Gerrit de Veer

Map of the discovered West coast of Novaya Zemlya, from de Veer's published diary (1598).

Gerrit de Veer (c. 1570 after 1598) was a Dutch officer on Willem Barentsz' second and third voyages (1595 and 1596) in search of the Northeast passage. De Veer kept a diary of the voyages and in 1597 was the first person to observe and record the Novaya Zemlya effect, and the first westerner to observe hypervitaminosis A caused by consuming polar bear liver.[1]

De Veer is the lead character in the film Nova Zembla (2011), a fictionalized retelling of the voyage as described in his diary .

De Veer is also the lead character in the book, The Golden Keys[2] (Doubleday 1956, 1970) by Hans Koning, a fictionalized retelling of the voyage of De Veer and the subsequent voyage of Olivier van Noort.

References

  1. The New England Journal of Medicine : Hypervitaminosis A and Fractures
  2. Hans Koning#Children.27s books>
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