The _Germania_ and _Hansa_--They part company--The fate of the _Hansa_
and her crew--The _Germania_ expedition and its return--Voyage of Payer
and Weyprecht in 1871--Austro-Hungary expedition--The _Tegethoff_--
Discovery of Franz-Joseph Land--Sledge work--Incidents--The return--The
_Tegethoff_ abandoned--Home again.
The _Germania_ and _Hansa_ constituted the second German expedition to
Arctic regions. The first had been undertaken in 1868 under Koldeway
and Petermann, but when the _Germania_ returned another expedition on a
larger scale--the _Hansa_ under Koldeway, and the sister vessel under
Hegemann--proceeded with all the necessary equipment from Bremen on the
15th of June, 1869, and on the 5th of July crossed the Arctic circle,
where similar ceremonies to those practised when the "line" is crossed,
were performed. Jan Meyer's Land was passed, and on the 10th of July
the _Hansa_ and _Germania_ parted company in the fog, and met again no
more. An error in signalling occasioned the separation.
The _Hansa_ continued along shore and got in amid the ice. The winter
set in, and the crew managed to exist as men usually do under such
circumstances. They built a hut and killed bears, living with no very
great discomfort till the middle of October, when the ice pressed on the
ship and stove it in. The water gained when the ice retreated; the
_Hansa_ was doomed to destruction, and she sank, on the 21st, in
latitude 70 degrees 52 minutes North 21 degrees West near the Liverpool
coast amid the floating ice.
The crew escaped to the ice. They had already, Crusoe fashion, saved
all they could from the ship. The field of ice in which they had
encamped drifted away to the south. The floe was examined. It was
about seven miles in circumference, about two miles in diameter, and
about forty-five feet thick, five feet being above water. Christmas
came, still they drifted. By the new year the ice gave symptoms of
breaking up, the wind blew, and the danger was imminent. Though the
floe had been considerable no mishap occurred to them. The boats were
fortunately in good condition, but day after day the ice kept
threatening, until at last the floe became so small that living on it
any longer was out of the question. February, March, and April had
passed thus, and on the 6th of May the latitude of Bergen had been
reached. The ice raft was soon abandoned, the boats launched, but the
ice again stopped them. On the 6th of June, after various adventures,
the voyage was resumed, and the boats' heads put for Freiderichsthal on
the south-west coast of Greenland, near Cape Farewell, which was gained
in June, 1870. Schleswig was reached in safety in September _via_
Copenhagen, where they were landed by the _Constance_.
The _Germania_ meantime had continued her voyage, and endeavoured,
though without success, to reach the east coast of Greenland. She
wintered in Sabine Bay. The ordinary incidents of the winter occurred,
and we need not mention the health-drinking and Christmas festivities in
the Arctic Regions. The explorers quite disagreed with Kane's "open
sea" theory after making some sledge expeditions to verify the
suggestion. Ice was everywhere, as far as the eyes could see. Many
surveys were undertaken, and much useful scientific information was
obtained, but no new discoveries of any importance were made by either
the _Hansa_ or the more fortunate _Germania_.
The homeward voyage passed without incidents, and the surviving ship
returned to Bremen on the 11th of September, when the stupendous results
of their countrymen's arms in France were revealed to them in all their
meaning.
Several expeditions other than the above were dispatched in 1869, but
they did little. In 1870 there was no great voyage accomplished, but in
1871 the Arctic Regions were again looked at as the _Ultima Thule_ of
voyagers, and in June of that year Lieutenants Payer and Weyprecht
sailed away to Novaya Zemlya, where they found an open sea with little
ice. In October they returned to Tromsoe, after sighting the island
they sought.
The North-East passage now became the idea. That it could be
accomplished _via_ Siberia, Lieutenant Payer believed, and the
Austro-Hungarian Arctic expedition was soon an accomplished fact.
Doctor Petermann said the work accomplished by the little expedition
were very valuable, and it was decided to supplement it. The steamship
_Tegethoff_ was fitted out: the equipment was most complete, many
well-known Arctic voyagers lending their assistance. Captain Carlsen
was pilot, Captain Weyprecht commanded, and Lieutenant Payer was the
land explorer.
