The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe by A.E. Nordenskiöld.

On the 24th at 8 A.M. the Vega again weighed anchor in order to steam on slowly, past Vaxholm into Stockholm. We met innumerable flag-decked steamers by the way, fully laden with friends, known and unknown, who with shouts of rejoicing welcomed the Vega men home. The nearer we came to Stockholm, the greater became the number of steamers, that, arranged in a double line and headed by the Vega, slowly approached the harbour. Lanterns in variegated colours were lighted on the vessels, fireworks were let off, and the roar of cannon mingled with the loud hurrahs of thousands of spectators. After being greeted at Kastelholmen with one salute more the Vega anchored in the stream in Stockholm at 10 P.M.

The queen of the Mälar had clothed herself for the occasion in a festive dress of incomparable splendour. The city was illuminated, the buildings round the harbour being in the first rank. Specially had the King done everything to make the reception of the Vega expedition, which he had so warmly cherished from the first moment, as magnificent as possible. The whole of the Royal Palace was radiant with a sea of lights and flames, and was ornamented with symbols and ciphers in which the name of the youngest sailor on the Vega was not omitted.

An estrade had been erected from Logaorden to the landing-place. Here we were received by the town councillors, whose president, the Governor, welcomed us in a short speech, we were then conducted to the Palace, where, in the presence of her Majesty the Queen of Sweden, the members of the Royal House, the highest officials of the State and Court, &c., we were in the grandest manner welcomed in the name of the fatherland by the King of Sweden, who at the same time conferred upon us further marks of his favour and goodwill [397]. It was also at the Royal Palace that the series of festivities commenced with a grand gala dinner, on the 25th of April, at which the King in a few magnanimous words praised the exploit of the Vega. Then fête followed fête for several weeks.

On the 26th the Swedish Yacht Club gave an entertainment in the Grand Hotel under the presidency of Admiral Lagercrantz. Among those who were present may be mentioned his Majesty the King, the Crown Prince, Prince Oscar, Oscar Dickson, and Baron von Otter, Minister of Marine. On the evening of the same day there was a torchlight procession by pupils of the Technical High School. On the 27th there was a gala-play, to which all the Vega men were invited. On the 28th at a festive meeting of the Academy of the Sciences, a medal struck on account of the Vega expedition was distributed, the meeting being followed by a dinner given at the Hotel Phoenix by the Academy under the presidency of the Crown Prince. On the 30th April and 5th May banquets were given by the Publicist Club, and by the Idun Society, by the Naval Officers' Society to the officers of the Vega, and by the Stockholm Workman's Union to the crew. On the 7th and 8th May there were festivities at Upsala, the principal attraction of which consisted of gay, lively, and ingenious carnival representations, in which we received jocular addresses and homage from fantastically dressed representatives of the peoples of different countries and periods.

addresses, and telegrams of welcome, among others from the riksdag of Sweden, the storting of Norway, and the principal towns of Norway and Finland, from the student corps at Upsala and Helsingborg, from the St. Petersburg Geographical Society, from women in Northern Russia (the address accompanied by a laurel wreath in silver), &c. In a word, the Stockholm fêtes formed the climax of the remarkable triumphal procession from Japan to Stockholm, which stands unique in the history of festivities. Even after the Expedition was broken up in Stockholm, and the Vega had sailed on the 9th May for Karlskrona and Gothenburg, where she was again taken over by the whaling company that previously owned her, the fêtes were repeated at these towns. They commenced anew when the Vega exhibition was opened with appropriate solemnities by His Majesty the King in one of the wings of the Royal Palace, and when some months after I visited Berlin, St. Petersburg, and my old dear fatherland, Finland.

But I may not weary my reader with more notes of festivities. It is my wish yet once again to offer my comrades' and my own thanks for all the honours conferred upon us both in foreign lands and in the Scandinavian North. And in conclusion I wish to express the hope that the way in which the accounts of the successful voyage of the Vega have been received in all countries will give encouragement to new campaigns in the service of research, until the natural history of the Siberian Polar Sea be completely investigated and till the veil that still conceals the enormous areas of land and sea at the north and south poles be completely removed, until man at last knows at least the main features of the whole of the planet which has been assigned him as a dwelling-place in the depths of the universe.

