Gerrit de Veer

Novaya Zemlya's west coast as depicted in De Veer's diary

Gerrit de Veer (c. 1570–c. 1598) was a Dutch officer on Willem Barentsz' second and third [1] voyages of 1595 and 1596 respectively, in search of the Northeast passage. He was one of the junior officers during the second and third voyages of Jacob van Heemskerck and Willem Barentsz "around the North" to find a shorter sea route to the East Indies. In 1596, Barentsz managed to round the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, but then got stuck in the ice. The crew members had to spend the winter in a shelter wich was named "Het behouden Huys" or "Kept House"built with planks from their ship and driftwood washed ashore.

In the spring, when the sea slowly became navigable again, the crew members repaired two sloops. These allowed the sixteen people on board to return to civilization. Expedition leader Barentsz, however, died a week after departure. His men did return to Kola peninsula, where they were picked up by a Dutch trading ship under the command of their former fellow traveler Jan Cornelisz Rijp.

De Veer [2] kept a diary of the voyages and in 1597, was the first person to observe and record the Novaya Zemlya effect, and the first Westerner to observe hypervitaminosis A [3]caused by consumption of the liver of a polar bear. He described in his journal, the journey and wintering on Novaya Zemlya and later published it in Holland with the publisher Cornelis Claesz, who also published the work of his father, the historian Ellert de Veer. De Veer also describes the return with the sloops along the coast from Novaya Zemlya to Kola Peninsula tundra in:

"𝖂𝖆𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖍𝖙𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖊𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖞𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖍𝖊 𝖛𝖆𝖓 𝖉𝖗𝖎𝖊 𝖘𝖊𝖞𝖑𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖊𝖓, 𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖙 𝖓𝖔𝖞𝖙 𝖘𝖔𝖔 𝖛𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖒𝖙 𝖌𝖍𝖊𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖗𝖙.Italic text" 

ᴵᵗ ⁱˢ ᵗʰᵉ ᵒⁿˡʸ ᵈᵉᵗᵃⁱˡᵉᵈ ᵃᶜᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵗʰⁱʳᵈ ᵗʳⁱᵖ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵈᵉˢᶜʳⁱᵇᵉˢ ᵗʰᵉ ᵉᵛᵉⁿᵗˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵈᵃʸ ᵗᵒ ᵈᵃʸ.

De Veer also noted the position of the sun, planets and stars. By keeping track of the movement of the heavenly bodies, the crew members knew what day it was and when they could reasonably attempt to sail back to Holland. He described a sunrise on Jan. 24, 1597, two weeks earlier than expected. This put him and Jacob van Heemskerk at odds with [Robbert Robbertsz le Canu],their teacher from Hoorn who moved to Amsterdam to teach seafaring skills, he challenged the possibility on theoretical grounds. An explanation for the phenomenon was found in 1604, an arctic mirage and known as the Noyava Zemlya effect.