Mayen, an Island east of Greenland and towards the east coast of Greenland in the beginning of July. They start to map the coast southwards making frequent shore raids collecting minerals and hunting animals. Hammar's main mission was to excavate traces of Eskimo villages and collect ethnographic remains. Some 278 items found are still in the collections of the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm There is an extensive account of this expedition in A.G. Nathorst's books Två somrar i Ishavet (Two summers in the Arctic Ocean). The expedition arrives back to Stockholm on September 17, 1899. Canoeing pioneer Hammar was an early Swedish canoeist and kayaker. He brought along the canoe Kajaka for the 1899 Greenland expedition. Kayaka was constructed by the Swedish naval officer Carl Smith. Later, Josef Hammar became member of Sweden's oldest canoe club, Föreningen för Kanot-Idrott. Second Boer War In the autumn of 1899 the Second Boer War started. After some lobbying Hammar received grants from the Swedish government and the Swedish Red Cross to travel to South Africa as a doctor. Through contacts in Stockholm he got Sweden's foreign minister Alfred Lagerheim together with the Swedish envoy in Brussels, August Gyldenstolpe, to send the following telegram to the South African Republics Consul General in Amsterdam: "Dr. Hammar, 30 years old, military physician and surgeon, with the best recommendations from the Swedish Medical Board and the official representative of The Red Cross, wishes to ask whether he may put himself to the Transvaal Republics disposal. He departs from Hamburg on the 25th and arrives in Amsterdam on the 28th. Please reply through telegram whether You want to give him a letter of recommendation and work (employment) with the Republic. - Signed Count Gyldenstolpe" After some communication he decided to associate himself to a Dutch ambulance as he couldn't raise enough money for an ambulance from Sweden. Travelling through Holland via Italy and the Suez channel he arrived to South Africa and Pretoria in the beginning of December 1899. There he visited President Paul Krüger who expressed his gratitude to the Swedish government and the Swedish Red Cross for sending them a doctor. It was decided that he was more needed in one of the governments ambulances than in the Dutch ambulance as they had a shortage of doctors. After a week in Pretoria, Hammar set off to the front at the siege of Ladysmith where he