Elling Karlsen - Explorer
Elling Karlsen was born September 18, 1819 in Tromsø. The son of Karl Asbjørnsen and
Marith Ellingsdatter. He became a hunter and explorer in the
Arctic. North Norwegians started hunting and fishing in the Arctic by the late 1700s.
The year 1859 marked the beginning of a major era of Arctic exploration by these hardy
seafarers. This was the year when Elling Karlsen first caught sight of Kong Karls Land.
Four years later he made new discoveries and circumnavigated the entire Svalbard archipelago.
As more and more boats arrived on the hunting grounds, there was a drastic reduction in the
numbers of walrus, whose hide was in great demand, for making drive belts for machinery.
Elling Karlsen decided to search for new hunting grounds and in 1868 he sailed east-wards
and discovered rich grounds around Novaya Zemlya. In the three following seasons the captains
and crews of the Norwegian boats made a series of discoveries which greatly added to the
accumulated knowledge of the waters around Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea. Measurements of
water temperature and depth were taken, and the ice conditions, general character and
geographical position of the coastlines were recorded. On the group of islands later named
the Gulf Stream Islands they found wooden floats from Norwegian fishing nets, beans from the
West Indies, pumice stone from Iceland and the wreckage of ships - clear evidence that the
influence of the Gulf Stream can be registered as far east as the Barents Sea. In 1871 Elling
Karlsen made a sensational discovery when he came upon the remains of Willem Barents' winter
camp, from 1596, on the northernmost tip of Novaya Zemlya.
The following is a list of the finds from Willem Barent’s camp on Novaya Zemlya. An emergency
camp established in 1596 during the expedition to find the Northeast Passage to China. Barents died while
wintering on Novaya Zemlya. The rest of this expedition reached safety during the summer of 1597. The remains
of the camp were found by a Norwegian, Elling Carlsen in 1871.
Exhibited are lead seals from rolls of cloth which were to be traded when they reached China.
Also two knives, an iron buckle, part of a jemmy, a sledge hammer head, an angle iron from a wooden chest,
gunpowder measures, various locks, remains of a balance and an oil lamp. We think the hat belonged to Barents
himself.