Mertens Karl Heinrich

(07.05.1796 - 29.09.1830)

German doctor and nerd, son of German botanist Franz Karl Mertens.

Born in Bremen. In 1813 and 1815  he voluntarily took part in the campaign against Napoleon and met several French nerds. He also spent some time in England, and then studied medicine and the natural sciences in Göttingen.

From 1821 he worked as a doctor in Bremen, and in 1824 went to St. Petersburg to participate in the swimming O. Kotzebue. He did not succeed in this, and he did not practice as a doctor in St. Petersburg until he set off to circumnavigate the globe (1826-1829) with F.P. Litke. From this trip he brought numerous zoological and botanical finds, which he then began to study in St. Petersburg. He became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy and joined in the summer of 1830 on an expedition to Iceland.However, the expedition was not allowed to go ashore in Iceland. On the way back on the ship there was an outbreak of typhoid, from which he died, returning to St. Petersburg.

Cape in the south-east of the Chukotka Peninsula. Named by F.P. Litke in 1828.