CHAPTER XVI
Baron A. E. von Nordenskjöld.—First voyage 1858.—Accompanies succeeding Swedish expeditions.—Spitzbergen.—Voyage of Sofia.—1868.—Nordenskjöld’s journey to Greenland.—Voyage of the Polhem.—Attempt to reach the Pole by reindeer sledge.—Unexpected discouragements and disasters.—Voyage of the Proven.—1875.—The Kara Sea.—Journey repeated the following year.—In the Ymer.—Voyage of the Vega.
The career of Baron A. E. von Nordenskjöld is one of the most distinguished in Arctic history. Born in Helsingfors, Finland, November 18, 1832, he learned at an early age the thrill of adventure and the joys of research while accompanying his distinguished father on his mineralogical tours in the Ural Mountains. After graduating at Helsingfors in 1857, Nordenskjöld was himself appointed a professor of mineralogy at Stockholm. Baron Nordenskjöld’s scientific interest in polar research began as early as 1858, when he accompanied Otto Torell, chief geologist of Sweden, who sailed on the Frithrop for Spitzbergen. This was the beginning of a series of Swedish expeditions that covered a quarter of a century, in which Nordenskjöld had a most valuable and active part. Two months were spent on the west coast of Spitzbergen, in dredging the sea, studying the land formation and its botanical and glacial conditions.
Nordenskjöld’s chief contribution to science on this expedition was the discovery of a fossil-bearing rock in carboniferous formations.
SPITZBERGEN
Another journey beyond the Arctic circle was undertaken by Torell in 1861, for a more thorough survey and study of the natural history and geology of Spitzbergen. On this journey, Torell, Nordenskjöld and Petersen undertook a boat journey to Hinlopen Strait and later visited the coast of Northeast Land. Passing North Cape and visiting Seven Islands, they reached their farthest, 80° 42´ N., August 5, at Phipps Island.
Prince Oscar Land was reached a week later, and from a mountain two thousand feet high near Cape Wrede, two islands could be seen in the distance, to which were given the names of Charles XII and Drabanten. Pushing their way east of Cape Platen, the ice conditions forced their return.
In 1863 Nordenskjöld again visited Spitzbergen, and again in 1864, when he was placed in charge of the Swedish expedition, and was accompanied by Dunér and Malmgren. In a small boat of twenty-six tons burden, and provisioned for less than six months, they entered Safe Harbor at the entrance of the magnificent Ice Fiord. After rounding the southern cape of Spitzbergen, they entered Store Fiord, and visited Edges Land and Barentz Land. After entering Helis Sound and ascending White Mountain, they again rounded South Cape with the intention of following the west coast as far north as the ice would permit. On this journey while off Charles Foreland, they rescued some shipwrecked sailors, whose vessels had become beset off Seven Islands, and who had journeyed in open boats some two hundred miles in fourteen days. An immediate return was thus made necessary, but the results of the summer’s work was a map, executed by Nordenskjöld and Dunér, which delineates Spitzbergen with great accuracy.
In 1868 the Swedish expedition had for its objective point the Pole. The Sofia was chosen for this purpose and commanded by Captain (Count) F. W. von Otter, with Nordenskjöld as scientific chief. Smeerenberg Bay at the north end of Spitzbergen was decided upon as a place of rendezvous and from this point the Sofia made two attempts for a high northing. In the second she was rewarded by reaching on September 19, 1868, 81° 42´ N., and 17° 30´ E., at that time the farthest north attained by any ship. A third attempt to push the Sofia through the impenetrable pack resulted in her becoming disabled and necessitated the return of the expedition to Sweden.
