Carey Islands

This article is about the island group in Greenland. For the island in Canada, see Carey Island (Nunavut). For the island in Malaysia, see Carey Island.

Carey Islands

Native name: Kitsissut
File:Bjorlingo.png View of Björlingø Island
Carey Islands (Greenland)
Geography
Location	Baffin Bay, Greenland
Coordinates
Archipelago	Carey Islands
Total islands	6
Major islands	Nordvestø
Highest elevation	300 m (Björlingø HP)
Country
Greenland
Municipality	Qaasuitsup
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

Carey Islands is located in Thule

Location of the Carey Islands

The Carey Islands (Danish: Carey Øer; Greenlandic: Kitsissut) are an island group off Baffin Bay, in the Qaasuitsup municipality, NW Greenland. Located relatively far offshore the Carey Islands are the westernmost point of Greenland as a territory. The sea surrounding the islands is clogged by ice most of the year.

Geography

The archipelago consists of six desolate islands, a few small islets and a number of rocks awash. It is located about 100 km to the west of Thule Air Base and 50 km to the SW of Cape Parry.

The nearest settlement is Moriusaq to the east on the coast of Greenland, abandoned since 2007.

Islands

Main islands

• Nordvestø, Isbjørneø and Mellemø form a compact cluster at the NW end of the archipelago.
  • Nordvestø, the biggest island with a length of 4.5 km and a width of nearly 3 km. This island's western landhead is the westernmost point of Greenland. Its highest point is 225 m.
  • Isbjørneø and Mellemø, lying close to the east and forming a natural harbour between them and Nordvestø.
• Bordø and Björlingø, located further to the east; the latter having a 300 m high peak.
• Fireø, lying in the southern area of the group.

Islets

• Hollænderhatten and Tyreøjet are two small islets to the east of Fireø having a diametre of a few hundred metres. there are also numerous other islets and rocks, especially in the western sector of the archipelago.

History

The Carey Islands' were named by the 1616 Bylot-Baffin Arctic expedition after Allwin Carey, one of the financiers of the venture.

Swedish naturalists Alfred Björling and Evald Kallstenius stopped at the Carey Islands in 1892 during an expedition on schooner Ripple to pick up supplies at a cache there. The Ripple, however, was driven on shore and wrecked. The men attempted to sail a small sloop back to Etah, but were forced to return to the Carey Islands.

According to letters left by members of the ill-fated expedition in a cairn on the islands, the remaining four men attempted to sail their open boat 80 miles to Ellesmere Island:

Forced by bad weather to linger on this island for a long time, I now set out on the tour to the Eskimos... on Ellesmere Island. As I hope that a whaler will visit the Carey Islands next summer to rescue me and my companions, I will try to reach the islands again before July 1. We are now five men, of which one is dying.

In June 1893, the crew of the Scottish whaler Aurora spotted a wreck on the Carey Islands. They found the Ripple, a man’s body buried under a pile of stones, and Björling's letters. No trace of the other four men, or the small boat, was ever found.

See also

• List of islands of Greenland
• List of countries by westernmost point
• Björling-Kallstenius Expedition
• Cape Alexander, Greenland

External links

• An ornithological survey of the Carey Islands