The Norwegian Scientific Expedition to
Tristan Da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...
was a scientific and cultural exploration of the
most remote inhabited
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
in the world, in the south
Atlantic Ocean
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 ...
, 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) from the nearest inhabited land,
Saint Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
. The expedition arrived on the island in December 1937 and left in March 1938.
History
Captained by botanist
Erling Christophersen Erling Christophersen (April 17, 1898 – November 9, 1994) was a Norwegian botanist, geographer and diplomat. He participated in and led several notable scientific expeditions in the 20th century, including the fifth Tanager Expedition (1924) to ...
, the thirteen man crew included three
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
Ph.D. students conducting research for their dissertations, which were published shortly after their return; these included sociologist
Peter A. Munch, ornithologist
Yngvar Hagen
Yngvar Hagen (September 24, 1909 – March 22, 1993) was a Norwegian zoologist.
Biography
Hagen was born in Fredrikstad, Norway.
From 1937 to 1938 he participated in the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha in the southern Atl ...
, and
phycologist Egil Baardseth
Egil Morris Baardseth (born 2 May 1912 in Bærum, died on 29 January 1991 in Trondheim) was a Norwegian botanist and phycologist.
Biography
Baardseth was born in Bærum, just west of Oslo, to Carl Morris Baardseth (1880-1963), a marine insurance ...
. Also among the crew were a geologist, a marine biologist, an
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
, a dentist and a doctor. A late addition to the crew was topological surveyor
Allan Crawford, a British engineer who was recruited by the captain en route to
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, and who would later come to be regarded as a leading authority on Tristan Da Cunha.
Based on observations made during the voyage, Christophersen published ''Tristan da Cunha, the Lonely Isle'' (1938) and the comprehensive ''Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan Da Cunha, 1937-1938'' (1945), while the Ph.D. students published their work and achieved their degrees. Munch published ''Sociology of Tristan da Cunha'' (1946), Hagen published ''Birds of Tristan da Cunha'' (1952), and Baardseth published ''The Marine Algae of Tristan da Cunha'' (1941).
Sources
* Erling Christophersen, ''Results of the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha, 1937-1938'', (Oslo: Norske videnskaps-akademi, 1946).
References
{{Reflist
History of Tristan da Cunha
Scientific expeditions
Atlantic expeditions
African expeditions