In 1870 Nordenskjöld made a journey to Greenland, accompanied by Dr. Berggren, the noted professor of botany at Lund. The object of the expedition was to penetrate the unexplored interior from a point at the northern arm of a deep inlet called Aulaitsivik Fiord, some sixty miles south of the discharging glacier at Jakobshaven and two hundred and forty north of the glacier at Godthaab. He commenced his inland journey on the 19th of July. Besides Dr. Berggren, he was assisted by two Eskimos, but the disheartening difficulties of travel over the inland ice of Greenland, caused by the slow movement of the glaciers, which produce chasms and clefts of almost bottomless depth, soon caused the party to abandon their sledge, and later the two natives refused to proceed. Undaunted by their desertion, Nordenskjöld and Dr. Berggren continued their explorations alone and advanced thirty miles over the glaciers to a height of twenty-two hundred feet above the sea. One of the most important results of this remarkable journey was the discovery of two meteorites, the largest ever known.
VOYAGE OF THE “POLHEM”
In 1871 Nordenskjöld again set out for Spitzbergen. His object was to reach the Pole by reindeer-sledging. Sailing in the ship Polhem commanded by Lieutenant Palander of the Swedish Navy, and accompanied by two convoys, the Gladen and Onkle Adam, they reached Mussel Bay, and there established winter quarters. In an attempt to return, the convoys were beset in a violent storm. Unable to extricate themselves and not being provisioned for winter the crews, numbering forty-three men, were suddenly forced upon Nordenskjöld’s party for fuel and supplies.
To distribute food intended for twenty-four persons among a party of sixty-seven was a serious problem, and was only accomplished by reducing the rations of all one-third. Hardly had this blow fallen upon the prospects of the expedition, when they were visited by four men with the overwhelming news that six walrus-vessels had been frozen in at Point Grey and Cape Welcome. By hunting it was hoped that the fifty-eight unfortunate men would manage to avoid starvation until the first of December, after that their only salvation rested with the generosity of Nordenskjöld. The only relief to the appalling situation was in the fact that a Swedish colony had that year worked a phosphatic deposit at Cape Thorsden, Ice Fiord, and the manager after abandoning the work had returned to Norway, leaving behind him a considerable amount of stores. Cape Thorsden was distant two hundred miles, but seventeen of the walrus-hunters determined to undertake it. These men succeeded in reaching the depot, where an ample supply of all the necessaries of life awaited them—including a house, fuel, preserved and dried vegetables, and fresh potatoes. Huddling in one room, living on salt-beef and pork, rather than go to the exertion of availing themselves of the ample diet at hand—these men were attacked by scurvy and not one survived the rigours of the winter. At Mussel Bay the food conditions were deplorable, but were eked out by the utilization of reindeer moss mixed with rye flour, which produced a very bitter bread.
This sacrifice of the food of the reindeer greatly crippled Nordenskjöld’s cherished plans for his spring journeys, and to add to his disappointments, the reindeer themselves were carelessly allowed to escape by the Lapps during a violent snow-storm. A fortunate opening of the ice early in November allowed two vessels to escape, and these vessels took the crews of the four others.
The Arctic night was passed by the expedition in making scientific observations, dredging under the ice, and in mental and physical exercise. In spite of every precaution against the dreaded foe, scurvy broke out among the men, but was overcome under a strict diet régime.
In spite of the disastrous loss of his reindeer and the depleted state of his stores and provisions, Nordenskjöld attempted his northern journey the following spring. At Seven Islands he was stopped by the ice, but in spite of this disappointment he concluded to visit North East Land for the purpose of geographical research. A journey of five days over impassable hummocks resulted in his making Cape Platen—and later Otter Island.
The increased dangers of travel and the presence of water holes determined him to abandon the coast route and strike across the inland ice. This arduous journey was over hard-packed blinding white snow, “glazed and polished,” he writes, “so that we might have thought ourselves to be advancing over an unsurpassably faultless and spotless floor of white marble.” Blinding storms, blizzards, or ice fogs, marked each step of their fifteen days’ journey. Snow bridges covered treacherous chasms, some of which were forty feet in depth. On June 15, they descended into Hinlopen Strait at Wahlenberg Bay, and finally the party reached Mussel Bay after an absence of sixty days.
