CHAPTER XXI
Journeys of Dr. A. Bunge and Baron E. von Toll.—Exploration in Spitzbergen.—Sir Martin Conway.—Dr. A. G. Nathorst.—Professor J. H. Gore.—Andrée’s balloon expedition to the North Pole.—Search for Andrée by Theodor Lerner.—J. Stadling, Dr. A. G. Nathorst.—Captain Bade.—Walter Wellman’s plan to reach the Pole from Spitzbergen.—Italian expedition under Duke of Abruzzi.—Loss of the Stella Polare.—Captain Umberto Cagni’s journey.—Breaks the record.—Retreat.—Home.—Baldwin-Ziegler expedition of 1900.—Complete equipment.—Return of expedition in autumn.—Ziegler expedition under Anthony Fiala.—The America reaches high northing.—Winters in Triplitz Bay.—Is destroyed.—Failure of sledge journeys.—Relief ship does not come.—Second winter.—Return of party by Terra Nova in 1903.
The voyage of the Jeannette, among other valuable scientific results, had proved Wrangell Land to be an island of moderate size. The drift of the Fram had demonstrated the theory of a polar ocean of vast dimensions and great depth. The interest, therefore, in Arctic exploration for the next few years was centred in numerous scientific parties which thoroughly examined, surveyed, and explored the unknown sections of lands bordering on the Polar Basin.
DR. BUNGE AND BARON VON TOLL JOURNEYS
As early as 1885, an expedition was fitted out under the auspices of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, and placed in charge of Dr. A. Bunge and Baron E. von Toll for scientific and geographical work in the Siberian Island. Toll visited Nova Sibir and traversed the entire coast of Kotelnoi; in the meantime, Dr. Bunge explored Great Liachof, where he secured a valuable collection of fossils.
Toll returned again to the Arctic in 1893, visiting the northeast of Jana, for the purpose of securing a well-preserved mammoth. Afterward, in company with Lieutenant Schileiko, he again visited the New Siberian Island, and with dog-sledges travelled on the west coast of Kotelnoi, as far as 75° 37´ north latitude, establishing two depots of provisions for Nansen’s possible use. Among other important results of this expedition was the discovery of evidence that in the mammoth periods trees grew no less than 3° north of their present limit. Toll returned to the mainland and followed the Lena, reporting impassable tundras from Sviatoi Nos to Dudinka,—and reached Yeniseisk the 4th of December. Later geological researches were made on Great Liachof Island.
Baron Toll determined upon another voyage to the Arctic for the purpose of supplementing the geological knowledge of Bennett and other islands and to complete a journey of exploration to Sannikof Land, first seen by him in 1886.
The Sarya was fitted out for this expedition, and the winter of 1900-1901 was passed in 76° 08´ north latitude, 95° east longitude.
“On April 18, 1901,” writes Baron Toll, “immediately after the Feast of Easter, Lieutenant Kolomiezoff and the zoölogist, A. Birulja, set out with two sleighs each with a team of eight dogs, the object of the first being to reach the Yenisei and establish coaling stations, while the second was directed to accompany it as far as Cape Sterlegof, some 200 wersts distant. Two days later began my excursion with Lieutenant Koltschak to the Chelyuskin Peninsula, accompanied by a sleigh with a team of twelve dogs and laden as lightly as possible.
“On May 1, we reached that point on the bay where we had established a depot the previous year (1900). The provisions and fish here buried were to complete our supplies, which barely sufficed for just one month. But we were unable to dig out the deposit from the deep snow. On May 7, we started from this place in an east-northeasterly direction, with the intention of pushing on to St. Thaddeus Bay on the east coast of the Chelyuskin Peninsula, and returning thence along the coast. After traversing the tundra for forty wersts in this direction, we again came unexpectedly on an inlet, which grew narrower towards the west-southwest, where it assumed the form of a narrow sound or river mouth.
“The position as determined by Lieutenant Koltschak on the off side of the bay was 76° 17´ N. and 99° 29´ E.”
On May 12, the tired dogs were given a day’s rest; then Toll made a day’s march, half a degree eastward, on Canadian snow-shoes. There were no prospects for adding to their limited food supply by hunting, so it became necessary to retrace their steps.
