Carl Anton Larsen (7 August 1860 – 8 December 1924) was a Norwegian-born whaler and

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

explorer who made important contributions to the exploration of Antarctica, the most significant being the first discovery of

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

for which he received the Back Grant from the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. In December 1893 he became the first person to ski in Antarctica on the

Larsen Ice Shelf The Larsen Ice Shelf is a long ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to Smith Peninsula. It is named after Captain Carl Anton Larsen, the master of the No ...

which was subsequently named after him. In 1904, Larsen re-founded a whaling settlement at

Grytviken Grytviken ( ) is a settlement on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the b ...

on the island of

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

. In 1910, after some years' residence on South Georgia, he renounced his Norwegian citizenship and took British citizenship. The Norwegian whale factory ship was named after him.

Early life

Carl Anton Larsen was born in Østre Halsen, Tjolling, the son of Norwegian

sea captain A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...

Ole Christian Larsen and his wife Ellen Andrea Larsen (née Thorsen). His family subsequently relocated to nearby Sandefjord, the home of the Norwegian whaling industry, where at the young age of 9 he went to sea in a small barque with his father chasing seals and trading across the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

with Britain, returning to go to school during the fall and winter. He continued this for a number of years, until his curiosity for the sea was so strong he enrolled himself in navigation school where he passed the exam for foreign-going mate at the age of 18. Having been to Britain a few times in the previous years he realized the importance of knowing more languages and taught himself English and Spanish. Larsen was eager to get work as an officer on a ship, but due to economic difficulties in Norway at the time, he could not achieve that. This was a setback, but he went to work at sea as a cook, learning the importance food played in keeping men happy. He finally got a position aboard the barque ''Hoppet'' out of Larvik, as second mate, then first mate and senior officer below the captain. He was 21 and knew he had to study again so he came ashore and soon became a shipmaster. Upon becoming a shipmaster, Larsen needed a ship of his own. This was more than he could afford so instead he bought a share of an old barque called the ''Freden''. It was not smooth sailing for Larsen as the barque ''Freden'' was all but wrecked after his first voyage. He soon got her fixed, only to be faced with another setback: nobody had any freight he could carry. This turned out to be a stroke of luck as he decided to go on his first whaling experience, hunting

bottlenose whale ''Hyperoodon'' (or ''Hyperoödon'') is a genus of beaked whale, containing just two species: the Northern and Southern bottlenose whales. While not in the genus ''Hyperoodon'', Longman's beaked whales are alternatively called tropical bottlenos ...

s just off the coast of Norway. Larsen was a born whaler and soon filled the Freden with whales and went on filling her until 1885 when he realized that he could not use the

Svend Foyn Svend Foyn (July 9, 1809 – November 30, 1894) was a Norwegian whaling, shipping magnate and philanthropist. He pioneered revolutionary methods for hunting and processing whales. Svend Foyn introduced the modern harpoon cannon and brought ...

gun with little chaser-steamers like the modern whalers. It was time for a newer ship.

Expeditions to Antarctica

Larsen led an expedition to Antarctica, in command of the ''Jason'', from 1892 through 1894, discovering the

, the

Foyn Coast The Foyn Coast () is that portion of the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between Cape Alexander and Cape Northrop. It was discovered in 1893 by a Norwegian expedition under Captain Carl Anton Larsen, who named it for Svend Foyn, a Norwegian ...

in Graham Land, as well as King Oscar Land, and Robertson Island. The ''Jason'' was a ship Larsen was familiar with as he had been aboard it during the voyage that carried

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...

to Greenland during his east–west crossing in 1888. Later he captained the ship ''

'', as part of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901–04. During this mission some of his crew wintered for 10 months at Snow Hill Island, and after his ship was crushed by ice and sank, he and his crew spent the winter of 1903 on Paulet Island, surviving on penguins and seals before being rescued by the Argentine corvette ARA ''Uruguay''.

Larsen and South Georgia

In 1904, Larsen settled on the British island of

in the

, starting a new era of whaling. On Christmas Eve, 1904, he produced the first whale oil of the season in the newly built whaling station of

. With capital from Argentine, Norwegian and British sources, he founded the first

whaling corporation, the

Compañía Argentina de Pesca Compañía Argentina de Pesca ( en, Argentine Fishing Company) was initiated by the British-Norwegian whaler and Antarctic explorer Carl A. Larsen, and established on 29 February 1904 by three foreign residents of Buenos Aires: the Norwegian con ...

(Argentine Fishing Company). Within a few years the Antarctic was producing about 70% of the world's whale oil. Larsen had chosen the whaling station's site during his 1902 visit while in command of the ship ''Antarctic'' of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–03) led by Otto Nordenskjöld. Larsen organized the construction of Grytviken ― a remarkable undertaking accomplished by a team of 60 Norwegians. As with other buildings, a church was pre-built in Norway and erected in Grytviken. This typical Norwegian-style church was consecrated as a

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

church, on Christmas Day, 1913. In 1922, the funeral service for

Sir Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of An ...

was conducted in the church before his burial in the church cemetery. Larsen established a meteorological observatory at Grytviken, which from 1905 was maintained in cooperation with the Argentine Meteorological Office under the British lease requirements of the whaling station until these changed in 1949. Larsen was also instrumental, with his brother, in introducing Reindeer to South Georgia in 1911, as a resource for recreational hunting for the people involved in the whaling industry. Larsen, like other managers and senior officers of the South Georgia whaling stations, lived in Grytviken together with his family including his wife, three daughters and two sons. In 1910, they obtained British citizenship, following an application filed with the British Magistrate of South Georgia in which Larsen declared: "I have given up my Norwegian citizens rights and have resided here since I started whaling in this colony on 16 November 1904 and have no reason to be of any other citizenship than British, as I have had and intend to have my residence here still for a long time."Robert K. Headland, ''The Island of South Georgia'', Cambridge University Press, 1984.

References

Books

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Footnotes

External links

*
Captain Carl Anton Larsen
* ttp://www.eoearth.org/articleExploration_of_the_Antarctic_in_the_Second_Half_of_the_Nineteenth_Century Exploration of the Antarctic br>Norwegian Antarctic Territory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Carl Anton People from Sandefjord Norwegian sailors Explorers of Antarctica Norwegian polar explorers Norwegian people in whaling History of South Georgia South Orkney Islands Norwegian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Larvik British Antarctic Territory 1860 births 1924 deaths Graham Land Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands people Sea captains Whaling in Antarctica Sportspeople from Vestfold og Telemark