Nordenskiöld is a name which not only recalls much and varied Arctic work, but also most valuable researches connected with historical geography. Its bearer, the late Nils Adolf Erik, Baron Nordenskiöld, was born at Helsingfors in 1832, of an ancient and distinguished Swedish family settled in Finland. His father was a well-known man of science, and the young Nordenskiöld became a trained chemist and mineralogist. He settled at Stockholm in 1857 and soon began to turn his attention to Arctic exploration. In 1858 he was geologist in Torell’s Spitsbergen expedition; in 1861, with Duner, he was taking preliminary observations for the Spitsbergen measurement of an arc of the meridian; in 1868 he reached the highest northern latitude attained by a ship; in 1870 he made his first journey over the inland ice of Greenland; and, later, he wintered in Spitsbergen and made the inland journey across North-East Island. The funds for these expeditions were to a large extent supplied by Baron Oscar Dickson, the munificent supporter of Swedish Arctic enterprise.
In 1873 Nordenskiöld turned his attention to the North East Passage by the Siberian coast, believing that it might become a highway for commerce. In that year he reached the Yenisei by the Kara Sea, and discovered an excellent harbour which he named after his generous supporter, Oscar Dickson. In 1875 he again crossed the Kara Sea in the Ymer. These were pioneer voyages. His great expedition, with the financial support of King Oscar, of Oscar Dickson, and of the Russian merchant Sibirikoff, was fitted out in 1878.
A ship named the Vega, built at Bremen in 1872, of oak with a skin of greenheart, was purchased. She was of 300 tons, 150 ft. long, by 29 ft. beam, and 16 ft. depth of hold, barque rigged, with a screw propeller and engines of 60 horse-power. The leader of the expedition was Nordenskiöld himself, the captain of the ship Lieutenant Louis Palander, a distinguished Swedish naval officer who had previously been in Spitsbergen with Nordenskiöld. The other officers were Lieutenant Brusewitz of the Swedish navy, Lieutenant Hovgaard of the Danish navy, Lieutenant Bove of the Italian navy, and Lieutenant Nordqvist of the Russian army. There were also three scientific men (one being the surgeon), two engineers, a boatswain, and 15 seamen of the Swedish navy, besides three Norwegian seal-fishers, 30 all told. The Vega took 300 tons of coal and two years’ provisions, and was accompanied by two of Sibirikoff’s cargo vessels for the Yenisei, and the Lena for the river of that name.
The Vega left Tromsö on the 21st July, 1878, with the three other vessels in company, and anchored in Pet Strait, between Waigats Island and the mainland of the Samoyeds, on the 30th. The ship stood out into the Kara Sea, and rounded White Island. There seems to be little or no risk of running ashore on the coast, for the currents from the Obi and Yenisei flow northward at a rate of two to five miles. All went well, and on the 6th August the Vega and Lena were safely anchored in Dickson Harbour, while Sibirikoff’s two vessels proceeded up the Yenisei river.
From this point the exploring voyage began, and was well described in Palander’s letters to me at the time. Cape Taimyr was reached on the 10th of August, and floe ice was encountered with thick fogs. It may be mentioned that very important corrections of longitude had to be made all along the Siberian coast, and between Dickson Harbour and Cape Taimyr several islands previously unknown were discovered.
On the 19th of August the Vega rounded Cape Chelyuskin, the most northern point of the Old World, which was found to be in 77° 36′ N. and 103° 25′ E. Palander then stood more out to sea in hopes of finding unknown islands, but the quantity of drift ice by which the ship was soon surrounded led him to seek the coast again, and he found a navigable though narrow channel between the land and the pack. On August 28th the Vega was off the mouth of the Lena, and the little steamer destined for service on that river parted company.
The strong current from the river Lena sent the Vega 70 miles to the north. It was observed that in all the islands on the Siberian coast the northern sides were quite precipitous, while those towards the coast were low, often sloping into sand-banks. Until September 3rd there was beautiful weather with little ice, and the Bear Islands, 35 miles from the mouth of the Kolyma, were reached. Here the four basaltic pillars, 44 feet high, reported by Wrangel, were sighted, looking exactly like four lighthouses. Here also the explorers had their first snow-fall, and the ship was stopped by heavy floes cemented together, so Palander again made for the land, and found a narrow channel. This eastern part of the voyage was by far the most difficult, and very slow progress was made in shallow water, with much drift ice and fog, the steam launch being constantly ahead sounding. From the 8th to the 11th, when Cape Jakan was passed, the explorers were working through pack ice with a depth of only four fathoms. But fortune, which had hitherto been so propitious, now deserted them, and on the 28th September the Vega, when almost within reach of success, was forced to winter on the coast and remain for nearly ten months. Palander thought, however, that 1878 was a bad ice year, and that generally a vessel with steam power could pass from Norway to Japan in one season.