“Hitherto,” writes Toll, “we had to contend with almost constant difficulties caused by fog, and deep snow already softened by the sun. But henceforth we had to struggle with contrary snow-storms, which lasted almost without a break for fourteen days. The consequence was the loss of five dogs, which broke down one after another through exhaustion. On May 30, we reached the Sarya, the excursion having lasted forty-one days. Of these we had to pass nine in the sleeping-sack during the fiercest snow-storms; four were uselessly wasted at the depot; and during the remaining twenty-eight days we covered 500 wersts.”
Other excursions were made by members of the party, with most gratifying results.
The release of the Sarya was confidently hoped for early in August. “But in the interim,” writes Baron Toll, “there was still to be solved a geographical question, namely, to discover the mouth of the Taimyr River. According to the maps hitherto published, the Taimyr was supposed to discharge in the first or second of the larger bights lying to the east of the Taimyr Sound. Both of these were twice explored by Lieutenant Kolomeizoff, and in the first was, in fact, found the mouth of a considerable stream; but its configuration was not at all in accordance with the contour lines given by the topographer Wagenoff on Middendorff’s chart. In the second no indication could be detected of any river mouth. As these researches had been undertaken in winter amid fogs and snowdrifts, there still remained a doubt, which could only be removed by fresh investigations carried out in clear summer weather. Should these also lead to negative results, the only remaining assumption would be that the Taimyr discharged into that bight which during our journey to the interior of the Chelyuskin Peninsula, Lieutenant Koltschak and I had crossed, since no considerable stream assuredly entered that other inlet where the depot lay.”
The survey of the first two bays was undertaken by Birulja and Dr. Walter, their excursion lasting from July 20 to August 15, 1901. “Respecting the question of the Taimyr, the two savants came to negative results. Still they confirmed Kolomeizoff’s discovery of a large estuary in the first of the two bays.”
On the 25th of August, the fissures in the ice had expanded; the whole of the ice-pack round the Sarya was set in motion, and she drifted in the direction of the cliffs of Station Island. Slowly she was carried through the Fram Strait to the open sea. Withdrawing behind a cape at Nansen Island, the Sarya awaited the drifting away of the ice-pack. On August 30, the water-way was free, and she began her voyage to Koletnoi Island; doubling Cape Chelyuskin on September 1, she sighted, three days later, the east coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, without meeting any ice.
“As we drew near,” writes Toll, “to the New Siberian archipelago in favorable weather till September 7th, a strong southeaster began to blow in our teeth, and against this we made very slow headway. I, therefore, changed the course to the northeast. On September 9th we reached the edge of the pack-ice in 77° 9´ N., and 14° E. Here we encountered a southern gale, which, acting in concert with the marine current, drove the Sarya 30 miles to the northwest. The storm veered round to the west-southwest, and I thought it better again to make the most of the wind and now direct our course southeastwards for Bennett Island, instead of trying under these circumstances to penetrate into the ice in search of land. On September 11th the imposing headland of Cape Emma at Bennett Island suddenly loomed up before us out of the fog, and presently became again wrapped in fog.
“We had approached to within 12 knots of the island, when our further advance towards it was barred by a belt fourteen feet thick of impenetrable ice. Here we remained two days in the hope that the ice might shift, but in vain!”
Disappointed in his hopes of reaching Sannikof Land in 1902, Baron Toll succeeded in sheltering the Sarya for a second winter at Nerpichi Bay, Kotelnoi Island, 75° 22´ N., 137° 16´ E. The sad disaster which overtook the brave scientists ends a chapter valuable to Arctic achievement.
On June 7, 1902, Baron Toll, accompanied by Seeberg, the astronomer, and two hunters, left for a geological excursion, and after arduous efforts landed on Bennett Island, August 3, which was found to be a plateau some fifteen hundred feet in height. Their researches disclosed Cambrian deposits.—They left the island to return to the ship on November 8, 1902, and were never seen again. Brunsneff and Koltshak, in a relief expedition in 1904, discovered a record containing the information just stated, but no other traces were found of these courageous men who sacrificed their lives in the cause of science.
