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.