the fate of the Franklin expedition diminished, but Lady Franklin
remained loyal to the object to which so many years of her life had
been dedicated; and after the Government had refused to assist her
further, she decided to fit out a private expedition, of which
Captain M'Clintock took command. In June, 1857, the _Fox_, a steam
yacht of 177 tons, started on her voyage to Greenland, but on
reaching Melville Sound, M'Clintock found it extraordinarily packed
with ice. The little vessel was firmly imprisoned, and had to spend
the winter in the drifting pack. During eight months she drifted
southward for nearly 1,200 geographical miles, and she was not
liberated from her prison until April, 1858.
After such an experience many leaders would have made for a port in
which to refit, but M'Clintock was of a different temper. No sooner
had the _Fox_ freed herself from her perilous position than he turned
her head towards the north, and once more took up the work that he
had been sent out to do. And this determination to concentrate, at
all costs, on the definite object in hand ultimately met with its sad
reward. In June, 1859, it was proved beyond any doubt that the
report of the Eskimos (which had been received in England in 1854),
to the effect that they had seen the dead bodies of several of
Franklin's men, was true. "All the coastline along which the
retreating crews performed their fearful march must," M'Clintock
wrote, "be sacred to their names alone."
Among the many feats that M'Clintock and his men performed during
this last search, were a march round King William Island, the
discovery of the one navigable North-West Passage, and the discovery
of some 800 miles of new coastline. As far as geographical discovery
was concerned, the main result of the many expeditions sent out in
search of Franklin was that the islands to the north of North America
had been mapped out.
In 1853 an American expedition, under Elisha Kane, which was sent out
in search of Franklin, to the north of Smith Sound, was fruitful in
geographical discovery, and outlined what has been called the
American route to the Pole.
Interest in the Smith Sound route began to grow in England, and was
stimulated by another American expedition, led by Charles Hall, in
1871. But although the desire to undertake more Arctic research was
strongly felt by many Englishmen, it cannot be said that it was
encouraged in official circles. In 1872 Mr. Lowe and Mr. Goschen did
receive a deputation of Arctic enthusiasts, but were by no means
encouraging in their replies. An expedition, however, under
Commander Albert Markham, set out in 1873, and succeeded in capturing
twenty-eight whales, which were worth nearly £19,000; and the result
of this voyage was to stimulate the idea of further Arctic enterprise.
In November, 1874, Lord Beaconsfield, who was at the time Prime
Minister, announced that an Arctic expedition to encourage maritime
enterprise and to explore the regions round the Pole would be sent
out. Sir Clements Markham and other Arctic enthusiasts in England
were delighted with this announcement, but their delight was
short-lived. These enthusiasts had for years been advocating that
exploratory work should be undertaken in the region round the Pole,
but they did not consider that a mere rush to the Pole should be
undertaken until, at any rate, work of more value to mankind had been
done. The conduct of the projected expedition was taken over by the
Admiralty, and great was the consternation of Sir Clements and his
friends when it was announced that "the main object of the expedition
was to attain the highest latitude and, if possible, to reach the
North Pole."
However displeasing such an object was to these enthusiasts, they
could not but rejoice at the interest shown in the expedition, and in
the fact that Captain Nares was appointed to command it. At the end
of May, 1875, the ships sailed from Portsmouth, and on arriving in
the Arctic regions Nares had to bear in mind his definite
instructions. In short, exploratory work was to give way to an
effort to reach, if possible, the Pole itself. But anxious as he was
to carry out his orders, one terrible scourge stood in his way.
Scurvy, that deadly disease, attacked his party during the winter,
and nearly half of his men suffered from it. Under such conditions
he was severely handicapped, but he decided to send out three
sledge-parties--eastward, westward, and to the north. Lieutenant
Pelham Aldrich was in charge of the western party, and although most
of the sledge crew were weakened by scurvy, they marched over 600
miles, and succeeded in reaching 82° 48' N., a few miles farther
north than Parry had reached some fifty years previously.
In 1882 an American expedition, under Lieutenant Greely, although
terribly unfortunate in some respects, was successful in wresting the
record for "farthest north" from the British.
[Illustration: North Polar Regions.]