SIR MARTIN CONWAY
Another scene of activity was centred in Spitzbergen, for crossing which in 1896 Sir Martin Conway and party received the applause of the world. The following year he again returned to continue his explorations. Dr. A. G. Nahorst circumnavigated Spitzbergen in 1898, surveying and mapping the irregular coast-line with admirable precision. The same year, Professor J. H. Gore of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey made pendulum observations in Spitzbergen for the determination of the force of gravity in that latitude. Prince Albert of Monaco and party cruised along the coast for the purpose of making scientific observations. So active had been the interest in this hitherto unclaimed archipelago that Russia began to assert her rights to ownership.
ANDRÉE’S BALLOON EXPEDITION TO THE POLE
The most unique venture for polar honours was undertaken in 1897 by Salamon August Andrée, a Swede, and two companions, Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Traenkel, from Dane Island north of Spitzbergen. Andrée was an ardent apostle of aërial conquest of the North Pole. His balloon, the Ornen, had a cubical contents of forty-five hundred metres, and the shape of a sphere terminating in a slightly conical appendage. The envelope was made of six hundred pieces of pongee silk, each being from seventeen to eighteen metres long by about forty-eight centimetres wide; these were sewn together by machine, then subjected to a process of “cementing” with a special varnish. A carefully made net composed of hemp cords encompassed the envelope. Special valves were devised by Andrée. The car was of cane basket-work, mounted on a frame of chestnut wood, the bottom being strengthened by wooden cross-beams, the whole covered with tarpaulin, with necessary openings.
Provisioned with tins of preserved food,—chocolate, compressed bread, condensed milk, champagne, claret, butter, fresh water, and alcohol, besides a cooking apparatus, and other necessary equipment,—this frail craft made its ascension with its human freight, July 11, 1897.
“The last farewells are brief and touching,” writes Alexis Machuron. “Few words are exchanged, but hearty handclasps between those whose hearts are in sympathy say more than words. Suddenly Andrée snatches himself away from the embraces of his friends and takes his place on the wicker bridge of the car, from whence he calls in a firm voice:—
“‘Strindberg ... Franaenkel ... Let us go!’
“His two companions at once take their places beside him. Each is armed with a knife for cutting the ropes supporting the groups of ballast bags.... Andrée is always calm, cold, and impassable; not a trace of emotion is visible, nothing but an expression of firm resolution and an indomitable will. He is just the man for such an enterprise, and he is well seconded by his two companions. At length the decisive moment arrives: ‘One! Two! Cut!’ cries Andrée in Swedish. The three sailors obey the order simultaneously, and in one second the aërial ship, free and unfettered, rises majestically into space, saluted by our heartiest cheers.... Scattered along the shore, we stand motionless, with full hearts and anxious eyes, gazing at the silent horizon. For some moments, then, between two hills we perceive a gray speck over the sea, very, very, far away, and then it finally disappears.
“The way to the Pole is clear, no more obstacles to encounter—the sea, the ice-fields, and the Unknown!”
Out of the Great White North came a lone survivor, a carrier-pigeon, bringing the tidings written “July 13th, 12:30 P.M., 82° 2´ north latitude, 15° 5´ east longitude. Good journey eastward, 10° south. All goes well on board. This is the fourth message sent by pigeon.
“Andrée.”
Ah! but all did not go well. In June, 1899, a buoy containing a note from Andrée was found in Norway; it had been thrown out eight hours after departure.
The “North Pole buoy” to be dropped when the Pole was passed, was found empty in September, 1899, on the north side of King Charles Island. A third buoy, also empty, was picked up on the west coast of Iceland, July 17, 1900, and another reported from Norway, August 31, 1900, contained a note stating that the buoy was thrown out at 10 P.M., July 11, 1897, at an altitude of eight hundred and twenty feet, moving north 45 E. Thus the carrier-pigeon was the last messenger—the harbinger of Andrée’s last word to friends on earth; the fate of the three brave spirits lies buried in the Arctic silence.
Theodor Lerner was one of the first to hurry to Spitzbergen in 1898 leading the German scientific expedition, to obtain news from Andrée, if possible, and the same year the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society sent J. Stadling, with companions, to the Lena delta, the mouth of the Yenisei and the islands of New Siberia, where they searched in vain for traces of their missing compatriots. Again, in 1899, Dr. A. G. Nathorst turned his attention to eastern Greenland in an unsuccessful search for tidings of Andrée, making valuable maps and observations of the fiord system of King Oscar Fiord. Nor did Captain Bade in his explorations in East Spitzbergen, King Charles Land, and Franz Josef Land in 1900 find any traces of the missing aëronaut.
