Everything about Willem Barentsz totally explained
Willem Barentsz (born c.
1550 on
Terschelling - died at sea
June 201597) was a Dutch
navigator and
explorer, a leader of early expeditions to the far north.
The
Barents Sea,
Barentsburg and
Barents Region were all named after him.
Life
A
cartographer by trade, Barentsz sailed to Spain and the Mediterranean to complete an
atlas of the
Mediterranean region, which he co-published with
Petrus Plancius.
His career as an explorer was spent searching for the
Northeast passage, which he reasoned must exist as clear, open water north of
Siberia since the
sun shone 24 hours a day, which he believed would have melted any potential ice.
First Voyage
On
June 5 1594 Barentsz left the island of
Texel ship
Mercury, as part of a group of three ships sent out in separate directions to try and enter the
Kara Sea, with the hopes of finding the
Northeast passage above
Siberia.
On
July 9, the crew encountered a
polar bear for the first time. After shooting it with a
musket when it tried to climb aboard the ship, the seamen decided to capture it with the hope of bringing it back to Holland. Once leashed and brought aboard the ship however, the bear
rampaged and had to be killed. They named the location of the event "
Bear Island".
Upon discovering the
Orange Islands, the crew came across a herd of approximately 200
walruses and tried to kill them with hatchets and pikes. Finding the task more difficult than they imagined, they left with only a few ivory tusks.
Setting out on
June 2 1595
Eventually, the expedition turned back upon discovering that unexpected weather had left the
Kara Sea frozen. This expedition was largely considered to be a failure.
Third Voyage
In 1596, disappointed by the failure of previous expeditions, the States-General announced they'd no longer
subsidize similar voyages - but instead offered a high reward for anybody who
successfully navigated the Northeast Passage.
The ship bore salted beef, butter, cheese, bread, barley, peas, beans,, flour, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, beer, wine, brandy,
hardtack, smoked bacon, ham and fish. Much of the beer froze, bursting the
casks. By
November 8 Gerrit de Veer, the ships carpenter who kept a diary, reported a shortage of beer and bread, with wine being rationed four days later..
Proving successful at hunting, the group caught 26
arctic foxes in primitive traps, as well as killing a number of polar bears only seven days after starting out, but it took seven more weeks for the boats to reach
Kola where they were rescued by a Russian merchant vessel, and by that time only 12 crewmen remained. Ultimately, they didn't reach Amsterdam until
November 1.The young cabinboy had died during the winter months in the shelter.
Excavation and findings
The wooden lodge where Barentsz' crew sheltered was found undisturbed by Norwegian
seal hunter
Elling Carlsen in 1871. Making a sketch of the lodge's construction, Carlsen recorded finding two copper cooking pots, a barrel, a tool chest, clock, crowbar, flute, clothing, two empty chests, a cooking tripod and a number of pictures. Captain Gunderson landed at the site on
August 17 1875, and collected a grappling iron, two maps and a handwritten translation of Pet and Jackman's voyages. The following year, Charles L.W. Gardiner also visited the site on
July 29 where he collected 112 more objects, including the message by Barentsz and Heemskerck describing their settlement to future visitors. All of these objects eventually ended up in the
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The amateur archaeologist Miloradovich 's 1933 finds are held in the
Arctic and Antarctic Museum in
St. Petersburg Dmitriy Kravchenko visited the site in 1977, 1979 and 1980 - and sent
divers into the sea hoping to find the wreck of the large ship. He returned with a number of objects, which went to the Russian Arkangel's Regional Museum. Another small collection exists at the Polar Museum in
Tromsø., and erected a commemorative marker at the site of the cabin.
The location of Barentsz' wintering on the ice floes has become a tourist destination for
icebreaker cruiseships operating from
Murmansk.
Legacy
Two of Barentsz' crewmembers later published their journals,
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten who had accompanied him on the first two voyages, and
Gerrit de Veer who had acted as the ship's carpenter on the last two voyages.
In 1853, the former
Murmean Sea was renamed
Barents Sea in his honour.
In the late 19
th-century, the
Maritime Institute Willem Barents was opened on
Terschelling.
In 1878, the Netherlands
christened the
Willem Barentsz Arctic exploration ship.
In 1931, Nijgh & Van Ditmar published a written by
Albert Helman about Barentsz' third voyage, although it was never performed.
In 1946, the
Whaling ship Pan Gothia was re-christened the
Willem Barentsz. In 1953, the second
Willem Barentsz whaling ship was produced.
A
protein in the molecular structure of the
fruit fly was named
Barentsz, in honour of the explorer.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Willem Barentsz'.
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