In the early summer, they had the good fortune to be visited by Mr. Leigh Smith, the veteran Arctic navigator and scientist, in his private yacht Diana, through whose generosity the expedition was liberally supplied with fresh provisions, which removed the pending anxiety for the future.
VOYAGE OF THE “PROVEN”
In 1875 Nordenskjöld turned his attention to the possibility of navigating the seas along the northern coast of Siberia. This route had already been opened by Captain Wiggins of Sunderland, who in 1874, 1875, and 1876, opened the way to trade between Europe and the mouth of the Yenisei River. Nordenskjöld sailed from Tromsoe, in the Proven, June, 1875, and successfully navigating the Kara Sea reached an excellent harbour on the eastern side of the mouth of the Yenisei, to which he gave the name of Port Dickson, in honour of Mr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, for many years the liberal supporter of the Swedish expeditions.
To demonstrate that the Kara Sea had not been more free of ice than usual in the summer of 1875 and that the route would be practicable another season, Nordenskjöld repeated his voyage in the Ymer the following year.
His long Arctic experience had by this time convinced him of the feasibility of the northeast passage. To demonstrate this conviction, he enlisted the patronage of the king of Sweden, Mr. Oscar Dickson, and Mr. Sibiriakoff, a Siberian proprietor of vast wealth, and the result was the purchase of the Vega, which was liberally equipped for a successful expedition.
The Vega had been used for whale-fishing in the north polar sea, her register was three hundred and fifty-seven tons gross, or two hundred and ninety-nine net. Her dimensions were as follows:—
| metres | |
|---|---|
| Length of keel | 37.6 |
| Length over deck | 43.4 |
| Beam extreme | 8.4 |
| Depth of hold | 4.6 |
She had a sixty horse-power engine, which required ten cubic feet of coal per hour, developing an average speed of six or seven knots per hour. The vessel was a full-rigged bark, with pitch pine masts, iron wire rigging and patent reefing top sails; under sail alone she was able to attain a speed of nine or ten knots. She carried the Swedish man-of-war flag with a crowned “O” in the middle, and bore this triumphantly throughout a voyage which stands in history as the first circumnavigation of Asia and Europe.
VOYAGE OF THE “VEGA”
With Nordenskjöld as leader, Lieutenant Palander commander of the ship, and an efficient staff of officers and scientists, which included such men as Lieutenant Horgaard of the Royal Danish Navy, for superintendent of the magnetical and meteorological work, F. R. Kjellman, Ph.D., Docent in Botany in the University of Upsala, and Lieutenant G. Bore, of the Royal Italian Navy, superintendent of the hydrographical work, the Vega sailed from Gothenburg July 4, 1878, in company with her convoy, the Lena. Port Dickson was reached on the morning of August 10, and nine days later Cape Serero or Chelyuskin in 77° 41´ north latitude. Of this, the most northern point of Siberia, Nordenskjöld writes:—
“We had now reached a great goal, which for centuries had been the object of unsuccessful struggles. For the first time a vessel lay at anchor off the northernmost cape of the old world. No wonder then that the occurrence was celebrated by a display of flags and the firing of salutes, and when we returned from our excursion on land, by festivities on board, by wine and toast.”
“The north point of Asia forms a low promontory, which a bay divides into two, the eastern arm projecting a little farther to the north than the western. A ridge of hills with gently sloping sides runs into the land from the eastern point, and appears within sight of the western to reach a height of three hundred metres. Like the plain lying below, the summits of this range were nearly free of snow. Only on the hillsides or in deep furrows excavated by the streams of melted snow, and in dales in the plains, were large white snow-fields to be seen. A low ice-foot still remained at most places along the shore. But no glacier rolled its bluish-white ice-masses down the mountain sides, and no inland lakes, no perpendicular cliffs, no high mountain summits, gave any natural beauty to the landscape, which was the most monotonous and the most desolate I have seen in the High North.”
