This is How Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Danish Explorer, Was Photographed in 1912 When He Was Found

This is how Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Danish explorer, was photographed in 1912 when he was found. Ejnar was isolated with Iver Iversen, from the same expedition, for two and a half years in a hut in Greenland waiting to be rescued.

During the Alabama Expedition (1909–1912), Mikkelsen and his crew set out to recover vital records from the ill-fated Denmark Expedition (1906–1908), proving that the Peary Channel did not exist, and Greenland was a single landmass. After their ship, Alabama, got trapped in ice, Mikkelsen and Iversen embarked on a grueling sled journey to retrieve the documents. They succeeded but returned to find their crew had abandoned them in 1910, believing they were dead.

Stranded on Shannon Island, they built a small hut from the ship’s remains and survived for two years on seal and polar bear meat, battling scurvy, frostbite, starvation, and extreme isolation. At one point, Iversen suffered a near-fatal infection that Mikkelsen had to treat. Despite brutal winters and dwindling supplies, they kept their spirits up through routines and sheer determination. Finally, in 1912, a Norwegian whaling ship, Sjøblomsten, miraculously found them, bringing their incredible survival story to an end.

In the picture you can see a photograph on the wall behind Ejnar. It shows the 53 pupils of a home economics school that filled their long arctic days. The photo was so much talked about that it even led to a fight when Iversen dedicated a love song to the girl Mikkelsen had chosen as his girlfriend. Iversen had chosen 4 girlfriends in the picture, so Ejnar got angry when the other tried to take away the one he had chosen. He got so upset that for two days he didn’t speak to Iversen.

Mikkelsen returned to Denmark as a hero as he managed to retrieve the maps from the previous expedition that proved that the Peary Channel did not exist and that Greenland was therefore Danish. He also ended his photographic courtship when he met Naja Marie Heiberg Holm, daughter of another explorer, whom he married a few months later.