Knut Hjalmar Ferdinand Frænkel (14 February 1870 – c. 10 October 1897) was a Swedish engineer and arctic explorer who perished in the Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 of S. A. Andrée in 1897.

Biography

Frænkel was born in

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

, Sweden. He was a major in the

Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps The Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps (, VVK) was during the years 1851–2010 a military administrative corps of reserve personnel in the Swedish Army, who was responsible for in the case of war provide the Swedish Armed Forces with sp ...

, and grew up in mountainous

Jämtland Jämtland () is a historical provinces of Sweden, province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to the east, Lapland, Sweden, Lapland to the north and Trøndelag and Norw ...

in the eastern middle part of Sweden, where he acquired an interest in outdoor activities and sports. He later went to the Palmgren School in Stockholm and graduated with a civil engineering degree from the

Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university. Since 2018, KTH consist ...

in 1896, and was preparing himself to enter the Army engineers when the chance came up in 1897 to join S. A. Andrée's planned balloon expedition to the North Pole. The third participant was

Nils Strindberg Nils Strindberg (4 September 1872 – October 1897) was a Swedish photographer and scientist. He was one of the three members of S. A. Andrée's ill-fated Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. Biography Nils Strindberg was born in Stockholm, Swe ...

. Frænkel replaced the meteorologist

Nils Gustaf Ekholm Nils Gustaf Ekholm (9 October 1848 – 5 April 1923) was a Swedish meteorologist who led a Swedish geophysical expedition to Spitsbergen in 1882–1883. Biography Ekholm was born in Smedjebacken in Dalarna, son of a pharmacist. Having completed h ...

, who had participated in the preparations but dropped out at the last moment, critical of the construction of the balloon. During the balloon expedition, Frænkel was responsible for writing the detailed protocols of everything done by the participants. After the landing on the ice, he wrote the meteorological journal and was responsible for camp arrangements. Having drifted for weeks, they reached the southwest of

Kvitøya Kvitøya (English: "White Island") is an island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with an area of . It is the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Norway. The closest Russian Arctic possession, Victoria Island, lies only to the ...

(White Island) and landed on 5 October 1897. They made a camp on a nearby height where they perished a few days later. Strindberg died first and was buried by Andrée and Frænkel shortly afterwards among the rocks (though no marker was placed on his grave). The remains of the expedition were found by accident by the Norwegian

Bratvaag Expedition The ''Bratvaag'' Expedition was a Norwegian expedition in 1930 led by Dr. Gunnar Horn, whose official tasks were hunting seals and to study glaciers and seas in the Svalbard Arctic region. The name of the expedition was taken from its ship, M/ ...

on 6 August 1930. Andrée and Strindberg were found and brought home, while Frænkel's body was found only at a returning expedition in early September when more of the snow and ice had melted. Frænkel and the other two explorers received a

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

with great honors. After

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

, their ashes were interred together at the cemetery

Norra begravningsplatsen Norra begravningsplatsen, literally "The Northern Burial Place" in Swedish, is a major cemetery of the Stockholm urban area, located in Solna Municipality. Inaugurated on 9 June 1827, it is the burial site for a number of Swedish notables. Th ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

References

Other sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraenkel, Knut 1870 births 1897 deaths Swedish polar explorers Swedish engineers Swedish balloonists Explorers of the Arctic KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen People from Karlstad Kvitøya