Gerrit de Veer

Gerrit de Veer (* 1570 in the Netherlands, † after 1598 ) was a Dutch ship's carpenter and diary writer.

Life

De Veer took part in the second and third voyage of the Dutch navigator Jacob van Heemskerk and Willem Barents, who were looking for the Northeast Passage to the Far East and India. This route should be shorter than that prevent Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, and thus the raids by Spanish and Portuguese ships once.

The third expedition of the year 1596/1597 was carried out on the advice of Barents after the Svalbard Islands had been discovered on the northern tip of the island of Novaya Zemlya Russian double what Barents had already circumnavigated before. There, however, the ship of the expedition by pack ice was included. In the country, the crew built a solid house made ​​of driftwood, the Behouden Huys, whose walls were along with various furnishings found yet in 1881 and even photographed. Half of the crew did not survive the winter, but Gerrit de Veer was one of the survivors.

De Veer kept a diary, in which the difficult winter period was recorded. Particularly important for the expedition, however, was that in the diary exactly the position of the sun and the position of the planets and stars were registered. So the crew knew at any time the date and could decide when to continue his journey the expedition was appropriate and advisable.

De Veer and including the expedition leader remaining 16 members of the crew built a sloop and made ​​their way into the inhabited world. After seven days Barents died, the rest of the trip to the Kola Peninsula was without problems. Kola was from a Dutch merchant ship under the command of Jan Corneliszoon Rijp, who had already led to the second voyage Barents ' a sister ship, went and returned to his homeland.

De Veer published the Tagegebuch after his return very soon. It experienced editions in different languages ​​and was also illustrated and colored.

The Novaya Zemlya effect

De Veer described in his diary under the January 24, 1597 a sunrise, which took place two weeks earlier than expected. For this phenomenon, the Novaya Zemlya effect, could in 1998 be found an explanation: It is an Arctic mirage. The former teacher Robbert de Veers Robbertsz. le Canu turned against these observations and tried to theoretically challenging.

Adaptation of the diaries

In 2011, under the direction of Reinout Oerlemans was the adventure drama Nova Zembla, which should be oriented relatively close to the events of the second expedition. The film stars Robert de Hoog as Gerrit de Veer, Derek de Lint as Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk Victor Reinier as.