The Dane Aboard HMS Erebus

On June 30th of 1845, when the ships were just off the coast of Greenland, Erebus’s assistant surgeon Harry Goodsir wrote to his brother John saying: “There are several Danes on board of us as seaman so having no difficulty with language.”

On July 6th, after the ships had arrived at the Whalefish Islands in Greenland, Erebus’s purser Charles Osmer wrote to his wife Elizabeth: “We were accompanied by one of our sailors (a Dane) who speaks their language…”

A day later, on July 7th, Sir John Franklin wrote to his friend John Richardson: “I had written to the Governor… His answer being in Danish I had to get it translated by one of my men.”

We know from the muster books that there were no Danish men on the expedition. In fact, according to the muster books, out of 129 men there were only two born outside of the British Isles: Charles Johnson from Nova Scotia, and Henry Lloyd from Norway. However, three different letters by three different men referenced one or more Danes aboard Erebus. Why?