In 1891, American explorer Robert E. Peary reached Greenland. While climbing one of its glaciers, he spotted a channel running between fjords, which he believed separated the main landmass from its northernmost fragment. This area was later named Peary Land. If his hypothesis had been confirmed, the United States could have laid claim to this icy territory. For the Danish government, already embroiled in a dispute with Norway over Greenland, the prospect of another contender was unacceptable. An expedition was needed to settle the matter.
The perfect man for the job was Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, a seasoned Danish explorer of Greenland. Together with his team, including Niels Peter Høeg-Hagen and Jørgen Brønlund, he planned a two-year mission to map the uncharted northeastern part of the island. The ambitious plan involved crossing the sea ice barrier on the eastern coast, sailing as far north as possible, establishing a base with a weather station, and then traversing the remaining distance by dog sled. The goal was to prove that Greenland was a single, cohesive island belonging solely to Denmark.
Tragically, despite their excellent preparation, the expedition ended in disaster. The explorers relied on Peary’s inaccurate maps, which included errors like the supposed channel. Harsh weather and dwindling food supplies compounded their troubles. The men lost their way in the far northeast. Høeg-Hagen succumbed to exhaustion first, followed soon after by Erichsen. Jørgen Brønlund proved the toughest, reaching Lambert Land, where his body was found six months later alongside a diary filled with notes and sketches by Hagen. The bodies of the other two were never recovered—likely swept away by the sea when the ice they rested on melted.
In 1909, British press magnate Lord Northcliffe offered to fund another expedition to locate the missing explorers. The task fell to Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Danish adventurer seemingly destined to conquer the polar wilderness. As a child, he mastered sailing, embarking on a solo voyage at 14. Later, he trekked 500 km on foot to join Swedish explorer Salomon August Andrée’s ill-fated Arctic balloon attempt. After numerous exploits, including a journey to Alaska and learning survival skills from the Inuit, Mikkelsen was the ideal candidate for the Greenland mission.
Rejecting British funding out of patriotic pride, he secured support from the Danish government and private donations. In 1909, he set out from Copenhagen with a six-person crew aboard the 45-ton ship *Alabama*. The journey was fraught with setbacks: a drunken mechanic, rabid sled dogs, and the ship becoming trapped in ice. In March 1910, Mikkelsen and the inexperienced Iver Iversen ventured out to find their predecessors’ remains and investigate Peary Land. They discovered a cairn containing Erichsen’s documents, which disproved Peary’s channel theory—securing Greenland for Denmark.
Their return, however, turned into a nightmare. Melting ice forced them to find new routes, and with supplies running low, they resorted to eating their sled dogs. After eight months, they reached Shannon Island, where their ship was supposed to wait, only to find the *Alabama*’s crew had abandoned them, presuming them dead. For two years, Mikkelsen and Iversen fought to survive, building a shelter from the ship’s planks and hunting seals and bears. In 1912, Norwegian whalers stumbled upon their makeshift cabin and rescued the emaciated pair.
Upon their return, they were hailed as heroes. Iversen opted for a quiet life, while Mikkelsen continued his polar pursuits, serving as Royal Inspector of East Greenland and documenting his adventures in books, the most famous of which, *Two Against the Ice*, was recently adapted into a film. Their story stands as a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit against the merciless Arctic wilderness.
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