| Notes |
- Bjørnskinn church records list birth date as Sept. 24, 1870. Dec. 3, 1875 census lists birth year as 1871.
Digital Archives: Døypte i Bjørnskinn sokn i Dverberg prestegjeld 1866-1886:
Baptism date: 23 Oct 1870
Local parish: Bjørnskinn
Remarks: konf 86. Moderen indledet.
Barn: Helmer Julius
Far: Grbr. Hans Andreas Jakobsen, Bjørnskind
Mor: H. Pauline Olsd., Bjørnskind
Fadder: Kirkesanger Danielsen
Fadder: Mad. Danielsen
Fadder: Kristian Korneliussen
Fadder: Olea Olsd.
Fadder: Elen Anfindsd.
Marriage record (Incorrect) Church book lists Kristine Augusta as the next record for marriages in the book but has the two bride’s names switched:
Oct. 31, 1897
Marie Kathrine Isaksen, Tromso, born in Elnelskuen (?) i Alta in 1875, confirmed in 1889 in Hammerfest, father’s name: Spitsbergfarer Isak Adamsen
Hilmer Julius Hansen, residence unreadable, born in Bjørnskinn in 1870, confirmed in 1886 in Dverberg, father’s name: Gaar. Hans Jakobsen.
Cemetery Record:
Helmer Hanssen
Polarfarar
B.year: 1870
D.year: 1957
Sq. Bjørnskin kirke
Cemetery: Minnesmerker
Andøy
Had 3 children, per Sonia Woster's notes.
1900 Census: Tromsoe, Troms, Norway:
Helmer Hansen, temp. residence: Bergen; occupation: styrmand (mate, officer, coxswain); year of birth: 1871; birthplace: VesterÅlen, Nor;
Augusta Hansen, hustru, year of birth: 1875.
From the forward in Voyages of a Modern Viking, by Helmer Hanssen, London, Routledge & Sons, 1936, (foreward written by Vice Admiral E.R.G.R. Evans):
"Helmer Hanssen himself may be classed amongst the last of the Vikings, for he started to earn his living at the age of twelve in the winter cod-fisheries on the bleak, ice-girt coasts of the Viking land which has given us the best Arctic and Antarctic explorers that the world has known. Helmer Hanssen is shy about his book--I should be proud indeed to have such a record of adventure to my name as this modest Norseman has, for he was one of Roald Amundsen's men in the Gjoa, the only vessel that has yet made the oft-attempted, hazardous, North-West Passage. He was one of the five men who stood first at the South Pole whither Roald Amundsen's fine leadership had brought them in December 1911, and later he was Captain of the Maud, one of the only two ships that has yet succeeded in making the North-East Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific."
From Wikipedia: “Helmer Julius Hanssen (1870-1956) was a Norwegian polar explorer, and one of the first five to reach the South Pole on the expedition of Roald Amundsen.
Hanssen was born in Risoeyhavn, a small village in the northern part of Norway. He was an experienced ice pilot, a skill he had learned while hunting seals around Spitsbergen.
From 1903 to 1905 Helmer Hanssen participated in Roald Amundsen’s successful search for the Northwest passage, as second mate on board the ship Gjoea. On the expedition he learned from the Intuits how to drive sled dogs. In 1910 he headed south with Amundsen to conquer the South Pole. This time as an expert dog driver. He was also in charge of navigation, carrying the master compass on his sledge.
He was one of the first five people to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911, along with Roald Amundsen, Olav BjÅland, Oscar Wisting, and Sverre Hassel. During their stay at the South Pole, it is believed that Hanssen passed within 200 yards of the mathematical South Pole point. This was during one of his ski runs which Amundsen had ordered be performed to completely encircle or “box” the pole to insure that there was no doubt that the expedition had attained the pole.
In 1919 he once again went north this time as captain on Maud in Roald Amundsen’s Northeast Passage expedition.
In 1936 Hanssen published his autobiography The Voyages of a Modern Viking, London: Rutledge, 1936.
Helmer Julius Hanssen was awarded the Knight Class 2 of St. Olav for exceptional seamanship on Roald Amundsen’s expeditions in the northern and southern parts of the world.”
1910 Census: Norway:
Helmer Julius Hansen, 24.09.1870, Dverberg Bjørnskind, hf, g, Toldbetjent og sjømand;
Augusta Hansen, 24.07.1876, Tromsø, hm, g, Husholdningsarbeide;
Arthur Berg Hansen, 22.05.1901, Tromsø, s, ug, Intet;
Harald Johannes Hansen, 19. 08. 1903, Tromsø, s, ug, Intet;
Reidun Margaret Hansen, 18.05.1908, Tromsø, d, ug, Intet.
Death Announcement; The Guardian (London, England) 4 Aug 1956, Sat.
"Helmer Hanssen
Helmer Hanssen, who with his close friend Roald Amundsen was first to reach the South Pole in 1911, died at Tromsoe, Norway, on Thursday, aged 86.
In "The South Pole," his record of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the Fram in 1910-12, Amundsen paid tribute to Hanssen on many occasions. 'I considered him the most efficient dog-driver I had met,' he writes. And describing a perilous incident, he went on: 'I wonder whether Hanssen did not enjoy the situation. Stretched across a giddy abyss with the prospect of slipping down at any moment, that was just what he would like.'"
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1870 - 1956 (85 years)
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