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.
On the 18th of July, 1879, a strong south wind drifted the ice off
the shore, and the _Vega_ was free. On the 20th she passed East Cape,
and Bering Strait was crossed several times for the purpose of taking
soundings. They were at Bering Island on August 14th, and Yokohama
was reached on the 2nd September, 1879. The hearty welcome that
Nordenskiöld received on his return from this famous voyage was worthy
of the great explorer’s well-established position in the world of
science.
The results of Nordenskiöld’s famous voyage were the correction of the
longitudes along the coast of Siberia, the numerous soundings (no less
than 5000 casts of the lead having been taken), the observations and
collections, and not least, the lengthened study of the Tchuktchi race
which they had been able to make during the long detention in winter
quarters. The two divisions of coast and reindeer Tchuktchis numbered
3000. The former daily visited the _Vega_ during the winter, in parties
numbering from ten to twenty, were allowed to go where they liked, and
never attempted to steal anything. Palander found them good-natured,
friendly, hospitable, and honest.
Nordenskiöld’s activities did not cease with this, the greatest of
his achievements. He made a second journey over the inland ice of
Greenland, effected a landing on the east coast, and encouraged the
aspirations of young men such as Björling and Kallstenius, whose
melancholy fate was a cause of sorrow to him[154]. After he was
ennobled Nordenskiöld lived chiefly at his beautiful country seat of
Dalbyo, where I twice visited him. His latest labours, in bringing to
light and publishing medieval maps and charts and portolans in two
splendid volumes, were not the least important. His researches and
discoveries threw much new light on the history of cartography. When he
died a vast amount of knowledge died with him, and there passed away
from among us an illustrious man of science, a great explorer, a great
geographer, and a man of whom his countrymen may well be proud[155].
While Nordenskiöld was engaged in his Siberian labours, there was an
enthusiastic English master mariner who was also filled with the idea
of opening a trade with Russia by the Arctic Sea. Joseph Wiggins was
born in 1832 at Norwich, between which place and London his father
drove the “Nelson” coach three times a week, until railroads superseded
coaches. At fourteen Joseph went to sea, and became master of a ship
trading to the Mediterranean when he was twenty-one. From 1868 to 1874
he was examiner in navigation at Sunderland, and in the latter year his
mind became full of ideas about opening a Russian trade by the north.
He was a practical and very persevering man, with whom thought was
soon followed by action. On June 3rd, 1874, he sailed in the _Diana_
of 103 tons, successfully crossed the ice-bound Kara Sea to the river
Obi, and returned. In 1875 he went to Archangel in a Yarmouth ship,
called the _William_. In 1876, with help from the Russian merchant
Sibirikoff and Mr Gardiner, he sailed in the _Thames_ of 120 tons, and
reached the Yenisei river. Leaving her there with the crew on board,
he returned overland by way of Petrograd. He went out again to his
ship, accompanied by Mr Seebohm, the distinguished ornithologist, who
had long desired to investigate the bird-life of this region. They
arrived at the town of Yeniseisk on April 5th, 1877, and reached the
_Thames_ at the Kureika, lower down the river Yenisei, on the 23rd.
The crew were in good health, but the ship had to be cut out of the
ice. No sooner was the _Thames_ free than she ran on a sand-bank on
her way down the river and was finally abandoned. The _Ibis_, a little
vessel belonging to Seebohm, was uninjured, but all the crew of the
_Thames_ except three refused to go home in her. Mr Seebohm, who made
a valuable ornithological collection, calculated that 50,000 acres of
ice passed down the river in the spring, at the rate of ten to twenty
miles an hour, and his description of the break-up of the ice on these
great Siberian rivers is of extraordinary interest. He returned home
overland, as did Wiggins and the rest of the crew of the _Thames_.
The next venture of Wiggins was very successful. In concert with Mr
Oswald Cattley, who chartered the _Warkworth_ of 650 tons for a voyage
to the Obi, he sailed from Liverpool on August 1st, 1878, reached
the Obi, and was back in the Thames by October 2nd with a cargo of
wheat. In 1879 speculators rushed in and spoiled the business. Nine
large steamers, all quite unfit for ice navigation, were chartered
for the Obi, where 5000 tons of Siberian goods were ready for them.
But the masters of the steamers were frightened of the ice and came
home without cargoes, thus thoroughly discrediting the enterprise.
Wiggins gave it up in disgust, but some years afterwards, encouraged
by Sir Robert Morier, the English Ambassador at Petrograd, he was
induced to take the _Phoenix_ of 273 tons to the Yenisei, and he made
several other voyages until 1896. This fine specimen of an English
master mariner had become a perfect pilot of the Kara Sea, and a most
worthy successor of Burrough, Pet, and Jackman. I had the pleasure of
presenting him with one of the awards of the Royal Geographical Society
for his excellent services in the Kara Sea, and he received other
recognitions. He died, aged 73, on September 13th, 1905[156].
