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