4-masted steam schooner S/S GERTRUD RASK in the harbor of Holsteinsborg / Sisimiut / Western Greenland.In the right foreground 3 cannons can be observed next to a flagpole. They propably were (or perhaps had been) used for signaling - the same goes for the flag pole.
Sometimes I think that it would be interesting to have been there, but Greenland - I'll take a pass. I'm glad that the USA didn't buy the place.
ReplyDeleteErnest Gann wrote of hairy flights into Greenland during the war- sort of the epitome of bad weather flying. I'd like to go fishing there. Talk about wild and remote!
ReplyDeleteI think I read all of Peter Freuchen's books. Book of the Eskimo is one of my favorite books, I recommend it to anyone who likes first person exploration accounts. Living in the Arctic is hard even now, bit before easy trading and communication, it was so unlike anything we can even imagine.
ReplyDeleteI've sailed to that harbour, 15 or 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is still very common to see cannon on the harbours in Greenland. They are mainly used for ceremonial purposes, such as when Queen Margrethe of Denmark visits. She typically arrives by ship. I've seen cannon fired to celebrate the arrival of the first supply ship of the year. The ship arrived in June, as the ice didn't break up before then.
I love Greenland and I'm happy to have been born there and having lived there. I enjoyed the cold and quiet bliss of winter. Nowhere else on this planet do you get such absolute quietness as in Greenland. The fishing is phenomenal, especially for trout and salmon in the summer. I miss the autumn hunt for reindeer, and the intoxicating smell of the hills. I miss the tough and shy people of North Greenland. Life in Northern Greenland is simple. Things happen, if they happen, when they happen. Death and misery is always nearby. So is love, and joy, and friendship.
I like that you post so many pictures of places I've actually been to!
/Your reader in Denmark.