iFACTS | Christopher Tärnström

Date of Birth	20 May 1711.
Place of Birth	Funbo parish, Uppland, Sweden.
Date of Death	4 December 1746.
Place of Death	The island of Pulo-Condore (Con-Dao), Vietnam.
Monuments Medals Etc.	Unknown.
Variations of Name's Spelling	Ternström (in some older literature, but he wrote Tärnström himself ).
Preserved signature	In correspondence.
Portrait	Unknown.
Childhood, Adolescence & Education	Father, farmer equipping a cavalry soldier, Andreas Tärnström. Mother, Margaretha Bille. The family had eight children. The young Tärnström was most likely educated at home, before he started his studies in Uppsala. Student, Uppsala University, he signed in 17 December 1724. Tärnström studied theology and natural history. Defended his thesis concerning the history of Åland “Specimen historicum, De Alandia, Maris Baltici insula” 1 December 1739. Ordained priest 4 December 1739. Master of Philosophy, disputation of his second part of the history, geography, botany and zoology of Ålands “Dissertatio Academica, De Alandia, Maris Baltici insula”, 27 November 1745.
Professional Life	Tärnström worked as tutor during his university studies for long periods, particularly on Åland where he was employed for several years. He was employed as school master in Östhammar after finishing his long period of studies, autumn 1739. Schoolmaster in Vaxholm, 1741-1743. Tärnström applied - with the recommendation of Linnaeus - already during the autumn 1744 for an employment as ship’s priest on one of the Swedish East India Company ships, but did not succeed this year. However, he became employed the following year, on 16 October 1745 and travelled with the ship Calmar early in 1746.
Journeys & Voyages	Ship’s priest on The Swedish East India Company ship Calmar, 13 February 1746 until 4 December when he died, the ship also anchored in Cadiz and Java before they arrived at the island of Polu-Condore. (The journey was financed with his employment as ship’s priest and a scholarship. This scholarship was secured by Linnaeus and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, and was supposed to be used at the arrival at Canton - which never became realised for Tärnström - for the natural history collection work. This important part of Tärnström’s assignment was meticulously described in his ‘instruction’ from The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences).
Travel Diaries & Other Publications in Connection with the Journeys & Voyages	His diary, ‘Resejournaler 1745 - 1746’ - is part of a collection in Uppsala University Library in Sweden - was published posthumously by IK Foundation & Company in The Mundus Linnæi Series - No: 1. Christopher Tärnströms Journal. En resa mellan Europa och Sydostasien år 1746 (A passage between Europe and East Asia in the year 1746), by Kristina Söderpalm (Editor Lars Hansen). 2005.
Civil Status & Family	Tärnström married Sara Christina Schick in the year 1739. Their daughter Margaretha Christina was born 2 October 1740, but his wife died during the summer of 1741. He remarried Brigitta Stenhoff - probably 1742 - for the reason that their first daughter was baptised 2 November 1743. A second daughter in this marriage - Anna Maria - was born approximately two years later and baptised 21 November 1745.
Preserved Collections & Manuscripts	Tärnström’s journal, Uppsala University Library, manuscript department, Ihre collection. Botanical and Zoological specimens collected by Tärnström, The Linnean Society of London. Plant collections from the outward journey were sent from Cadiz to Stockholm, as well as seeds which germinated in Uppsala; altogether Linnaeus received about 25 species for the Hortus upsaliensis. Letters, The Linnean Society of London, Linnean Correspondence.
Extra Notes	As the first Linnaeus apostle Tärnström sailed with the Swedish East India Company in 1746. He died on the island of Pulo-Condore, off the coast of what is now Vietnam, where he had worked for just two months. After the death of Tärnström, Linnaeus only selected young unmarried men for the long scientific voyages. This decision was primarily made upon the fact that Tärnström’s widow got financial difficulties and Linnaeus felt some obligation towards the family’s poor economical situation. He did not want to put himself in such a position again. A tropical plant genus was named by Linnaeus to the memory of Tärnström,viz. Ternstroemia, the genus has c. 15 species of tropical shrubs and belongs in the family Pentaphylacaceae.
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Côn Sơn Island - Tärnström was probably describ...

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Christopher Tärnström’s Journal in 1746

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In iFACTS biographical facts of each individual Linnaeus Apostle are described, a total of seventeen men who made long voyages from the years 1746 to 1799, more than 50 years of travel in the service of science!

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