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{{short description|Norwegian sailor and explorer}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata
| name         = Otto Sverdrup
| image        = Otto Sverdrup.jpg
| caption      = Otto Sverdrup in 1898
| birth_date   = {{birth date|df=y|1854|10|31}}
| birth_place  = [[Bindal Municipality|Bindal]], [[Norway]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|df=y|1930|11|26|1854|10|31}}
| known_for    = Arctic explorer
}}

'''Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup''' (31 October 1854, in [[Bindal Municipality]] in [[Helgeland]] &ndash; 26 November 1930) was a Norwegian sailor and [[Arctic]] explorer.

==Early and personal life==
He was born in [[Bindal Municipality]] as a son of farmer Ulrik Frederik Suhm Sverdrup (1833–1914) and his wife Petra Neumann Knoph (1831–1885).<ref name=nbl>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Otto Sverdrup|encyclopedia=[[Norsk biografisk leksikon]]|first=Per Egil|last=Hegge|author-link=Per Egil Hegge|editor=Helle, Knut|publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Otto_Sverdrup/utdypning|language=no|access-date=12 February 2010|editor-link=Knut Helle}}</ref> He was a great-grandnephew of [[Georg Sverdrup]] and [[Jacob Liv Borch Sverdrup]], first cousin twice removed of [[Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (politician)|Harald Ulrik]] and [[Johan Sverdrup]], second cousin once removed of [[Jakob Sverdrup (politician)|Jakob]], [[Georg Sverdrup (theologian)|Georg]] and [[Edvard Sverdrup]], third cousin of [[Georg Johan Sverdrup|Georg Johan]], [[Jakob Sverdrup (philologist)|Jakob]], [[Mimi Sverdrup Lunden|Mimi]], [[Leif J. Sverdrup|Leif]] and [[Harald Sverdrup (oceanographer)|Harald Ulrik Sverdrup]].<ref name=snl>{{cite encyclopedia|year=2007|title=Sverdrup|encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]]|first=Terje|last=Bratberg|editor=Henriksen, Petter|publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/Sverdrup|language=no|access-date=12 February 2010}}</ref> He was a brother-in-law of [[Johan Vaaler]], and Otto himself married his own first cousin, Gretha Andrea Engelschiøn (1866–1937), in October 1891 in [[Oslo|Kristiania]].<ref name=nbl/> Their daughter Audhild Sverdrup (1893–1932) married [[Carl Marstrander|Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Carl Marstrander|encyclopedia=[[Norsk biografisk leksikon]]|first=Jan Erik|last=Ringstad|editor=Helle, Knut|publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Carl_Marstrander/utdypning|language=no|access-date=12 February 2010|editor-link=Knut Helle}}</ref>

His father was born on Buøy in [[Kolvereid Municipality]]. As oldest son Otto was heir to the Sverdrup properties at Buøy. However, he left it all to his younger brothers and went to [[Åbygda]] in Bindal, to the farm named Hårstad, where Otto Sverdrup was born. In 1872, at the age of 17, Otto Sverdrup returned to [[Nærøy Municipality]], to [[Ottersøy]] where his uncle Søren worked in transportation with his own vessels. Here Sverdrup started his career as a seaman and after a while he was sailing abroad. In 1875, he passed his mate's examination, and some years later the shipmaster's examination.

In 1877 Sverdrup's parents moved from Bindal to the farm Trana outside the town of [[Steinkjer (town)|Steinkjer]]. At this time O. T. Olsen, a teacher and employee in the bank at Kolvereid and a relative of his mother, had purchased the steamboat ''TRIO''. Sverdrup was employed as captain. Around this time Sverdrup also met the lawyer Alexander Nansen who lived in the town of [[Namsos (town)|Namsos]]. He was the brother of [[Fridtjof Nansen]] and through him Sverdrup and Fridtjof Nansen learned to know each other.