In the year 1894 Walter Wellman, an American, made Spitzbergen the base of his activities in an attempt to penetrate the Polar pack and reach the North Pole. Sailing in the Ragnvald Jarl, he had the misfortune to lose his ship off Walden Island; undaunted by this grave disaster, he pushed north with sledges as far as 81°, but had to retrace his steps, owing to the impenetrable condition of the ice. He had, however, reached a point east of Platen Island. Wellman again endeavoured to conquer the ice in 1898, this time choosing for his base Franz Josef Land. He was liberally fitted out, and accompanied, among others, by Evelyn B. Baldwin of the United States Weather Bureau. Mr. Wellman made his headquarters at “Harmsworth House,” at Cape Tegetthoff, for three years the Arctic home of Frederick A. Jackson and his companions.
WELLMAN’S PLAN TO REACH NORTH POLE
In February, 1899, Mr. Wellman, with three companions, started for the Pole with every promise of success. An unforeseen accident to Mr. Wellman, and an upheaval in the ice, which destroyed many dogs and much of their equipment, necessitated a hurried return to headquarters. Disappointed, but not discouraged, Wellman organized a series of important scientific observations and explorations, during which Evelyn Baldwin, in a long sledge journey to Wilczek Land, determined its eastern boundary, and discovered, among other islands to the northeast, Graham Bell Land.
ITALIAN EXPEDITION UNDER DUKE OF ABRUZZI
To that daring and adventurous prince, H. R. H. Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, the duke of the Abruzzi, is due one of the most interesting chapters in Arctic history. There is charm in the graceful dedication of his book, “To Her Majesty the Queen-Mother,” as well as in his gallant tribute to his brave companions who won laurels under his direction and fought gallantly the dangers of the Arctic under his banner. “Italians and Norwegians behaved throughout this voyage as though the crew were composed of one nationality,” he says. “I had comrades with me, rather than subordinates. I express, therefore, my gratitude towards all, since to their harmonious coöperation is due the success of my expedition, and I express the same gratitude to the memory of the three brave men who perished whilst on the sledge expedition.”
The Jason, having a carrying capacity of five hundred and seventy tons cargo, was purchased by the Duke, renamed the Stella Polare; refitted, equipped, provisioned, and manned for four years, at a total cost of thirty-eight thousand four hundred and thirteen pounds sterling.
Second in command to the Duke of Abruzzi, who, by the way, was but twenty-six years old at the time of his adventure was Captain Umberto Cagni of the Italian Navy, in charge of the scientific observations. Other officers of the Navy were Lieutenant Francesco Querini, in charge of the mineralogical collections, and Dr. Achille C. Molinelli, medical officer, also in charge of the zoölogical and botanical collections. Four other officers, a crew of twelve, and four especially experienced guides completed the personnel of the expedition.
Under the personal advice and superintendence of Dr. Nansen, who aided in every possible way the success of the expedition, a carefully thought out plan was made, by which the Stella Polare was to leave Archangel, early in July, make for Cape Flora and Northbook Island, establish a depot provisioned for eight months, then proceed, take up winter quarters as far north as possible, close to the lands lying west of Franz Josef Land. Sledge journeys in the autumn would establish a chain of provision caches on the lands to the north, and in the spring a sledge journey to the north for a world record would be undertaken. A retreat to the depot at Cape Flora with or without the ship would insure subsistence until the arrival of a relief ship to be sent in two years, or, if the relief ship failed, a retreat to Nova Zembla or Spitzbergen would be undertaken by boats.
On June 30, 1899, the Stella Polare reached Archangel, where one hundred and twenty-one dogs were taken aboard to be used in the sledge journeys. On the 12th of July, she weighed anchor and proceeded on her voyage. Ice was encountered, July 17, and three days later Northbrook Island was sighted, and a visit made to Jackson’s huts and Leigh Smith’s winter quarters.
LOSS OF THE “STELLA POLARE”
The Stella Polare bravely fought her way through unfavourable ice conditions and succeeded in reaching 82° 04´ N., 59° E. by the British Channel. Securing an anchorage in Teplitz Bay, Prince Rudolf Land, she received a disastrous nip, September 7, when she sprang a leak, and it became necessary to disembark her provisions and establish winter quarters on Rudolf Island.
