The explorer Nansen once described the Polar world as an alliance between death and beauty (Huntford). The huge expanses of snow, the jumbled masses of ice which glowed with greens and blues when the sun shone through them, the brilliant Polar nights with their superb displays of stars, all fascinated the explorers.
Danger was never far away - a ship caught in the ice could have her hull cracked like an egg shell between the pressure floes; crevasses and "leads", the natural channels in sea ice, were lurking pitfalls and there was the constant risk from fierce blizzards which blotted out the horizon and reduced the explorer's world to a white freezing cocoon while the wind raged for days on end and all movement was impossible.
Scandinavians, like Nordenskiöld, Nansen and Amundsen, were masters of Polar travel. Experienced in snow and ice conditions at home, they brought their expertise to Arctic and Antarctic conditions.
Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 1832 - 1901
In 1878 Nordenskiöld left in the steam and sailing ship Vega to navigate the North-East Passage around the north of Asia. Exploring along the Siberian coast, Vega was trapped in the ice in September. The winter temperature outside the icebound ship sometimes dropped to -50 degrees. A local tribe, the Chukchi, came to trade fat and blubber for tobacco and pipes. One July evening as the crew were dining they suddenly felt the ship move. The ice was breaking and Vega sailed on to the Bering Strait, her mission a success.
Nordenskiöld was typical of the careful, cautious - and finally successful - scientific approach of the Scandinavians. By education a chemist and mineralogist, he arranged for three cargo boats to escort Vega, two as far as the mouth of the Yenisey river and the third to the river Lena. From there, Vega sailed on alone, keeping near the Siberian coast and mostly in very close fog. The winter in the ice passed very peacefully with the men busy taking scientific observations. In spring, caravans of sleds and reindeer herds were seen going towards the Bering Straits.
When Vega broke free of the ice and went that way herself, Nordenskiöld knew that he was near his goal when he found Eskimos who could speak several languages because they had been in touch with whalers in the Pacific. Sailing out into the Bering Straits, Vega hoisted all her flags and fired off a Swedish salute to celebrate a remarkably successful and well planned voyage.
Fridtjof Nansen 1860 - 1930
A brilliant Arctic explorer, Nansen left Norway in 1888 with three Norwegian companions and two Lapps to cross Greenland on skis. Despite appalling cold the expedition was a complete success. In 1893 he deliberately allowed his ship Fram to be caught in the polar pack ice, believing - correctly - that he would be carried north.
Tall and fair haired, Nansen was described as a "true Viking" and had the same love of action. When Fram was caught in the ice, he wrote in his diary that he was bored with the inactivity. His dash for the North Pole with one companion was daring. They reached Franz Joseph Land only just before the sea ice broke up, and wintered there, hunting deer and walrus and living in a stone hut until they could move south. Finally they were picked up by a British expedition who were amazed to see two men appear out of the frozen wastelands.
Sources:
- Huntford, R (2001) Nansen. Abacus Books
- Leslie, A (2005) The Arctic voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. Adamant Media Corporation
Linda Smallwood - Hi my name is Linda Smallwood. I am married with two sons aged 13 and 11 and live in North Wales. After 18 years working for The ...
