10 Unbelievable Details Surrounding Ejnar Mikkelsen, Who Two Barbaric Winters Stranded In The Arctic

6 /10 A Replacement

The actual mechanic of the ship turned out to be an alcoholic, and Ejnar Mikkelsen decided to leave him behind and take Iver Iversen instead.

His only role was as a replacement for the mechanic, but then fate had something else in mind. Jørgensen’s injury prevented him from continuing the expedition, which involved numerous long sled journeys through the ice.

Once again, Iversen stepped up and took Jørgensen’s place. While the rest of the crew remained aboard the ship, Iversen – who had no prior experience in Greenland – followed the captain across hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain.

5 /10 Alabama Cottage

The wooden ship, named Alabama, was trapped in the ice in East Greenland. Except for the captain and the young mechanic, everyone stayed on the boat.

They used timbers and planks of the ship to build a hut – now known as the Alabama Cottage filled it with enough provisions for a year and hoped that Mikkelsen and Iversen would eventually make it back.

The crew then boarded a whaler and returned home. The two men returned, and they spent much longer than a year in the hut, doing their best to survive.

4 /10 Polar Bears

The film portrayed an intense encounter with polar bears during the journey, including where an opposing bear steps on Mikkelsen’s body.

Historical records confirmed some painful moments when polar bears came across the hut, but the film depiction is a mere exaggeration.

In the book, Mikkelsen described when a polar bear was trying to enter the house, presumably because the animal could sense their smell from miles away.

In reality, the men sometimes shot and killed bears for meat, much-desired nourishment in the harsh environment.

3 /10 Meat That Drifted

The bear that tried to enter the hut was a gift because the man could obtain a meat supply for days. This particular bear did make its way into the house, but Iversen acted quickly and grabbed his rifle to neutralize the threat.

It was a dire and desperate situation, but they managed to survive and gain valuable resources afterward.

They were not that lucky at times as the injured bears (from gunshot wounds) would flee and drift away in the water, far from their reach.

2 /10 Do Not Befriend The Dogs

Some men in the expedition warn Iversen not to befriend the sled dogs for an ugly but inevitable reason.

When things went from bad to worse, sometimes explorers stranded in the wild had no other choice but to kill the dogs. The men had to pick the worst dog of them all, kill it, and feed it to the others.

Mikkelsen confirmed that the starving huskies attacked and ate other dogs. All the sled dogs Mikkelsen and Iversen took on the journey died in the expedition.

1 /10 A Successful Expedition

Through bad cold weather, starvation, relentless snowstorms, and all-around treacherous circumstances, Ejnar Mikkelsen and Iver Iversen recovered the previous expedition’s lost records.

The record officially disproved the existence of the Peary Channel, validating the claim of the Kingdom of Denmark of Greenland in its entirety.

The captain and the rookie mechanic had to stay in the hut for nearly three years before a Norwegian whaler came to the rescue in the summer of 1912. Ejnar Mikkelsen returned to Greenland twice on other expeditions.