“As our ship, which we had abandoned after it had been seized by the ice,” writes the Duke of Abruzzi, “was the only means of our returning home in the following year, we had to consider how to save her. Part of the engines, the condenser, and the furnaces were under water, which had frozen to a thickness of about nineteen inches. The ship had not changed her position, but had heeled over still more as the ice which had supported her had given way.
“The water had first to be pumped out of the ship to enable us to find the leak on the left side, and this had to be mended as well as that which was visible on the right side; we had then to see if it would be possible to keep the ship dry, and if not, to protect the engines so that they might remain under water during the winter without being injured. Such was the work before us. At that time I did not believe it possible, but Captain Cagni never despaired for a moment of being able to carry it out, and if it was accomplished, it was owing to his strong will and to his perseverance, which was never discouraged by any difficulties.”
Early in the winter, the Duke of Abruzzi, in one of his sledge excursions, had the misfortune to freeze a part of his left hand, which resulted in the loss of the joints of two of his fingers. This unfortunate accident prevented his accompanying the spring sledge journey to the north, for which active preparations were already in progress. The sledges and kayaks were patterned after those used by Dr. Nansen; the former eleven feet five inches long, six inches wide, and six and one-half inches high, with convex runners shod with plates of white metal, and were saturated with a mixture of pitch, stearine, and tallow to render them more slippery and durable.
After careful calculations by Dr. Molinelli, the rations to be carried were estimated at two pounds twelve ounces nine drams per day for each man, consisting of biscuit, tinned meat, pemmican, butter, milk, Liebig’s Extract, desiccated vegetables, Italian paste, sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, etc.
The first start was made in February, but after travelling in the extreme cold for several days, the party returned and made a fresh start, March 11. The expedition was composed of ten men and thirteen sledges, which, with their loads, weighed five hundred and fifty-one pounds each, and was drawn by one hundred and two dogs.
It had been previously settled to send back detachments, after twelve, twenty-four, and thirty-six days; the last detachment to remain in the field seventy-two days. Cagni, however, modified these plans, and in the meantime the Duke of Abruzzi anxiously waited the return of the first detachment. On April 18, the second detachment returned to camp; they had left Commander Cagni, March 31. The first detachment, consisting of Lieutenant Querini, Stökken, and Ollier, had started to return March 23. An immediate search was instituted for the missing men, but without results. After every effort had been expended, the three men were given up for lost. Meantime, the other supporting parties having returned, anxiety was beginning to manifest itself for Cagni. The day set for his return had come and gone. On May 19, Dr. Molinelli and two companions had set out for Cape Fligely, with provisions for ten days, to look for him. The Duke of Abruzzi anxiously scanned the horizon with his telescope for signs of his missing companions. After an absence of one hundred and four days, Captain Cagni, with three companions, having made a world record and reached 86° 34´, was sighted in the distance and welcomed home by his impatient and enthusiastic companions.
“Although their strength had been much reduced,” writes Abruzzi, “by want of sufficient food, they were not exhausted. The seven dogs which survived seemed much worse; some of them were merely skin and bone. The only part of their outfit they had brought back that was still capable of being of any use, was their tent, and this had been mended. The framework of the kayaks had been broken and their canvas torn, so that they could not be used unless a week was spent in mending them. The sledges which remained had been mended with pieces of other sledges. All that was left of their cooking utensils was the outer covering of the stove, a saucepan which had been mended, and the plates. The Primus lamp had been replaced by a pot, in which dog’s grease had been burned for the last few weeks. The sleeping-bag had been thrown away, and only the thick canvas lining kept. Their clothes were in rags.”
Cagni had advanced under the same trying conditions of hummocky ice, slush, and deep snow that had been encountered by Nansen; he had had the misfortune to freeze one of his fingers, and suffered excruciating pain, necessitating his operating with his own hand and removing the dead mass with a pair of scissors. He had steadily advanced until April 25, 1900.
His return journey covered sixty days under the most alarming conditions; for on May 18, he writes: “I feel more and more every day a terrible anxiety with regard to our fate. After marching nine days toward the southeast, we are nearly on the same meridian,” owing to the southwest drift of the ice-pack. Four weeks more of almost superhuman effort brought them to Harly Island, from which point they made their way to Rudolf Island.