==Career and expeditions==
[[File:Otto Sverdrup - F. Nansen.jpg|thumb|right|Photograph of Otto Sverdrup on the first journey of ''Fram''.]]
{{See also|Nansen's Fram expedition}}
Sverdrup joined [[Fridtjof Nansen]]'s expedition of 1888 across [[Greenland]]. In 1892 he was an advisor to [[Fridtjof Nansen]] when the ship ''[[Fram (ship)|Fram]]'' was built. In 1893 Sverdrup was given command of the ship, and in 1895 he was left in charge of it while Nansen attempted to reach the [[North Pole]]. Sverdrup managed to free the ship from the ice near [[Svalbard]] in August 1896 and sailed to [[Skjervøy (village)|Skjervøy]], arriving just 4 days after Nansen had reached Norway.<ref name=nbl/>

In the summer of 1897 Sverdrup worked as the shipmaster of ''Lofoten'', a passenger ship to and from Svalbard. In 1898 he embarked on another expedition with ''Fram''.<ref name=nbl/> Sverdrup attempted to circumnavigate Greenland via [[Baffin Bay]] but failed to make it through the [[Nares Strait]]. Forced to overwinter on [[Ellesmere Island]], he and his crew explored and named many uncharted fjords and peninsulas on the western shores of the island, explaining the Norwegian names, such as [[Hoved Island]] ("main island") and [[Prince Gustav Adolf Sea]] (after the Swedish king [[Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden|Gustav VI Adolf]])<ref>{{cite book|last = Otto Neumann|first = Sverdrup|title = Arctic adventures: Adapted from New land: four years in the Arctic regions|year = 1959|publisher = Longmans|pages = 215|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U5cFAAAAMAAJ&q=Gustav+Adolf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Swedes in Canada: Invisible Immigrants|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HPJTCgAAQBAJ|publisher = University of Toronto Press|date = 2015-07-27|isbn = 9781442695153|language = en|first = Elinor|last = Barr}}</ref> in the [[Canadian Arctic]].

Between 1899 and 1902, he overwintered three more times on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic with the ''Fram'', continuing to explore and map, culminating in the discovery of the islands to the west of Ellesmere Island, namely [[Axel Heiberg Island|Axel Heiberg]], [[Amund Ringnes Island|Amund Ringnes]] and [[Ellef Ringnes Island|Ellef Ringnes]], collectively known as the [[Sverdrup Islands]].<ref name=nbl/> In adopting [[Inuit]] methods, Sverdrup and his crew were able to chart a total of 260,000&nbsp;square kilometers - more than any other polar exploration.<ref name=GKenny>Gerard Kenney ''Ships of Wood and Men of Iron: A Norwegian-Canadian Saga of Exploration in the High Arctic'', {{ISBN|0-88977-168-5}}, 1984</ref> The area was famously mapped by his topographer, [[Gunnar Isachsen]], and 35 academic publications were penned as a result of the expedition.<ref name=nbl/> Upon Sverdrup's return in Norway, he was treated as a national hero. However, he remains relatively unknown in North America, and relatively unknown for his Canadian exploration in Norway.

[[File:The National geographic magazine (1902) (14781596262).jpg|thumb|left|Sverdrup's explorations 1898-1902]]
Sverdrup officially claimed all three islands he discovered for Norway in 1902, setting off a sovereignty dispute with [[Canada]], which claimed sovereignty over all land, discovered or undiscovered in what is now the Canadian Arctic.  The dispute was not settled until 1930 when Norway ceded the islands to Canada.<ref name=GKenny/> In that year Sverdrup signed a deal with the Canadian Government, who would buy the records of Sverdrup's expeditions for $67,000 Canadian dollars. Sverdrup died just two weeks after the deal was signed, but the money secured the future of his family.<ref name=nbl/> The records were archived in the [[National Archives of Canada]],<ref name=GKenny/> but were later returned to the [[National Library of Norway]].<ref name=nbl/>

One of Sverdrup's lesser known exploits was a search-and-rescue expedition aboard ship ''Eklips'' in the [[Kara Sea]] in 1914–1915.<ref name=nbl/> His aim was to search for two missing Arctic expeditions, that of Captain [[Georgy Brusilov]] on the [[Svyataya Anna|''St. Anna'']] and that of [[Vladimir Rusanov]] on the [[Rusanov expedition|Gerkules]]. Sverdrup's fourth and last expedition in Arctic Siberian waters was in 1921, when, from the bridge of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Lenin (1916 icebreaker)|Icebreaker Lenin]], he commanded a convoy of five cargo ships on an experimental run through the [[Kara Sea]] to the mouths of the [[Ob River|Ob]] and [[Yenisei]]. The ships reached their destinations and returned safely. This was considered an important step in the development of the Kara Sea sector of the [[Northern Sea Route]].<ref>T. C. Fairley, ''Sverdrup's Arctic Adventures'', p. 272. London 1959.</ref> Sverdrup also has an unsuccessful business venture in [[Cuba]], a plantation project in the [[Oriente Province]] in 1904.<ref name=nbl/>

