Carl Anton Larsen
Carl Anton Larsen | |
|---|---|
 Carl-Anton-Larsen | |
| Born | August 27, 1860 Østre Halsen, Norway |
| Died | December 8, 1924 |
| Occupation(s) | Whaler and explorer |
Carl Anton Larsen (1860 – 1924) was a Norwegian mariner and Antarctic explorer, and the founder of Grytviken, South Georgia.[1] The Larsen Ice Shelf is named after him.
Larsen left school at the age of 14 to join his father at sea, and by the time he was 20 he had earned his master's license. By 1895 was captain of a whaler. Larsen led an expedition to Antarctica, in command of the Jason, from 1892 through 1894.[2] Later he captained the ship Antarctic, part of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04. [3] During this mission some of his crew over-wintered for 10 months at Snow Hill Island[4], and after his ship was crushed by ice and sank, he and his crew spent a winter (1903) on Paulet Island, surviving on penguins and seals before being rescued by the Argentine corvette Uruguay.
In 1904 with Argentine, Norwegian and British capital he founded the first Antarctic whaling corporation, the Compañía Argentina de Pesca, and in 1910, he adopted British citizenship along with his family.[5][6]
See also
References
- ^ http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/southgeorgia.php The James Caird Society
- ^ Antarctica. Sydney: Reader's Digest, 1985, pp. 126-127, 152-159, 296-297, 305.
- ^ Child, Jack. Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988, pp. 13-14, 27-28, 72.
- ^ Lonely Planet, Antarctica: a Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit, Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Publications, 1996, pp. 23, 278-279, 307.
- ^ Stewart, Andrew, Antarctica: An Encyclopedia. London: McFarland and Co., 1990 (2 volumes), p. 558.
- ^ U.S. National Science Foundation, Geographic Names of the Antarctic, Fred G. Alberts, ed. Washington: NSF, 1980.