Introduction
On the afternoon of Sunday, the 11th of July, 1897, the balloon Ornen left the port of Virgo, Spitzbergen, carrying in its car Messrs. Andrée, Strindberg, and Fraenkel, the bold explorers, starting for the conquest of the North Pole.
All the papers of the day were immediately filled with discussions in various strains, pessimistic or favourable comments and prognostications, articles full of hope or criticism,—each, in short, looking upon this extraordinary expedition from its own point of view.
The first part of this bold enterprise is accomplished, and now we are confronted with the terrible question: Where are they?
The comments took their usual course. However, towards the middle of August we heard that one of the carrier pigeons belonging to Andrée’s expedition had been killed, on the 22nd of July, by one of the seamen of the fishing boat Alken, between the Spitzbergen North Cape and the Seven Isles, in about 80° N. Lat. This pigeon carried a message, which was confirmed, more than a month later, when the whaler Alken returned to Hammerfest; it was couched in the following terms:—
“13th July, 12.30 p.m., 82.2° N. L., 15.5° E. Long. Good progress towards the north. All goes well on board. This message is the third brought by a pigeon.—Andrée.”
Andrée, therefore, appears to have despatched three pigeons in less than three days, and the balloon seems to have covered, during this time, a distance of scarcely 187½ miles—a fact which is accounted for by the calm which reigned on the second day.
No other trustworthy news has since come to hand. Much noise was made about a telegram originating from Krasnoïarsk in Siberia, which announced that a balloon, believed to be Andrée’s, had been sighted on the 14th of September, for some minutes, in the province of Jēnisseisk.
This message was rather vague. Supposing that the balloon remained in the air for more than sixty days (which is still within the limits of possibility), it ought to have crossed, in order to arrive at that point, over 625 miles of inhabited land, without being perceived, which is rather doubtful. On the other hand, Andrée would not travel such a long way in regions where communications are comparatively easy and where he would have been in perfect safety, without effecting a landing and stopping on his journey.