==Later life and legacy==
[[File:Otto Sverdrup 1928.jpg|thumb|Sverdrup in 1928.]]
The last years of his life he lived in [[Sandvika]], at the property [[Homewood, Norway|Homewood]] on a hill overlooking the town.<ref>{{cite web|first=Liv Frøysaa|last=Moe|title=Homewood|url=https://www.baerum.kommune.no/organisasjonen/Plan-og-miljo/Natur--og-idrettsforvaltningen/Kulturvern/Manedens-kulturminne-2007/Manedens-kulturminne-januar-2007-Homewood/|publisher=Bærum municipality|date=28 May 2008|access-date=11 February 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605131230/https://www.baerum.kommune.no/organisasjonen/Plan-og-miljo/Natur--og-idrettsforvaltningen/Kulturvern/Manedens-kulturminne-2007/Manedens-kulturminne-januar-2007-Homewood/|archive-date=5 June 2011}}</ref> He died in November 1930. A statue of Sverdrup was erected in [[Steinkjer (town)|Steinkjer]] in 1957, and in 1999 a statue of Sverdrup was erected in Sandvika, in the square named after him, ''Otto Sverdrups plass''.<ref name=nbl/> In 2008, the [[Royal Norwegian Navy]] commissioned the [[HNoMS_Otto_Sverdrup_(F312)|HNoMS Otto Sverdrup]], a [[Fridtjof_Nansen-class_frigate|Nansen class]] frigate, in honor of the mariner and explorer.

He was made a Commander 1st Class of the [[Order of St. Olav|Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav]] in 1896, and promoted to Grand Cross in 1902. In addition, he was awarded gold medals from the [[Norwegian Geographical Society]] in 1889 and the [[Royal Geographical Society]] in 1903, and received an [[honorary degree]] at the [[University of St Andrews]].<ref name=nbl/>

Sverdrup had also been made a Knight 1st Class of the Prussian [[Order of the Crown (Prussia)|Order of the Crown]] in 1902,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular|date=13 October 1902 |page=6 |issue=36897}}</ref> but in an open letter to the German [[legation]] in Oslo on 25 October 1917 declared that he was returning the order in protest against the [[unrestricted submarine warfare|unrestricted warfare]] then [[U-boat Campaign (World War I)|being waged]] by the German [[U-boat]]s in the First World War, causing the deaths of hundreds of Norwegian sailors. The day before Sverdrup's return of his order, fellow explorer [[Roald Amundsen]] had also returned his German awards.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hølaas |first1=Odd |author-link1=Odd Hølaas |last2=Barlaup |first2=Asbjørn |author-link2=Asbjørn Barlaup |last3=Storm |first3=Henning |last4=Solheim |first4=John |year=1957 |title=Norge under Haakon VII 1905-1957 |edition=3rd, revised |url=http://www.nb.no/nbsok/nb/60f75d112c2e4442159048c27986a392?index=36 |location=Oslo |publisher=Cappelen |page=172 |language=no }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Guldborg Søvik og Lars Hole ''Der isen aldri går. Et år i Otto Sverdrups rike'' {{ISBN|978-82-91948-08-9}}, 2001
*[[William Barr (Arctic historian)|William Barr]], ''Otto Sverdrup to the rescue of the Russian Imperial Navy''.
*{{citation|title=New land: four years in the Arctic regions|author1=Otto Neumann Sverdrup|author2=Per Schei|author3=Herman Georg Simmons|author4= Edvard Bay|year=1904|publisher=London, Longmans, Green, and Co.|url=https://archive.org/details/newlandfouryears01sveruoft}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{BHL author}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=34438}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}

{{Polar exploration}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverdrup, Otto}}
[[Category:1854 births]]
[[Category:1930 deaths]]
[[Category:Explorers of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Explorers of Canada]]
[[Category:Norwegian expatriates in Cuba]]
[[Category:Norwegian planters]]
[[Category:Norwegian polar explorers]]
[[Category:Norwegian sailors]]
[[Category:People from Bærum]]
[[Category:People from Bindal]]
[[Category:People from Steinkjer]]