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Fut Jensen's notes from Kosmos III
A page of Fut's notebook from Kosmos IIIThroughout the eight month voyage of Kosmos III, Fut Jensen kept made notes which record his many observations. His typewritten notes, which appear to be complete, offer a vital commentary to the silent film which survives. The notes are note written as a commentary, in style and standpoint they resemble his letters home to friends. But they were written as part of the Kosmos assignment - Hakon Mielche, who expected to join Fut and Kosmos III in Curacao, asked him to film, take stills pictures, and keep notes. Although Mielche was delayed in joining the voyage, he did eventually meet Kosmos III - possibly in Walvis Bay. 
There She Blows! by Hakon Mielche, published by William Hodge, London 1952
Mielche was a productive and moderately succesful writer, having already published several travel books, all of which had been translated into English. Three years after the voyage, in 1952, Mielche's book "There she blows!" (original in Danish "Hval i sigt!") was published. The book is an account of the Kosmos III voyage, written as if the writer was present for the entire trip - which documentary evidence seems to contradict. That Mielche left Fut to work alone on Kosmos III for several months, seems to be the cause of some disagreement between the two in 1949. Their second contract for the Kosmos assignment, dated 5th December 1949 (though unsigned by Fut) gives Mielche the rights to Fut's photo and written material to be used in Mielche's book. Fut's notes - along with his stills photographs - found their way into Mielche's book and were published as Mielche's own observations. 

Fut's notes were kept in a coil-spring exercise book, and later (presumably following his return to Denmark) typewritten on thin "onionskin" A4 sheets, folded into A5 format and placed with a similar folded page, with intervening carbon paper so that 4 copies could be typed at once. Most of the original typewritten notes survive in 3 or 4 copies. An exercise book with handwritten notes is also amongst the collection. The typewritten notes are in three sets. There seems to be some chronology - as if Fut Jensen saw his writings as a travel diary, though he underlines in the text that he "could not be bothered to keep a diary", a task which he had set himself before leaving for the voyage - as the weeks pass however, his notes begin to take the form of a diary. Interpreting the chronology is further aided by the numbering of the pages of the different sets - although each set is numbered from page 1 upwards, it has been possible to separate and sort these sets into the correct chronological order because the pages of each set were numbered in a different manner - maybe intentionally to aid Fut himself. The first set is page numbered = = 1 = =   = = 2 = = etc., the second set is numbered -1- -2- -3- etc., whilst the third set is numbered 1 2 3 and so on. There are also some unnumbered pages which do not appear to belong to these three sets. These documents are scanned and can be viewed by following the links below.
 


 
 

To appreciate the full chronology of Fut Jensen's story, his personal letters, which were written throughout the voyage must also be studied.

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