With the achievement of this brilliant record it now remained but to free the Stella Polare by blasting and cutting channels about her snug quarters. The brief Arctic summer having set in, her deliverance at last was secured, and “At half-past one in the morning of August 16, everything was ready, and we steamed slowly away from the shore, giving three cheers as we turned round the ice of the bay which had held us so long imprisoned.”
BALDWIN-ZIEGLER EXPEDITION OF 1900
In contrast to the Italian expedition, the Baldwin-Ziegler Polar expedition, which sailed from Tromsoe, Norway, July 17, 1900, stands out conspicuously. Mr. Baldwin was born in Springfield, Missouri, in 1862. He had seen Arctic service with the Peary expedition of 1893-1894, and had come near being one of the ill-fated Andrée balloon party. He had done good service with Wellman in Franz Josef Land, and now with the unlimited means put at his disposal by the munificence of Mr. William Ziegler of New York, he proposed to conquer the Pole.
“Our fleet,” wrote Mr. Baldwin in McClure’s Magazine, September, 1901, “comprises three vessels. The America, our flagship, as some one has expressed it, is a three-masted ship-rigged steamer of 466 tons net burden, driving a single screw. Her length over all is 157 feet; beam, 27 feet; depth, 19 feet.... The Frithiof is a Norwegian sailing-vessel, ... the third vessel is the Belgia, which carried the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-1899, under Captain Gerlache.”
Never before in the history of Polar expeditions was food and equipment carried in such luxurious profusion. The three vessels were as many floating hotels with larders lacking “nothing that foresight, experience, and the generosity of Mr. Ziegler could suggest or procure.”
The scientific equipment was also complete, including small balloons with releasing devices for depositing records when the ground was reached, buoys with records to be sent floating back to civilization by the currents, search-lights and wireless telegraph, besides the standard scientific instruments for meteorological, astronomical, and geodetic work. There were three hundred and twenty dogs, and fifteen ponies in charge of six expert Russian drivers.
“The present expedition,” wrote Mr. Baldwin, “typifies the spirit of the twentieth century;” and he adds, “No previous expedition to the north has ever made such complete arrangements for the transmission of news back to civilization as that which I have the honor to command.”
“The America and the Frithiof left Tromsoe, Norway, in July, 1901, for Franz Josef Land, which Baldwin regarded as the best starting-point for a polar venture,” writes Mr. P. F. M’Grath in the Review of Reviews, July, 1905, “proceeding to Alger Island, in latitude 80° 24´ north, longitude 55° 52´ east, where he established his winter quarters. The Frithiof unloaded her stores and proceeded south, leaving the America harbored, with the dogs and equipment ashore, portable houses erected, and detail of duties being carried out. The personnel comprised 42 souls,—17 Americans, 6 Russians, and 19 shipmen, mostly Norwegians. Game was plentiful, and several tons of bear and walrus meat were accumulated, the former for the men and the latter for the dogs. With this base beyond the eightieth parallel, Baldwin intended to push forward with his ship, or over the ice, exploring the adjacent region for uncharted land masses which would supply stationary points, insuring him against the disadvantages of an advance across the shifting ice, and from the farthest north of these he would, the next spring, make his dash across the crystal fields for the Pole. In this he would employ about twenty-five men as a vanguard and reserve, the flying column pushing rapidly ahead, and the transport train following with the heavier supplies. Numerically, the party would be strong enough to overcome otherwise serious obstacles, while the quantity of supplies to be carried by 320 dogs and 15 ponies would put the possibility of disaster almost out of the question.... With this elaborate programme, and the knowledge that the Duke of Abruzzi, with a much smaller party, attained a northing of 86° 33´, Baldwin confidently anticipated making the Pole. And, as in that segment of the Arctic Circle he might find himself, in returning, obliged by ice and currents to head for the Greenland coast, which reaches to 83° 27´, or 180 miles nearer the Pole than his base, he planned that if he should be swerved westward by the tides, it would be easier to reach that shore. There he would find musk-oxen to eke out his supplies, and journey down the east coast to where the depot was made by the Belgica for him. But, as often happens in Polar work, Baldwin’s hopes were blasted, dissensions rent his party asunder, his dogs perished by the score, and after a futile attempt to get north, he and his whole party returned to Tromsoe in August, 1902, while the Frithiof, which had sailed for Alger Island a month previous with additional outfits and for news of him, had to retreat, owing to the unbroken ice-pack.”
