Airships of the Whale Culture above Greenland E-Book

Vito de la Vera

• Herausgeber: BoD - Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 57

Beschreibung

To gain an understanding of the past, it is sometimes useful to test what one has learned by investigating the past. That is what this book is about. It is a continuation of my book, "The Whale Culture of Greenland". Based on the details about the whale culture in Greenland that I learned from rock carvings on a cliff in Eastern Greenland, I and like-minded individuals have built an airship, as it could have been built by a hunter-gatherer culture in the Arctic during the Holocene Maximum, and we will now attempt to fly it around Greenland and propel it with the fuel we can gather from hunting. This is therefore the story of our journey in a hot-air balloon around Greenland and how we managed the long trip north around the island and down along the west coast until we returned to the east coast, facing all the challenges and dangerous situations that arose along the way. It is also the story of what an ancient people could achieve in the distant past and what it tells about their spread in the Arctic and beyond. It is a long and eventful journey that I and my companions undertake, which does not go as expected and certainly does not end as such, but still bears the fruits we desired. The journey is long and tough and constantly tests us, as the Arctic must have tested the whale culture in Greenland's distant past, but we endure it all the way to the abrupt end of the journey, thereby showing that an airborne culture in Greenland could have been possible around the time of the Holocene Maximum.

Leseprobe

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We arrived in Northeast Greenland and Scoresby Land not far from the Zackenberg Station. Up here in the fjord, where l’Aguila shot through the water, were the cliff with petroglyphs, which I had studied. In doing so, I found traces of the ancient whale culture that had existed in the Arctic Ocean during the warm Holocene maximum.

Based on my reading of the petroglyphs, I found remains from a nearby settlement and gained insight into this vanished and forgotten culture in Greenland and the Arctic. Equally important for this story, I interpreted signs that this culture was based on hunting whales and other marine animals and that they had hunted these animals from airships made of materials from whales and seals that they captured.

These airships were then propelled forward by blubber lamps made from hollowed bones, burning the powerful blubber and whale oil.

This discovery, with implications about airships in the Greenlandic sky in such early times, is met with skepticism, and that is why we have come here now. We aim to prove that the whale culture could have created airships and flown in the Arctic sky, hunting on the sea from above.

We have had an airship constructed based on my reading of the petroglyphs, and our vessel now rests in the hold of l'Aguila awaiting its maiden voyage.

As Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated that Polynesia in the Pacific could have been populated from South America with the Kon-Tiki expedition, where he and his team drifted with the Humboldt Current out into the Pacific, we aim to show that the whale culture could have populated and hunted in Greenland and the Arctic regions with their simple airships.

We will do this by departing from the cliff with petroglyphs that I discovered and fly around the Greenlandic coastlines, ultimately returning here.

Lastly, we will prove that the whale culture could have crossed the sea by flying from here to Svalbard, where I have also found faint traces of petroglyphs.

Such a journey will demonstrate that the whale culture would have been capable of encircling the Arctic Ocean and the Greenlandic coastlines while also lending credibility to my reading of the petroglyphs, which has not been widely accepted in archaeological circles.

However, among other members of Le Club d'Aventure d'Outre-Mer, there are those who see the possibility, and from them, I have found partners for this journey. They will assist in demonstrating that an ancient Inuit culture could have built airships and traveled over the Arctic Ocean with them. And the proof of this lies in l'Aguila's hold. The airship was constructed as closely as possible to what could be deduced from my sketches. We had successfully tested it back home over the sea. Now, it was simply a matter of putting it to use in its natural environment.

I eagerly surveyed the fjord and the land beyond, where I could see the cliff rising higher up. Since working on it, I had sought out other references to cliffs with petroglyphs in the archives and had thereby found and visited others along the Greenlandic coast, and even found traces on Svalbard after a reference in the archives in Oslo. I found very little on Svalbard. Time and the ice had been harsh there, but nevertheless, there were petroglyphs.

I have also found accounts from Arctic Canada, including records from Knud Rasmussen's 5th Thule Expedition, but have not yet had the opportunity to travel there. What I found in the archives about rock carvings in Arctic Russia, I naturally have not been able to investigate, as it is closed territory, but they are undoubtedly there. Now we primarily aim to secure practical evidence that the airships of the whale culture were possible. I'm sure we're all excited now that we're anchoring at the largest discovered cliff with the whale culture's rock carvings in order to bring them out of the mists of time.

We start by sailing to shore to put together the airship, but first my companions wish to see the cliff and witness for themselves what they have otherwise only seen in my papers. The cliff still clearly bears the colors of my painting of the petroglyphs. The weather has worn it a bit, but my work on the cliff is still evident, and the many shapes carved by the whale culture into the rock still stand out clearly in colors.

It naturally brings great joy to see this clear evidence of the presence of the whale culture in this place. I notice the enthusiasm among my companions to see this legendary cliff, which is denied by some! They can just come here and see that it really is here! We have arrived early in the ice-free season, so the landscape still has winter snow lying here and there, and the meltwater rushes in the rivers.

By coming here so early, hopefully, we will have enough time to complete our entire planned journey with the airship, but as Samuel Andres' failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a balloon showed at that time, one cannot fully rely on the weather being agreeable. However, we must hope for better luck than Solomon's vanished balloon. Only pictures of the crashed balloon have been found in a camera.

However, we should be better prepared and also have radio equipment and Iridium phones with us in case we need rescueing. All five of us gather to prepare some food. Now that we are on land, we can have outdoor dining. We light a fire and fry some muskox steaks that we bought in Ittoqqortoormiit. A flat rock serves well as a pan.

Since the airship must remain light, we will provide some provisions by hunting seals, just as the whale culture must have done. In addition to harpoons, we also bring rifles. Hopefully, we will have hunting luck. After a good meal, we start the work of transporting the airship from l'Aguila to our camp. It will take some time, there are many parts, and the balloon itself is large, as it is supposed to carry a lot.

We have tried to be as faithful to the materials available to the whale culture as possible. Our gondola is made of seal skin, which we purchased in Greenland, and we have obtained whale skin and blubber from the whale hunt in the Faroe Islands, as well as what could be bought in Greenland. From there, we also got bones for the fixed structures.

Despite this, parts of the airship are also made of plastic and lightweight metal as close as we could get to the whale culture's materials, but also with our own safety in mind.

The transport to land progresses slowly, and soon the camp starts to fill up. Getting the balloon in is a bit of a trial. I was sincerely afraid we would capsize, but we did manage to get in with a wet balloon. It's lucky that it's waterproof.