Danmark (ship, 1855)

The bark Danmark is best known for her role as expedition ship for the Danmark expedition (1906–08), so named after the ship, but had a long prehistory as a whaler under the name Sir Colin Campbell of Peterhead and later as a sealer named Magdalena of Tønsberg/Kristiana.

The ship was built in Sunderland, England in 1855, rigged as a three-masted steam bark and originally fitted with a 98 hp high pressure steam engine. She sailed under the name Sir Colin Campbell on whaling trips from Scotland to the Greenland Sea and Davis Strait. In 1892 she was sold to Norway, refitted with a 200 hp triple expansion engine, renamed Magdalena and sailed as a seal catcher until 1906. The later polar explorer Roald Amundsen sailed on Magdalena in 1884 on a seal hunt into the West Ice. From the records of the oil factory of J.A. Nielson in Tønsberg it is reported that Magdalena, owned by Gustav C. Hansen, was the first ship to process blubber at the factory when it opened in 1883 (1,300-1,400 barrels of seal oil). In 1901 the ship was used to deploy stores on Shannon Island and Bass Rock, East Greenland for the American Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition. In 1906 Magdalena was sold for a price of 39,250 kroner to the Danish Expedition Fund, to serve as ship for the upcoming expedition to Northeast Greenland. She underwent refurbishing and was rechristened to Danmark.