Lieutenant (now General) Greely succeeded in bringing back the most valuable part of his work. It is published in two large quarto volumes which are admirably edited (Washington, 1888). The work opens with Greely’s lucid and thoroughly honest report, and contains the reports and diaries of all the sledge travellers, and the meteorological, tidal, and magnetic observations during the whole sojourn in Lady Franklin Bay.
Lieutenant P. H. Ray carried out the Weyprecht scheme at Point Barrow with diligence and ability. His results, contained in a large quarto volume (Washington, 1885), in addition to the narrative, comprise the meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations, together with ethnographical and linguistic studies of the natives of Point Barrow.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE NORTH EAST PASSAGE — NORDENSKIÖLD — WIGGINS — DE LONG
Nordenskiöld is a name which not only recalls much and varied Arctic work, but also most valuable researches connected with historical geography. Its bearer, the late Nils Adolf Erik, Baron Nordenskiöld, was born at Helsingfors in 1832, of an ancient and distinguished Swedish family settled in Finland. His father was a well-known man of science, and the young Nordenskiöld became a trained chemist and mineralogist. He settled at Stockholm in 1857 and soon began to turn his attention to Arctic exploration. In 1858 he was geologist in Torell’s Spitsbergen expedition; in 1861, with Duner, he was taking preliminary observations for the Spitsbergen measurement of an arc of the meridian; in 1868 he reached the highest northern latitude attained by a ship; in 1870 he made his first journey over the inland ice of Greenland; and, later, he wintered in Spitsbergen and made the inland journey across North-East Island. The funds for these expeditions were to a large extent supplied by Baron Oscar Dickson, the munificent supporter of Swedish Arctic enterprise.
In 1873 Nordenskiöld turned his attention to the North East Passage by the Siberian coast, believing that it might become a highway for commerce. In that year he reached the Yenisei by the Kara Sea, and discovered an excellent harbour which he named after his generous supporter, Oscar Dickson. In 1875 he again crossed the Kara Sea in the Ymer. These were pioneer voyages. His great expedition, with the financial support of King Oscar, of Oscar Dickson, and of the Russian merchant Sibirikoff, was fitted out in 1878.
A ship named the Vega, built at Bremen in 1872, of oak with a skin of greenheart, was purchased. She was of 300 tons, 150 ft. long, by 29 ft. beam, and 16 ft. depth of hold, barque rigged, with a screw propeller and engines of 60 horse-power. The leader of the expedition was Nordenskiöld himself, the captain of the ship Lieutenant Louis Palander, a distinguished Swedish naval officer who had previously been in Spitsbergen with Nordenskiöld. The other officers were Lieutenant Brusewitz of the Swedish navy, Lieutenant Hovgaard of the Danish navy, Lieutenant Bove of the Italian navy, and Lieutenant Nordqvist of the Russian army. There were also three scientific men (one being the surgeon), two engineers, a boatswain, and 15 seamen of the Swedish navy, besides three Norwegian seal-fishers, 30 all told. The Vega took 300 tons of coal and two years’ provisions, and was accompanied by two of Sibirikoff’s cargo vessels for the Yenisei, and the Lena for the river of that name.
The Vega left Tromsö on the 21st July, 1878, with the three other vessels in company, and anchored in Pet Strait, between Waigats Island and the mainland of the Samoyeds, on the 30th. The ship stood out into the Kara Sea, and rounded White Island. There seems to be little or no risk of running ashore on the coast, for the currents from the Obi and Yenisei flow northward at a rate of two to five miles. All went well, and on the 6th August the Vega and Lena were safely anchored in Dickson Harbour, while Sibirikoff’s two vessels proceeded up the Yenisei river.
From this point the exploring voyage began, and was well described in Palander’s letters to me at the time. Cape Taimyr was reached on the 10th of August, and floe ice was encountered with thick fogs. It may be mentioned that very important corrections of longitude had to be made all along the Siberian coast, and between Dickson Harbour and Cape Taimyr several islands previously unknown were discovered.
On the 19th of August the Vega rounded Cape Chelyuskin, the most northern point of the Old World, which was found to be in 77° 36′ N. and 103° 25′ E. Palander then stood more out to sea in hopes of finding unknown islands, but the quantity of drift ice by which the ship was soon surrounded led him to seek the coast again, and he found a navigable though narrow channel between the land and the pack. On August 28th the Vega was off the mouth of the Lena, and the little steamer destined for service on that river parted company.
The strong current from the river Lena sent the Vega 70 miles to the north. It was observed that in all the islands on the Siberian coast the northern sides were quite precipitous, while those towards the coast were low, often sloping into sand-banks. Until September 3rd there was beautiful weather with little ice, and the Bear Islands, 35 miles from the mouth of the Kolyma, were reached. Here the four basaltic pillars, 44 feet high, reported by Wrangel, were sighted, looking exactly like four lighthouses. Here also the explorers had their first snow-fall, and the ship was stopped by heavy floes cemented together, so Palander again made for the land, and found a narrow channel. This eastern part of the voyage was by far the most difficult, and very slow progress was made in shallow water, with much drift ice and fog, the steam launch being constantly ahead sounding. From the 8th to the 11th, when Cape Jakan was passed, the explorers were working through pack ice with a depth of only four fathoms. But fortune, which had hitherto been so propitious, now deserted them, and on the 28th September the Vega, when almost within reach of success, was forced to winter on the coast and remain for nearly ten months. Palander thought, however, that 1878 was a bad ice year, and that generally a vessel with steam power could pass from Norway to Japan in one season.