Dallmann, Eduard, 1830-1896

Eduard Dallmann was born on 11 March 1830 in Flethe, near Blumenthal. He went to sea at the age of fifteen, gaining experience in whaling ships and freighters. In 1866, he led the German/Hawaiian trading and exploring expedition (from Honolulu) to the Russian Arctic, during which he claimed to have discovered Ostrov Vrangelya [Wrangell Island].

An experienced whaling master, Dallmann was selected to lead the German sealing and whaling reconnaissance, 1873-1874, sponsored by the Deutsche Polarschiffahrts-Gesellschaft and funded by its director, Albert Rosenthal, to investigate the commercial possibilities of southern sealing and whaling. Setting out from Hamburg in the steamship Grnland, he arrived at the South Shetland Islands in November 1873 only to find sealing gangs already in operation. Sailing further south, Grnland became the first steamship to reach the coast of Antarctica and Dallmann discovered a wide strait that he named Bismarck Strait after the German Chancellor. Proceeding northward, he charted a network of lesser channels within an archipelago now called the Palmer Archipelago. Although important geographical discoveries were made, the voyage brought little commercial profit.

Between 1877 and 1883, Dallmann made a series of pioneering voyages along the Northeast Passage, which he sought to open up for shipping. In 1884, he entered the service of the New Guinea Company, exploring the coastlines of New Guinea. Retiring in 1894, he died on 23 December 1896 at Blumenthal.

From the guide to the Eduard Dallmann collection, 1873-1874, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)