Ole Peder Duus 1881-1959
Biographical Notes

Seaman - Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901 - 1904

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I would like to inform you that my great grandfather Ole Peder Duus was on the Nordenskjold Antarctic expedition.

He was born in Arendal, Norway in 1881.

He was at the time working as a sheep farmer at the Falkland islands after he shipwrecked here in 1899. "Antarctic"  needed two new deckhands after two of the swedes had been behaving badly.

He was on both the first voyage to Snow Hill and second voyage to Paulet Island. He was only 21 years at the time

Erik Duus

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Ole Peder Duus was born in April 1881 the son of Captain Tellef Duus. The census of the 3rd December 1900 referred to him as a sailor, which was correct but at the time Ole Peder was on dry land in the Falkland Islands, where he had been for a year after being shipwrecked. He sailed on the bark "Samoa" with Tvedestrand St. Hansaften in 1899, bound for Hamburg. He was 18 years old and sailing for the first time as a full sailor. The journey took the ship towards Punta de Arenas in southern Argentina. Close to Cape Horn, a storm caused some displacement of the cargo, so the ship anchored off the west coast of the Falkland Islands. The ship began to run, and in an attempt to maneuver into the calm waters, went aground. The date was the 24th of October 1899. With no telegraph, and with 14 days until the next mail connection to Port Stanley, there was little to do. The "Samoa" was sold at auction on the 1st of January 1900 according to insurance records.

According to family tradition Ole Peder became involved in sheep farming on the Falkland Islands, but on the 29th of  August 1902, he joined the "Antarctic" when it visited the Falkland Islands on its way to Antarctica. The "Antarctic" needed extra men to replace two Swedish sailors who had behaved badly and had been dismissed. Thus, Ole Peder became a sailor again along with another Norwegian by the name Tofte, an Englishman and a local sailor.

Ole Peder Duus attended navigation school after he came home, he moved in 1912 to Bergen, where he was married and had five children. He died in 1959. He made a career as a captain in the Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Steamship Company.

Taken from a Norwegian newspaper article.