On the 18th of July, 1879, a strong south wind drifted the ice off the shore, and the Vega was free. On the 20th she passed East Cape, and Bering Strait was crossed several times for the purpose of taking soundings. They were at Bering Island on August 14th, and Yokohama was reached on the 2nd September, 1879. The hearty welcome that Nordenskiöld received on his return from this famous voyage was worthy of the great explorer’s well-established position in the world of science.
The results of Nordenskiöld’s famous voyage were the correction of the longitudes along the coast of Siberia, the numerous soundings (no less than 5000 casts of the lead having been taken), the observations and collections, and not least, the lengthened study of the Tchuktchi race which they had been able to make during the long detention in winter quarters. The two divisions of coast and reindeer Tchuktchis numbered 3000. The former daily visited the Vega during the winter, in parties numbering from ten to twenty, were allowed to go where they liked, and never attempted to steal anything. Palander found them good-natured, friendly, hospitable, and honest.
Nordenskiöld’s activities did not cease with this, the greatest of his achievements. He made a second journey over the inland ice of Greenland, effected a landing on the east coast, and encouraged the aspirations of young men such as Björling and Kallstenius, whose melancholy fate was a cause of sorrow to him154. After he was ennobled Nordenskiöld lived chiefly at his beautiful country seat of Dalbyo, where I twice visited him. His latest labours, in bringing to light and publishing medieval maps and charts and portolans in two splendid volumes, were not the least important. His researches and discoveries threw much new light on the history of cartography. When he died a vast amount of knowledge died with him, and there passed away from among us an illustrious man of science, a great explorer, a great geographer, and a man of whom his countrymen may well be proud155.
While Nordenskiöld was engaged in his Siberian labours, there was an enthusiastic English master mariner who was also filled with the idea of opening a trade with Russia by the Arctic Sea. Joseph Wiggins was born in 1832 at Norwich, between which place and London his father drove the “Nelson” coach three times a week, until railroads superseded coaches. At fourteen Joseph went to sea, and became master of a ship trading to the Mediterranean when he was twenty-one. From 1868 to 1874 he was examiner in navigation at Sunderland, and in the latter year his mind became full of ideas about opening a Russian trade by the north. He was a practical and very persevering man, with whom thought was soon followed by action. On June 3rd, 1874, he sailed in the Diana of 103 tons, successfully crossed the ice-bound Kara Sea to the river Obi, and returned. In 1875 he went to Archangel in a Yarmouth ship, called the William. In 1876, with help from the Russian merchant Sibirikoff and Mr Gardiner, he sailed in the Thames of 120 tons, and reached the Yenisei river. Leaving her there with the crew on board, he returned overland by way of Petrograd. He went out again to his ship, accompanied by Mr Seebohm, the distinguished ornithologist, who had long desired to investigate the bird-life of this region. They arrived at the town of Yeniseisk on April 5th, 1877, and reached the Thames at the Kureika, lower down the river Yenisei, on the 23rd. The crew were in good health, but the ship had to be cut out of the ice. No sooner was the Thames free than she ran on a sand-bank on her way down the river and was finally abandoned. The Ibis, a little vessel belonging to Seebohm, was uninjured, but all the crew of the Thames except three refused to go home in her. Mr Seebohm, who made a valuable ornithological collection, calculated that 50,000 acres of ice passed down the river in the spring, at the rate of ten to twenty miles an hour, and his description of the break-up of the ice on these great Siberian rivers is of extraordinary interest. He returned home overland, as did Wiggins and the rest of the crew of the Thames.
The next venture of Wiggins was very successful. In concert with Mr Oswald Cattley, who chartered the Warkworth of 650 tons for a voyage to the Obi, he sailed from Liverpool on August 1st, 1878, reached the Obi, and was back in the Thames by October 2nd with a cargo of wheat. In 1879 speculators rushed in and spoiled the business. Nine large steamers, all quite unfit for ice navigation, were chartered for the Obi, where 5000 tons of Siberian goods were ready for them. But the masters of the steamers were frightened of the ice and came home without cargoes, thus thoroughly discrediting the enterprise. Wiggins gave it up in disgust, but some years afterwards, encouraged by Sir Robert Morier, the English Ambassador at Petrograd, he was induced to take the Phoenix of 273 tons to the Yenisei, and he made several other voyages until 1896. This fine specimen of an English master mariner had become a perfect pilot of the Kara Sea, and a most worthy successor of Burrough, Pet, and Jackman. I had the pleasure of presenting him with one of the awards of the Royal Geographical Society for his excellent services in the Kara Sea, and he received other recognitions. He died, aged 73, on September 13th, 1905156.
