The

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

''Danmark'' is best known for her role as expedition ship for the Danmark expedition (1906–08), so named after the ship, but had a long prehistory as a whaler under the name ''Sir Colin Campbell'' of Peterhead and later as a sealer named ''Magdalena'' of Tønsberg/ Kristiana. Groenland-danmark-ekspeditionen-afrejse-fra-frederikshavn-1906-knudstrup-u-no

Groenland-danmark-ekspeditionen-afrejse-fra-frederikshavn-1906-knudstrup-u-no

The ship was built in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1855, rigged as a three-masted steam bark and originally fitted with a 98 hp high pressure steam engine. She sailed under the name ''Sir Colin Campbell'' on whaling trips from Scotland to the

Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as p ...

and Davis Strait. In 1892 she was sold to Norway, refitted with a 200 hp triple expansion engine, renamed ''Magdalena'' and sailed as a seal catcher until 1906. The later polar explorer

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

sailed on ''Magdalena'' in 1884 on a seal hunt into the

West Ice The West Ice is a patch of the Greenland Sea covered by pack ice during winter time. It is located north of Iceland, between Greenland and Jan Mayen island. The West Ice is a major breeding ground for seals, especially harp seals and hooded s ...

. From the records of the oil factory of J.A. Nielson in Tønsberg it is reported that ''Magdalena'', owned by Gustav C. Hansen, was the first ship to process

blubber Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized adipose tissue under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins, and sirenians. Description Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for pa ...

at the factory when it opened in 1883 (1,300-1,400 barrels of seal oil). In 1901 the ship was used to deploy stores on

Shannon Island Shannon Island ( da, Shannon Ø) is a large island in Northeast Greenland National Park in eastern Greenland, to the east of Hochstetter Foreland, with an area of . It was named by Douglas Charles Clavering on his 1823 expedition for the Royal N ...

and Bass Rock, East Greenland for the American Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition. In 1906 ''Magdalena'' was sold for a price of 39,250 kroner to the

Danish Expedition Fund Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ...

, to serve as ship for the upcoming expedition to Northeast Greenland. She underwent refurbishing and was rechristened to ''Danmark''.

Danmark Expedition

''Danmark'' left

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

24 June 1906 and left for Greenland on 2 July after a short stop in Frederikshavn. Leader of the expedition was shared between

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (15 January 1872 – 25 November 1907) was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland. Literary expedition With Count Harald Moltke and Knud Rasmussen Mylius-E ...

(who did not return from the expedition but died on the ice at Nioghalvfjerds Fjorden) and captain of the ship Alf Trolle. ''Danmark'' reached the

in late July and with some difficulties passed through the ice and reached a protected bay, which they named Danmark Havn (Danmark harbour) after the ship and which became the base for the ship during two overwinterings. Other places in NE Greenland named after ''Danmark'' are Danmarksfjorden and Danmarksmonumentet, a mountain near

Mørkefjord Mørkefjord, meaning in Danish "The dark fjord," is a fjord in King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. History Mørkefjord was named by the 1906-1908 Denmark expedition, which established a second weather station at Mørkefjord, in order ...

. ''Danmark'' left Greenland on 21 July 1908 and although the boiler was damaged in a collision with an iceberg in the

, she reached

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

in Norway safely on 15 August and returned to Copenhagen on 23 August.

Later fate

Upon return to Copenhagen ''Danmark'' was set for sale. In the meantime, in the summer 1909 she went on another voyage to Greenland, this time to Qaanaaq (Thule), before being sold in 1910 to the mining company Grønlandsk Minedrift A/S for the price of 15,000 kroner. The ship continued to sail on Greenland, transporting ore and minerals to Denmark, until unfortunate events led to its loss in 1917. When ''Danmark'' returned from Greenland with 130 ton of Cryolite and ore the crew had been away from civilization for so long that they were unaware of the outbreak of the

first world war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and met no ships on their return voyage that could tell them. Thus, when they reached the entrance to the Sound, they did not know that all lighthouses had been switched off and they ran aground on the Swedish coast at Höganäs. The crew was rescued, but the ship could not be saved and was later towed to

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

, where it was broken up in 1918.

References

{{Reflist Research vessels of Denmark Ships built on the River Wear 1855 ships Maritime incidents in 1917