The _Tegethoff_ left Bremen on the 13th of June, 1872, and came in sight
of Novaya Zemlya on the 29th of July. In August the _Jabjorn_ yacht
joined company; but little in the way of exploration was undertaken
until August, when the yacht, with Count Wilczek, left the _Tegethoff_
to her own devices. The gallant vessel pushed on, and was beset by the
ice very soon on the north coast of Novaya Zemlya, where in many and
great dangers the winter passed. On the 29th of October the sun
disappeared for 109 days! The winter over, the months of May, June, and
July were spent in trying to saw the _Tegethoff_ out of the ice; but all
the efforts made were futile. The north wind in July sent the ice
southward, but in a month the return drift set in with southerly winds,
and no hope of the breaking up of the ice was entertained. In August,
1873, the crew sighted land; it was approached, and named after Count
Wilczek, the originator of the expedition.
The gloom of Arctic night prevented any more exploration. The vessel
continued to drift northward, and at length the floe was driven on an
island, where it remained with the vessel, three miles from the shore.
The second winter now began. In January the cold was very severe: the
oil froze, the lamps went out, and the brandy even was congealed into a
solid mass. Bears paid the voyagers frequent visits, and many were
shot; but all males, no female bears appeared.
In March, Lieutenant Payer and his party went on a sledge-journey in a
north-west direction to Hall Island. The whole region seemed "devoid of
life"--ice and great glaciers everywhere. The cold was intense. This
party returned, and another journey was undertaken to the north with the
sleighs, equipped as directed by Sir L. McClintock. This expedition
resulted in the discovery of Franz-Joseph Land, as it was named after
the Emperor. It is like Eastern Greenland--a "land of desolation," with
high mountains and vast glaciers, of a greenish-blue colour. The
vegetation is extremely poor, and the country is uninhabited.
Further on they reached another territory, which they named Crown Prince
Rudolf Land, the habitation of millions of sea-birds, and thousands of
bears, seals, and foxes. A great glacier was crossed, but as it was
quitted an immense fissure engulfed the sleigh with the stores, while
the others only narrowly escaped by cutting the traces. Lieutenant
Payer hurried back for assistance, and at length dogs, men, and sleigh
were pulled up, safe and nearly sound. Rounding Auk Cape, the explorers
reached open water by the shore.
Pressing on to latitude 81 degrees 57 minutes north, the party reached
their farthest point. From an elevated position the explorer made his
observations, which led him to the conclusion that there is no open
polar sea, yet that the ocean is not always covered with ice. There is
a medium which a favourable year would improve, and render navigation,
near the shore, possible. Having deposited a record of the visit, the
party returned over the hundred and sixty miles they had come.
One more little journey was made, and then the thoughts of the officers
and men turned to home. On the 20th of May the ship's colours were
nailed to the mast, and the retreat was commenced. Provisions were
packed in boats, the boats placed on sleighs, but little progress was
made at first as all hands were required for each sleigh in turn. _Two
months_ were occupied in making a distance of _eight miles_--and a third
winter in the ice seemed probable.
At last, in July, they made a mile a day. In August they reached the
edge of the pack, when the sleighs were abandoned, and the dogs killed,
as no room could be spared. The boats then crossed open water to Novaya
Zemlya, and at the end of three months from leaving the ship sighted a
Russian vessel. The _Nickolai_ brought them to Vardoe in Norway, where
the voyagers landed in September, 1874.
The success of the expedition was unquestionable, for land was
discovered two hundred miles north of Nova Zemlya. The success of the
sleighing is due to Sir L. McClintock's advice.
[The _Tegethoff_ we see drifted _north_--other vessels we have read of
drifted _south_. Does not that indicate a simultaneous movement of ice
around the Pole on both sides? The American side going south as the
ice-floe on the Asiatic side ascends--as glaciers in Switzerland which
are connected, advance and recede in turn. This idea would go to prove
that no open sea exists there; the ice covers the whole of the Polar
Ocean, and moves north and south correspondingly. This is, however,
only speculation, but as the _Tegethoff_ is said to have been drifted by
the wind, which must have been southerly, and therefore northerly on the
other side, the fact will not militate against the idea above
suggested.]
The Austro-Hungarian Expedition did not succeed in discovering the
North-East Passage. We will now turn to the great Nordenskiold, who did
succeed.