Foul Bay, on the Coast of Spitzbergen
From “The Voyage of the Vega,” Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London
On the 23d the Vega was again steaming forward among the fields of drift-ice. The difficulties of voyaging through unknown waters overhung with fogs and mists may better be understood by an anecdote described by Nordenskjöld, which illustrates how completely a person may be deceived by size and distance of objects:—
“One can scarcely, without having experienced it,” he writes, “form any idea of the optical illusions, which are produced by mist, in regions where the size of the objects which are visible through fog is not known beforehand, and thus does not give the spectator an idea of the distance. Our estimate of the distance and size in such cases depends wholly on accident. The obscure contours of the fog-concealed objects themselves, besides, are often by the ignorance of the spectator converted into whimsical fantastic forms. During a boat journey in Hinlopen Strait I once intended to row among drift-ice to an island at a distance of some few kilometres. When the boat started, the air was clear, but while we were employed, as best we could, in shooting sea-fowl for dinner, all was wrapt in a thick mist, and that so unexpectedly, that we had not time to take the bearings of the island. This led to a not altogether pleasant row by guess among the pieces of ice that were drifting about in rapid motion in the sound. All exerted themselves as much as possible to get sight of the island, whose beach would afford us a safe resting-place. While thus occupied, a dark border was seen through the mist at the horizon. It was taken for the island which we were bound for, and it was not at first considered remarkable that the dark border rose rapidly, for we thought that the mist was dispersing and in consequence of that more of the land was visible. Soon two white snow-fields that we had not observed before, were seen on both sides of the land, and immediately after this was changed to a sea monster, resembling a walrus-head as large as a mountain. This got life and motion, and finally sank all at once to the head of a common walrus, which lay on a piece of ice in the neighbourhood of the boat; the white tusks formed the snow-fields and the dark brown round head the mountain. Scarce was this illusion gone when one of the men cried out, ‘Land right ahead—high land!’ We now all saw before us a high Alpine region, with mountain peaks and glaciers, but this too sank a moment afterwards all at once to a common ice-border, blackened with earth. In the spring of 1873 Phelander and I with nine men made a sledge journey round Northeast Land. In the course of this journey a great many bears were seen and killed. When a bear was seen while we were dragging our sledge forward, the train commonly stood still, and, not to frighten the bear, all the men concealed themselves behind the sledges, with the exception of the marksman, who, squatting down in some convenient place, waited till his prey should come sufficiently in range to be killed with certainty.
“It happened once during foggy weather on the ice at Wahlenberg Bay that the bear that was expected and had been clearly seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his usual supple zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to nose himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners for food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time during the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which we rested the cook, who was employed outside, cry out, ‘A bear! a great bear! No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!’ The same instant a well-directed shot was fired, and the bear-reindeer was found to be a very small fox, which thus paid with its life for the honour of having for some moments played the part of a big animal. From these accounts it may be seen how difficult navigation among drift-ice must be in unknown waters.”
It had been understood that the Lena would accompany the Vega as far as one of the mouth-arms of the Lena River. But on the night of the 27th of August, while off Tumat Islands, all conditions being favourable, the ships parted company, after Captain Johannesen had received orders, passports and letters for home. “As a parting salute to our trusty little attendant during our voyage round the north point of Asia some rockets were fired, on which we steamed or sailed on, each to his destination.”
Following an easterly course, through shallow open water the Vega all but made the Northeast Passage in one season. Toward the end of September, however, she was frozen in off the shore of a low plain or tundra in 67° 71´ N., and 173° 20´ W., near the settlements of the Chuckches, numbering about three hundred souls. The open water which to a late date in the season had favoured the progress of the expedition, was accounted for by the volumes of warm water discharged into the Polar Sea during the summer by the great Siberian river systems. During the voyage, valuable natural history collections were made, and the sea bottom was found to abound in animal and vegetable life.
