The year 1882–1883 saw the first international effort at coordinated, synchronized polar research. Through the coordinating efforts of the International Polar Commission, 11 countries (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austro‐Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Russia) mounted a total of 14 expeditions, 12 locating themselves in the Northern Hemisphere and 2 in the Southern Hemisphere. For a full calendar year these expeditions carried out a prearranged schedule of synchronized scientific observations, the major foci being meteorology and earth magnetism. Germany dispatched two expeditions, one being to Clear‐water Fiord, Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island. It consisted of seven scientists and support staff of four. One of the members was a mathematician and physicist, H. Abbes. In this article he presents a detailed and lively account of the events of the expedition, not the least interesting aspects being his observations on the local Inuit and their interaction with the expedition.