Johan Carl Christian Petersen (June 28, 1813 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 - June 24, 1880 in Copenhagen) was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 seaman

Seaman

Seaman is one of the lowest ranks in a Navy. In the Commonwealth it is the lowest rank in the Navy, followed by Able Seaman and Leading Seaman, and followed by the Petty Officer ranks....

 and interpreter

Interpreting

Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...

 who participated in several expeditions in Northern Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 in search of the missing British explorer John Franklin

John Franklin

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...

.

At the age of about 20 he moved to Godthåb

Nuuk

Nuuk, is the capital of Greenland, the northernmost capital in North America and the largest city in Greenland. Located in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea and on the west coast of Sermersooq. Nuuk is the largest cultural and economic center in...

 (now Nuuk) in Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 where he made a living as a carpenter and sailor. In 1841 he moved to Upernavik

Upernavik

Upernavik is a small town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. Due to the small size of the settlement, everything is within walking distance...

, at the time the most northern Danish colony in Greenland. There he married a native Inuit and took on their customs and way of living, in the process he became a quite skilled hunter, dog sledge driver and observer.

He worked on William Penny

William Penny

William Penny was a Scottish captain. He undertook the first maritime search for the ships of Sir John Franklin.-References:* *****...

's Expedition (1850–51), Elisha Kane

Elisha Kane

Elisha Kent Kane was a medical officer in the United States Navy during the first half of the 19th century. He was a member of two Arctic expeditions to rescue the explorer Sir John Franklin...

's Second Grinnell Expedition (1853–1855) into Kane Basin

Kane Basin

Kane Basin is an Arctic waterway lying between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Smith Sound to Kennedy Channel and forms part of Nares Strait. It is approximately 180 kilometres in length and 130 km at its widest....

, Francis Leopold McClintock

Francis Leopold McClintock

Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock or Francis Leopold M'Clintock KCB, FRS was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy who is known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.-Biography:...

 Expedition (1857) and Isaac Israel Hayes

Isaac Israel Hayes

Isaac Israel Hayes was an Arctic explorer and physician.Hayes was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After completing his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Hayes signed on as ship's surgeon for an 1853-5 expedition led by Elisha Kent Kane to search for John Franklin...

 North Pole Expedition (1860–61). He wrote two book about these expeditions.

On Kane's expedition he worked together with the young Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

 Hans Hendrik

Hans Hendrik

Hans Hendrik, also known as Hans Christian, native name Suersaq , was a Greenlandic Arctic traveller and interpreter, born in the southern settlement of Fiskernaes .-Supporting the Kane Expedition:...

 who has Hans Island

Hans Island

Hans Island is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring , located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea...

named after him.

After these expeditions he moved back to Denmark.

Writing

• Erindringer fra Polarlandene optegnede af Carl Petersen, tolk ved Pennys og Kanes nordexpeditioner, 1850-55, Copenhagen, P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1857.
• Den sidste Franklin-expedition med "Fox", Capt. M'Clintock, Copenhagen, F. Wøldikes Forlagsboghandel, 1860.