Another expedition, connected more or less with the voyage of
Nordenskiöld and the Siberian Sea, was planned and commanded by
Lieutenant George W. De Long of the United States Navy, and financed
by Mr Gordon Bennett of the _New York Herald_. The expedition had
the great advantage of being under naval discipline, the commander
receiving instructions from the Secretary of the Navy. Mr Gordon
Bennett induced Sir Allen Young to sell him the _Pandora_ as the
vessel for the new expedition. At this time Lieutenant De Long was in
England, and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. He was a
good seaman, a scientific officer, and an agreeable companion. Trained
to the management and care of seamen De Long was undoubtedly the best
of all the American arctic commanders, and he well fulfilled the trust
that was placed in him. The _Pandora_ was taken to San Francisco--for
the object of the expedition was to make discoveries by way of
Bering Strait--but, ignoring the vessel’s previous fine record, and
in spite of sailors’ customs and beliefs, her name was changed to the
_Jeannette_.
Captain De Long was accompanied by two naval lieutenants, Danenhower
and Chipp, and a naval engineer, Melville, with Dr Ambler as surgeon,
and the ice pilot Dunbar. The expedition, with 32 men and 40 dogs,
left San Francisco on 8th July, 1879, a few days before Nordenskiöld
got free from his winter quarters among the Tchuktchis. Passing
through Bering Strait and sighting Herald Island, the vessel was soon
afterwards beset and drifted helplessly to the north-west. De Long’s
hope was that she would be freed when she reached a part of the ocean
far from land where the floes might disperse, but this never happened.
Two winters were passed during this wearisome drift, but De Long
knew how to keep up the spirits of his people by his own unfailing
cheerfulness, and by promoting good-fellowship and various amusements.
On March 12th, 1881, they were in 74° 54′ N., having drifted 320 miles
to the north-west since sighting Herald Island, but they were still on
the continental shelf, the depth being only 38 fathoms, increasing,
after a month, to 85 fathoms. The rate of drift seemed to increase.
From April 21st to 25th it was 47 miles, in a direction N. 69° W. On
May 16th, in 76° 47′ N., a small island was sighted, and on the 24th
another in 77° 8′ N. A dog sledge, under Melville, was sent to visit
one of them, returning on June 5th. They were outliers of the Liakhov
group, and were named Jeannette and Henrietta Islands respectively.
On June 11th the depth was only 33 fathoms, and the ice was in a
threatening condition. Suddenly the vessel was subjected to tremendous
pressure. Provisions and everything that could be saved were at once
got out on the ice together with the boats, and on June 12th, 1881,
after long and faithful service on the African coast, in Baffin’s Bay,
Peel Sound, and Smith Sound, and lastly in this long drift, the staunch
old gunboat sank to the bottom of the Siberian Sea.
De Long found himself in command of a whale-boat and two cutters, with
4950 lb. of pemmican and 1120 lb. of biscuit and 32 souls to save from
death. Their position was in 77° 14′ 57″ N. and 154° 58′ E., far away
from land. The boats were mounted and secured on sledges, and held ten
men each, the first with De Long and Ambler, the second with Melville
and Danenhower, and the third with Chipp and Dunbar. There were six
tents.
De Long made for the Liakhov or New Siberian Islands, but with much
soft snow and dangerous openings in the ice their progress was slow.
On July 29th land was discovered in 76° 38′ 17″ N., the most northern
of the New Siberian group, consisting of volcanic rock, with a vein
of bituminous coal. It received the name of Bennett Island. All were
then well, with 23 dogs, and 30 days’ provisions, but De Long himself
was suffering much from the state of his feet. From the New Siberian
Islands the three boats then started for the mouth of the Lena, De Long
intending to lead his people to the first Russian settlement he could
find.
In crossing from the island to the Siberian coast the boats encountered
a furious gale of wind and were separated. Chipp and his boat’s crew
were never heard of again. Melville and Danenhower, however, with their
men, landed on one part of the Lena delta, and De Long on another.
The latter in vain tried to find their way to a Russian settlement.
Provisions failed, and all, save two, perished. Melville and Danenhower
were more fortunate, reaching Yakutsk on the 30th December, 1881, and
Melville at once organised a search for his lost commander.
A relief expedition had meanwhile been fitted out at San Francisco,
and in June 1881 the _Rodgers_ sailed under the command of Lieutenant
Berry, U.S.N. That intelligent officer made a complete survey
and examination of the small Wrangell Island, in sight from Cape
Chelagskoi, about which Dr Petermann and others had written so
inaccurately. He wintered in St Lawrence Bay, and then made his way
to Yakutsk, to join Melville in the search. The bodies of De Long and
Ambler were found close to each other on the island of Boren-Bjelkoi;
they had died nobly, martyrs to science, and devoted to duty to the
last.
De Long was a naval officer of promise, and a noble character. He
impressed me greatly with his thoroughness. In his last letter to his
wife he wrote: “I feel my responsibility, and I hope I appreciate the
delicate position I am placed in, of leading and directing so many
people of my own age. I hope God will aid me in what I have undertaken,
and will bring me through it in safety and with credit.” Mrs De Long
resolved to publish the whole of her husband’s copious journals, and
she acted wisely, for they form one of the most interesting of Arctic
books. She wrote to me--what every reader will endorse--“the journals
show so convincingly the zeal, perseverance, and devotion of the
leader, that I am anxious that they should have as large a circulation
as possible.”
De Long’s expedition, though unfortunate, was not without useful
results. The history of the drift, so carefully and accurately
recorded, is valuable geographically and will always be of assistance
to future explorers.