Høg-Hagen Nils Peter

(15.10.1877 – 15.11.1907)

Danish officer, cartographer, and polar explorer.

Born on the estate of his father Gundersted in Niba, Jutland. 
When he was 11 years old, the family moved to Copenhagen, and then to Holbeck, where the boy attended high school. Army service was held in the infantry and decided to continue his career as an officer. After graduating from the officer school in 1900, he was appointed first lieutenant.

In 1906 L. Mülius-Eriksen organized an expedition, the main purpose of which was to clarify the last unknown coastline in northeast Greenland. Høg-Hagen entered it as a cartographer.

The expedition ship “Danmark” anchored at Danmarkshavn (Danish Harbor) in the south of Germanialand (Land of Germany) in August, where the expedition team stayed for the winter.

On March 28, 1907 Muli-Erickson, accompanied by nine people, headed north to the intended research area. At 80° N, the four turned back, and the rest continued their way to Crown Prince Christian's Earth, simultaneously discovering Lambert's Land and Hovgard Island.

At 81° 30'N and 18°W, the party was divided: the three, led by J. Koch, went further north, and Mülius-Eriksen, Heg-Hagen and Brenlund went west to Independence Fjord. The first group was to continue the description of the coast to the extreme point reached by R. Peary in 1900, the second was to check the existence of the supposed channel that supposedly separates the Peary Land from the mainland of Greenland.

The journey of the group Mülius-Eriksen was very hard. They plunged into the great fjord, adopted by L. Mulius-Eriksen for seeing the Peary Canal. The detachment went deep into it, and only when they reached the summit, the researchers realized that they had passed through a hitherto unknown fjord stretching 200 km to the south-west. It was Danmarkfiord. I had to turn back and move as fast as possible to complete my task.

On May 28 at 82°N, they accidentally met with a detachment of J.-P. Koch who solved their problem. They discovered the Frederick Heidefjord, the northernmost bay on Earth, and reached 83° 30′N (Cape Bridgman), the extreme point reached by R. Peary in 1900, thereby proving that Greenland is an island.

This meeting decided the fate of L. Mülius-Eriksen and his companions: the comrade achieved the goal, but he did not ... Thinking that they were only a few days away from the “channel”, they continued to move northwest.

Y.-P. Koch and his group arrived safely on the ship, bringing news of the expedition leader. Waited for his return from day to day, but L. Mülius-Eriksen did not return: the route to the “channel” reached on June 1 demanded much more power than he thought, since the weather was warm and sledding was lucky. In addition, hunting happiness changed the squad, and the dogs began to die from exhaustion. The transition, calculated only for a few days, was delayed for two weeks. It was not until June 12 that the travelers returned to the Danmark Fjord. Further movement on the sled in the conditions of warm weather became almost impossible, so much snow loosened and soaked with water. The detachment was forced to fly on the banks of the Danmark Fjord.

At first everything went well. It was possible to shoot down several musk oxen, but on August 8 the hunger forced them to leave the site: the game disappeared or was slaughtered by a detachment. It was still difficult to move with the sled because of the many small snow-melt lakes and cracks in the ice. This delayed the group on the ice of the fjord for 16 days. Lack of provisions forced to donate dogs, which allowed to get to a small plain, where lucky with hunting.

On September 12, having rested for several days, the detachment left it, crossed the mouth of the Dunmark Fjord towards the seashore. The open water caused them to climb the continental ice, it’s unclear at what point. Not established, and their way to the "Fjord 79" (Lambert Land, near 79°N). L. Mulius-Eriksen and Høg-Hagen died there from cold and exhaustion. Brenlund managed to get to the nearest depot, and, hiding there the sketches of the maps made by the expedition, also died. The search party, reaching the coast at 80°N, found no traces of the missing.

In the spring of 1908, Y.-P. Koch found Brenlund's body, all the materials of the expedition and his diary, which ended with the words: “79 (degrees) died in the fjord after trying to get back through the continental ice in November. I got here in the light of the diminishing month and cannot move further because of the darkness and because I have froze my legs. The bodies of the others are in the middle of the fjord in front of the glacier. Hagen died on November 15th, Mulius in about 10 days. Jorgen Brenlund. Geographical results obtained at the price of the life of the L. Mülius-Eriksen group and the efforts of J.-P. Koch turned out to be significant: the coastline of Northeast Greenland over 1,700 km was discovered and put on the map. This made it possible to complete the identification of the general contour of the greatest island of the planet (2176 thousand sq. Km.).

The fjord washing the land of Mülius-Eriksen from the northwest.