Erik Eriksen (born 1820, death 1888), was a Norwegian ice sea captain born in Lyngør, Norway. He later moved to Hammerfest, Norway. Eriksen was the inventor of the grenade harpoon used in modern whaling. Erik Eriksen travelled to Tønsberg with a wooden model to commercialize the harpoon with the help of Svend Foyn. Svend Foyn patented and industrialized the harpoon. Erik Eriksen did neither get profits nor honor for the invention, but Svend Foyn later helped out his family in Hammerfest after Eriksen left his wife and 9 children and emigrated to the U.S.A. where he died in a blizzard in Dakota.
Famous quotes containing the word erik:
“Young people of high school age can actually feel themselves changing. Progress is almost tangible. It’s exciting. It stimulates more progress. Nevertheless, growth is not constant and smooth. Erik Erikson quotes an aphorism to describe the formless forming of it. “I ain’t what I ought to be. I ain’t what I’m going to be, but I’m not what I was.””
—Stella Chess (20th century)