Erik Eriksen (explorer)

Erik Eriksen (born 1820, death 1888), was a Norwegian ice sea captain born in Lyngør, Norway. He later moved to Hammerfest, Norway. Eriksen was the inventor of the grenade harpoon used in modern whaling. Erik Eriksen travelled to Tønsberg with a wooden model to commercialize the harpoon with the help of Svend Foyn. Svend Foyn patented and industrialized the harpoon. Erik Eriksen did neither get profits nor honor for the invention, but Svend Foyn later helped out his family in Hammerfest after Eriksen left his wife and 9 children and emigrated to the U.S.A. where he died in a blizzard in Dakota.

References

"This article is based on "The Discovery of King Karl Land, Spitsbergen, by Adolf Hoel, The Geographical Review Vol. XXV, No. 3, July, 1935, Pp. 476-478, American Geographical Society, Broadway AT 156th Street, New York" and Store norske leksikon, Aschehoug & Gyldendal (Great Norwegian Encyclopedia, last edition) "