paulet Island (at the north-eastern end of the Antarctic Peninsula). There they built a stone hut and killed over a thousand penguins to supplement their winter food supplies taken from the ship.

When no news had arrived from the expedition in April 1903, Argentina and Sweden prepared to launch relief expeditions. The Argentinian relief ship Uruguay left for the Peninsula on 1 November 1903. In the meantime, the party of three made the trek to Snow Hill, narrowly missing a party led by Larsen from Paulet Island. Larsen’s party reached Snow Hill just one day after the arrival of Uruguay, managing to get on the ship before it departed Snow Hill. The expedition which had been beset with problems, finished with a stroke of luck and incredible timing. The expedition members arrived in Buenos Aires on 2 December 1903 on the Uruguay to a grand welcome.

“In many ways Captain Larsen was probably the strangest man on board Antarctic, not only in his ingenious foresight, his superior skill as master of the ship under extremely critical conditions, and his considerable interest in all areas of geographical science. He had, through and through a singular goodness of heart, which made him a father to us all, both sailors and scientists. On top of all this he was a genuine happy man, whose laughter got wider and more confident as the dangers built up around his dear ship.”

Johan Gunnar Andersson, second-in-command and geologist on Antarctic

Emperor Penguin, Admiralty Inlet Snow Hill, Antarctic by Frank Wilbert Stokes
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Arthur Curtis James and Robert Curtis Ogden Memorial Collection.