The return of the Baldwin-Ziegler expedition in the autumn of 1902 was followed by that reorganized by Mr. Ziegler and given to the leadership of Mr. Anthony Fiala of Brooklyn, New York, to be carried out on practically the same lines laid out by Mr. Baldwin.
Captain Edwin Coffin, of Edgartown, Massachusetts, was chosen as navigating officer, and he assembled an American crew, most of them experienced whalers. Of the Field Staff, Mr. William J. Peters, of the Geological Survey and representing the National Geographic Society, was chosen as chief scientist and second in command of the expedition. The results of his systematic records and magnetical observations, when in the north, were of the highest value, and he rendered most efficient service.
The Retreat of 1904
Sledge column leaving Cape Mellinbock
Courtesy of Doubleday, Page and Co.
Breaking Camp at Cape Richthope
Courtesy of Doubleday, Page and Co.
After collecting stores and equipment, the America sailed from Trondhjem, Norway, June 23, 1903. Brief stops were made at the island of Tromö and Archangel, where dogs, ponies, and additional stores were taken aboard. The ice was first met, July 13, in 74° 51´ north latitude, 38° 37´ east longitude, through which the America steamed and blasted her way to Cape Flora, which was reached August 12. A few days later Triplitz Bay was passed, with the “skeleton-like remains of the framework of the tent where lived the brave Abruzzi and his companions, standing out in plain view.” The America made the highest northing of a ship under steam in the Western Hemisphere, and reached a point, 82° north latitude; she then returned to Triplitz Bay. Upon landing, Fiala found the Abruzzi cache in excellent condition. “Camp Abruzzi” was established, scientific work at once begun, and preparations commenced for the spring sledge journey to the north.
RETURN OF EXPEDITION IN AUTUMN
Severe gales struck in early in October, and continued almost unremittingly until the last of the month, when they raged with such fury as to threaten the safety of the ship.
She bravely withstood the terrible ice pressures to which she was subjected until January 23, when, during a frightful hurricane, she disappeared from view.
The first week in March a sledging journey was undertaken, comprising twenty-six men, sixteen pony-sledges, and thirteen dog-sledges, but the severity of storms, and the suffering and hardship endured from cold, decided the party to return, and camp was reached on March 11. Other journeys of short duration were undertaken with similar success. Leaving part of the company at Camp Abruzzi, Fiala made a retreat to Cape Flora, there to await the promised relief ship which was expected early in August. His idea was to renew his North Pole dash the following season.
The expected ship was eagerly watched for, but as the months sped by one by one, and the ship did not come, preparations were made for wintering, and the liberal depots of supplies left by Jackson, Abruzzi, and Andrée, were examined and found in excellent condition.
“Elmwood,” Jackson’s little house, was dug out and made habitable. Communication was frequent between “Camp Abruzzi” and “Elmwood.”
Fiala, in a cold and dangerous journey, returned to Camp Abruzzi, where he made preparations for another spring journey toward the Pole, to be undertaken with one companion, three dog teams, and a supporting column of three small detachments. Seaman Duffy, who had accompanied Fiala to Cape Barentz in August, 1904, and Camp Flora in June of the same year, was chosen as his companion. The start was made in March, but very slow progress was made. After days of disheartening travel, covering but a few miles a day, the conditions grew worse instead of better. “Our trail was from ice-cake to ice-cake,” writes Fiala, “while we crossed the separating water by means of ice-bridges laboriously constructed at the narrowest points with our ice-picks. In other places, we traversed monster pressure ridges that splintered and thundered under our feet, scaring the dogs until they whined and whimpered in their terror. It was difficult to find a cake of ice large enough for our small party to camp on. Deep snow and numerous water-lanes, with a high temperature and attendant fog, also impeded our advance.”
On March 22, the advance was abandoned, and ten days were occupied in the retreat. Camp Abruzzi was reached, April 1.
The relief ship Terra Nova reached Cape Flora the end of July, picked up the party encamped there, and, touching at Cape Dillon, took aboard the remainder. It was then learned that in 1904 the Frithiof had made two bold attempts to reach Cape Flora, but had been unsuccessful.