Another expedition, connected more or less with the voyage of Nordenskiöld and the Siberian Sea, was planned and commanded by Lieutenant George W. De Long of the United States Navy, and financed by Mr Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald. The expedition had the great advantage of being under naval discipline, the commander receiving instructions from the Secretary of the Navy. Mr Gordon Bennett induced Sir Allen Young to sell him the Pandora as the vessel for the new expedition. At this time Lieutenant De Long was in England, and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. He was a good seaman, a scientific officer, and an agreeable companion. Trained to the management and care of seamen De Long was undoubtedly the best of all the American arctic commanders, and he well fulfilled the trust that was placed in him. The Pandora was taken to San Francisco—for the object of the expedition was to make discoveries by way of Bering Strait—but, ignoring the vessel’s previous fine record, and in spite of sailors’ customs and beliefs, her name was changed to the Jeannette.
Captain De Long was accompanied by two naval lieutenants, Danenhower and Chipp, and a naval engineer, Melville, with Dr Ambler as surgeon, and the ice pilot Dunbar. The expedition, with 32 men and 40 dogs, left San Francisco on 8th July, 1879, a few days before Nordenskiöld got free from his winter quarters among the Tchuktchis. Passing through Bering Strait and sighting Herald Island, the vessel was soon afterwards beset and drifted helplessly to the north-west. De Long’s hope was that she would be freed when she reached a part of the ocean far from land where the floes might disperse, but this never happened. Two winters were passed during this wearisome drift, but De Long knew how to keep up the spirits of his people by his own unfailing cheerfulness, and by promoting good-fellowship and various amusements. On March 12th, 1881, they were in 74° 54′ N., having drifted 320 miles to the north-west since sighting Herald Island, but they were still on the continental shelf, the depth being only 38 fathoms, increasing, after a month, to 85 fathoms. The rate of drift seemed to increase. From April 21st to 25th it was 47 miles, in a direction N. 69° W. On May 16th, in 76° 47′ N., a small island was sighted, and on the 24th another in 77° 8′ N. A dog sledge, under Melville, was sent to visit one of them, returning on June 5th. They were outliers of the Liakhov group, and were named Jeannette and Henrietta Islands respectively. On June 11th the depth was only 33 fathoms, and the ice was in a threatening condition. Suddenly the vessel was subjected to tremendous pressure. Provisions and everything that could be saved were at once got out on the ice together with the boats, and on June 12th, 1881, after long and faithful service on the African coast, in Baffin’s Bay, Peel Sound, and Smith Sound, and lastly in this long drift, the staunch old gunboat sank to the bottom of the Siberian Sea.
De Long found himself in command of a whale-boat and two cutters, with 4950 lb. of pemmican and 1120 lb. of biscuit and 32 souls to save from death. Their position was in 77° 14′ 57″ N. and 154° 58′ E., far away from land. The boats were mounted and secured on sledges, and held ten men each, the first with De Long and Ambler, the second with Melville and Danenhower, and the third with Chipp and Dunbar. There were six tents.
De Long made for the Liakhov or New Siberian Islands, but with much soft snow and dangerous openings in the ice their progress was slow. On July 29th land was discovered in 76° 38′ 17″ N., the most northern of the New Siberian group, consisting of volcanic rock, with a vein of bituminous coal. It received the name of Bennett Island. All were then well, with 23 dogs, and 30 days’ provisions, but De Long himself was suffering much from the state of his feet. From the New Siberian Islands the three boats then started for the mouth of the Lena, De Long intending to lead his people to the first Russian settlement he could find.
In crossing from the island to the Siberian coast the boats encountered a furious gale of wind and were separated. Chipp and his boat’s crew were never heard of again. Melville and Danenhower, however, with their men, landed on one part of the Lena delta, and De Long on another. The latter in vain tried to find their way to a Russian settlement. Provisions failed, and all, save two, perished. Melville and Danenhower were more fortunate, reaching Yakutsk on the 30th December, 1881, and Melville at once organised a search for his lost commander.
A relief expedition had meanwhile been fitted out at San Francisco, and in June 1881 the Rodgers sailed under the command of Lieutenant Berry, U.S.N. That intelligent officer made a complete survey and examination of the small Wrangell Island, in sight from Cape Chelagskoi, about which Dr Petermann and others had written so inaccurately. He wintered in St Lawrence Bay, and then made his way to Yakutsk, to join Melville in the search. The bodies of De Long and Ambler were found close to each other on the island of Boren-Bjelkoi; they had died nobly, martyrs to science, and devoted to duty to the last.
De Long was a naval officer of promise, and a noble character. He impressed me greatly with his thoroughness. In his last letter to his wife he wrote: “I feel my responsibility, and I hope I appreciate the delicate position I am placed in, of leading and directing so many people of my own age. I hope God will aid me in what I have undertaken, and will bring me through it in safety and with credit.” Mrs De Long resolved to publish the whole of her husband’s copious journals, and she acted wisely, for they form one of the most interesting of Arctic books. She wrote to me—what every reader will endorse—“the journals show so convincingly the zeal, perseverance, and devotion of the leader, that I am anxious that they should have as large a circulation as possible.”
De Long’s expedition, though unfortunate, was not without useful results. The history of the drift, so carefully and accurately recorded, is valuable geographically and will always be of assistance to future explorers.