Hearty thanks last of all to my companions during the voyage of the Vega; to her distinguished commander Louis

Palander, her scientific men and officers, her petty officers and crew. Without their courage and the devotion they showed to the task that lay before us, the problem of the North-East Passage would perhaps still be waiting for its solution.

                                                    Distance traversed
                                                         English
                                           1878     geographical miles
Karlskrona—Copenhagen                      June 22—24        144
Copenhagen—Gothenburg                       ,, 26, 27       134
Gothenburg—Tromsoe                         July 4—17      1,040
Tromsoe—Chabarova                           ,, 21—30        930
Chabarova—Port Dickson                      Aug 1—6         580
Port Dickson—Cape Chelyuskin                ,, 10—19        510
Cape Chelyuskin—Preobraschenie Island       ,, 20—24        385
Preobraschenie Island—the Mouth of the Lena ,, 24—27        380
The Mouth of the Lena—Irkaipij             Aug 27—Sept 12 1,260
Irkaipij—Pitlekaj                          Sept 18—28        235
The Wintering                              Sept 28, 1878—
                                           July 18, 1879

                                           1879
Pitlekaj—St. Lawrence Bay                  July 18—20        190
St. Lawrence Bay—Port Clarence              ,, 21, 22       120
Port Clarence—Konyam Bay                    ,, 26—28        160
Konyam Bay—St. Lawrence Island              ,, 30, 31        90
St. Lawrence Island—Behring Island         Aug 2—14         900
Behring Island—Yokohama                    Aug. 19—Sept 2 1,715
Yokohama—Kobe                              Oct. 11—13        360
Kobe—Nagasaki                               ,, 18—21        410
Nagasaki—Hong Kong                          Oct. 27—Nov 2 1,080
Hong Kong—Labuan                            Nov. 9—17     1,040
Labuan—Singapore                            ,, 21—28        750
Singapore—Point de Galle                    Dec. 4—15     1,510
Point de Galle—Aden                  Dec. 22—Jan. 7, 1880 2,200

                                           1880
Aden—Suez                                   Jan. 9—27      1,320
Suez—Naples                                 Feb. 3—14      1,200
Naples—Lisbon                            Feb. 29—March 11 1,420
Lisbon—Falmouth                           March 16—25        745
Falmouth—Vlissingen                       April 5—8         345
Vlissingen—Copenhagen                      ,,   10—16        632
Copenhagen—Stockholm                       ,,   20—24        404
                                                          ——————
                                               Total      22,189

[392] An accident also happened during the first half of the expedition, the steersman, in backing among drift-ice, having been thrown over the wheel and hurt very seriously.

[393] Further particulars on this point are given in the Annual Address on the Progress of Geography by the Right Hon. the Earl of Northbrook (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1880, p. 401).

[394] During our visit to London we had no opportunity of taking part in any of the meetings of the Society, but some time after the Society gave Palander the Founders Gold Medal (I had in 1869 obtained the same distinction) and elected me an Honorary Corresponding Member.

[395] These are enumerated in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, Mai, 1880, p. 463. In the same part (p. 450) there is also a report of the speeches made at the séance de réception.

[396] The medal was accompanied by an "extrait du registre de procès-verbaux du conseil municipal de la ville de Paris," a caligraphic masterpiece illuminated in various colours and gold. The Conseil municipal also ordered a detailed description of the fête to be printed, with the title Relation officielle de le réception de M. le Professeur Nordenskiöld par le conseil municipal de Paris le lundi 5 Avril 1880.

[397] Among others to all who took part in the Expedition a Vega medal, specially struck, to be worn on a blue-yellow riband on the breast. It may perhaps be of interest for numismatists to know that the medals distributed on account of the Vega expedition are to be found delineated in the eighth and ninth parts of the Swedish Family Journal for 1880. To those that are there delineated there have since been added a medal struck by the Finnish Society of Sciences, and the Anthropological-Geographical Society's medal.