Friderich Martens

Friderich Martens (1635–1699)[1][2] was a German physician and naturalist who conducted the first scientific observations of the nature, animal life and climate of Svalbard.

The Jonas im Walfisch, under captain Pieter Pieterszoon van Friesland, left Hamburg on 15 April 1671 heading north.

Martens made detailed notes of his observations and compiled these in his book "Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise-Beschreibung, gethan im Jahre 1671" which was published in 1675 [1][2][4] by Gottfried Schulzen in Hamburg.

The book contains observations of the ocean and weather and descriptions of a number of arctic plants, birds and animals complete with many drawings.

There are also the first notes on the ivory gull[5] prior to the thorough description by Constantine Phipps and the Brünnich's guillemot prior to the thorough description by Morten Brünnich[6] Martens' book was later translated into several languages and was published in Italian (1680), Dutch (1685), English (1694; as a section of a book) and French (1715; as an article).