“When we were beset,” writes Nordenskjöld, “the ice next the shore was too weak to carry a foot passenger, and the difficulty of reaching the vessel from the land with the means which the Chuckches had at their disposal was thus very great. When the natives observed us, there was in any case immediately a great commotion among them. Men, women, children, and dogs were seen running up and down the beach in eager confusion; some were seen driving in dog-sledges on the ice street next the sea. They evidently feared that the splendid opportunity which here lay before them of purchasing brandy and tobacco would be lost. From the vessel we could see with glasses how several attempts were made to put out boats, but they were again given up, until at last a boat was got to a lane, clear of ice or only covered with a thin sheet, that ran from the shore to the neighbourhood of the vessel. In this a large skin boat was put out, which was filled brimful of men and women, regardless of the evident danger of navigating such a boat, heavily laden, through sharp, newly formed ice. They rowed immediately to the vessel, and on reaching it most of them climbed without the least hesitation over the gunwale with jests and laughter, and the cry ‘anoaj, anoaj’ (good day, good day).
“Our first meeting with the inhabitants of this region, where we afterwards passed ten long months, was on both sides very hearty, and formed the starting-point of a very friendly relation between the Chuckches and ourselves, which remained unaltered during the whole of our stay.”
“On the 5th of October,” continues Nordenskjöld, “the openings between the drift-ice fields next the vessel were covered with splendid skating ice, of which we availed ourselves by celebrating a gay and joyous festival. The Chuckche women and children were now seen fishing for winter roach along the shore. In this sort of fishing a man, who always accompanies the fishing women, with an iron-shod lance cuts a hole in the ice so near the shore that the distance between the under corner of the hole and the bottom is only half a metre. Each hole is used only by one woman, and that only for a short time. Stooping down at the hole, in which the surface of the water is kept quite clear of pieces of ice by means of an ice-sieve, she endeavours to attract the fish by means of a peculiar, wonderfully clattering cry. First, when a fish is seen in the water, an angling line, provided with a hook of bone, iron, or copper, is thrown down, strips of the entrails of fish being employed as bait. A small metre-long staff with a single or double crook in the end was also used as a fishing implement. With this little leister the men cast up fish on the ice with incredible dexterity.”
The “Vega” in Konyam Bay
From “The Voyage of the Vega,” Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London
Hunting and exploring excursions were sent out from the Vega with varying success; as the seasons advanced the natives were threatened with the usual scarcity of food, which was largely relieved by the generosity of the Europeans. A most careful and thorough study was made of these natives, their characteristics, mode of life, manners, speech, and customs.
RETURN OF THE “VEGA”
On July 18, the Vega was liberated from the ice, after having been imprisoned two hundred and ninety-four days.
After a lapse of three hundred and twenty-six years, when Sir Hugh Willoughby made the first attempt at a northeast passage, the Vega sailed through Behring Strait, July 20, 1879, being the first vessel to penetrate by the north from one of the great world oceans to another. The Vega anchored at Yokohama on the evening of the 2d of September.
“On our arrival off Yokohama,” writes Nordenskjöld, “we were all in good health and the Vega in excellent condition, though, after the long voyage, in want of some minor repair, of docking, and possibly of coppering. Naturally among thirty men some mild attacks of illness could not be avoided in the course of a year, but no disease had been generally prevalent, and our state of health had constantly been excellent. Of scurvy we had not seen a trace.”
From Yokohama the news of the Vega’s success was telegraphed throughout the world, and the homeward journey of the expedition, via Hong Kong, Singapore, Suez, Naples, Lisbon, Copenhagen, to Stockholm was one of triumphant progress; each country trying to outdo the others in giving a royal welcome to the gallant explorers. The Vega reached Stockholm April 24, 1880, after a journey of twenty-two thousand one hundred eighty-nine miles.