History of Denmark expedition

The two-year expedition was conceived and led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, who had previously led the 'Literary Expedition' to Northwest Greenland together with Knud Rasmussen in 1902–1904.

Danmark left Copenhagen 24 June 1906 and left for Greenland on 2 July after a short stop in Frederikshavn.

The expedition travelled to Greenland aboard the Danmark, reaching a sheltered place in southern Germania Land in August 1906 and establishing its main base there, Danmarkshavn, which was named after the ship.

Northbound sled journeys began in autumn 1906 in order to lay depots along the route that the two groups of the long northern explorations would take in the spring of the following year.

As the six northbound dogsleds sped along the eastern coast of the Crown Prince Christian Land peninsula, Mylius Eriksen was feeling uneasy because the shore was leading them further to the northeast, which was not what he had expected. The distance to their goal was increasing, while time and provisions were running out.

Finally ten sleds led by Mylius Eriksen left Danmarkshavn at the end of March 1907,

Mylius-Erichsen entered the unknown Danmark Fjord without having doubts about where it was leading to. The team traveled southwestwards until the head of the fjord and, becoming aware that it was a dead end, they backtracked to the northeast.

Finally ten sleds led by Mylius Eriksen left Danmarkshavn at the end of March 1907, heading north on the coastal ice.

Hagen Fjord is a fjord in north-eastern Greenland. It was named after Niels Peter Høeg Hagen, the cartographer of the main exploration team of the ill-fated Denmark expedition.

Finally, at the end of April, they rounded the northeastern end of Greenland, an inconspicuous point where the ice slope of the Flade Isblink met the frozen sea, and began traveling northwestwards, in the direction they had hoped for.

Initially Mylius-Erichsen agreed to go back with Koch to the ship, but then he took the fateful decision to head west, leaving on 28 May.

Team reached the cliffs of Mallemuk Mountain, but found open water that made it impossible for them to travel straight southwards, so the exhausted men had to travel inland on 19 October 1907, the day the sun disappeared below the horizon.

On the way back, the team explored Brønlunds Fjord and Hagens Fjord. Sudden mild weather then impeded their progress, and when they reached the western side of Danmarks Fjord on 12 June, they found their way across the ice blocked by open water.

Mylius-Erichsen's death cast a pall over the whole expedition, its results didn't receive the attention they deserved.

Teams split into two teams of three dogsleds each; Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, Niels Peter Høeg Hagen and Jørgen Brønlund, went westward hugging the coast, in the direction that they deemed would lead them to Gletscher Cape and Navy Cliff —at the head of Independence Fjord. Meanwhile the other team —with Johan Peter Koch, Aage Bertelsen and Tobias Gabrielsen— sped northwestwards across the sea ice towards Cape Bridgman in order to map the uncharted coast sections of eastern Peary Land.

Danmark left Greenland on 21 July 1908 and although the boiler was damaged in a collision with an iceberg in the West Ice, she reached Bergen in Norway safely on 15 August and returned to Copenhagen on 23 August.

The memorial was unveiled in 1912. It was designed by Kai Nielsen in collaboration with Kaare Klint.

Against the Ice is a historical survival film directed by Peter Flinth and written by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Joe Derrick, based on the true story recounted in Two Against the Ice by Ejnar Mikkelsen. It stars Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole, Charles Dance, and Heida Reed, Ill Kippers Productions, RVK Studios. The film was shot in Iceland and Greenland.