We must turn aside for a moment from these efforts to get farther and
farther north, to mention the exploits of that distinguished Swedish
explorer, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. As early as 1873 Nordenskiöld
began to think that the North-East Passage by the Siberian coast
might, when found, prove to be of great commercial value, and after
some preliminary expeditions he, in 1878, set out in the _Vega_ on
his great voyage, and in August the ship passed Cape Chelyuskin, the
most northerly point of the Old World. By September, however, the
_Vega_, when very near to the completion of her task, was so
surrounded by ice that she could proceed no farther, and for ten
months she was held a prisoner. Not until the following July was the
Vega free to resume her voyage, and shortly afterwards she rounded
East Cape, and saluted "the easternmost coast of Asia in honour of
the completing of the North-East Passage." Nordenskiöld, both as an
explorer and as a man of science, has left the world greatly in his
debt, and it has been well said that "when he died, a vast amount of
knowledge died with him."
Nordenskiöld's name, like Fridtjof Nansen's, is intimately connected
with exploratory work in Greenland. Nansen was born in 1861, and he
was only twenty-seven years of age when his devotion to discovery led
him to make an expedition on lines that were as courageous as they
were original. Up to this date, 1888, the recognized method employed
in Polar exploratory work had been to establish a base where stores
were placed, and from this base to march as far as possible in
various directions. But when Nansen determined to cross Greenland
from east to west, he paid no attention to recognized methods. With
five companions he, in June, 1888, was taken in the _Jason_ to the
ice's edge on the east coast of Greenland, and there the explorers,
hoping shortly to reach land, took to their boats. Some time,
however, passed before they could make a landing, but eventually a
suitable place was found, and then they began their great march.
With no base to which they could return, the party had literally
taken their lives into their hands, for failure almost certainly
meant death.
Starting on 22nd August, the party, four days later, had mounted to a
height of 6,000 feet, and by the middle of September had reached the
summit (8,250 feet). Eventually the explorers managed to reach the
Danish settlement at Godthaab, and in the following year returned to
Norway. It was a fine effort, fruitful alike in geographical
discovery and in meteorological results; and, famous as Nansen's name
subsequently and deservedly became, by no means his least claim to
honour is derived from this great march across Greenland.
Between 1892 and 1895 the American Lieutenant Peary, using dogs for
purposes of traction, made two successful marches across Greenland,
and so prepared himself for the attacks on the North Pole
itself--attacks which he was ultimately to bring to a successful
conclusion. The date 1893 will always be renowned in the history of
Arctic exploration, for during that year Nansen embarked upon his
remarkable voyage in his no less remarkable ship, the _Fram_.
From careful observations and investigations Nansen was convinced
that there was a continuous drift of ice from the north-east shore of
Siberia across the Arctic Ocean. Hitherto, Arctic explorers had
struggled hard to avoid being beset by ice. Far from following in
their wake, it was Nansen's plan to get his vessel frozen in the
pack, and then to drift towards the Pole.
It would be untruthful to say that his plan was encouraged by the
majority of Arctic experts, but Nansen was not the man to be
dissuaded from any project which, after consideration, he had taken
in hand. For such a voyage an especially constructed ship was
necessary, and so Mr. Colin Archer was instructed to build a vessel
specially designed to resist ice-pressure. The main object of Nansen
and Archer was that "she should slip like an eel out of the embraces
of the ice."
Nansen calculated that the drift would take about three years, and he
provisioned the _Fram_ for five years. On this historic voyage
Nansen was accompanied by twelve other adventurous men. Sailing from
Norway in July, 1893, the Kara Sea was crossed, and early in
September Cape Chelyuskin was rounded. About a fortnight later the
ship was frozen in, and the great drift began. During the next
months the _Fram_ was given ample opportunity to prove her worth, and
she seized it nobly. In October great pressure from the ice was
experienced, but both then and later the ship resisted, and rose to,
the pressure. During her first year in the ice the _Fram_ drifted a
distance of 189 miles.
During the second winter, Nansen, taking Frederik Johansen with him,
and leaving Otto Sverdrup in charge of the ship, decided to leave the
_Fram_ and try to reach the Pole. A start was made in March, 1895,
and in less than a month 86° 28' N. was reached. At that point the
explorers had to turn south, and after many perilous adventures, they
landed, at the end of August, on an island of the Franz-Josef group.
There they decided to winter, and there they had to remain for nine
long months. When at last they were able to proceed, a grave
disaster was only prevented by Nansen's promptitude and courage. The
explorers were on shore, when Johansen noticed that their kayaks
(Eskimo canoes of light wooden framework covered with seal skins)
were adrift. The loss of these boats could scarcely have meant less
than death to the explorers, and Nansen immediately jumped into the
icy water and swam to retrieve them. It was an action as prompt as
it was heroic, and it saved the situation; but Nansen's condition,
when he brought back the kayaks to land, has been described as "more
dead than alive," and some time passed before he fully recovered from
the results of his effort.
Some weeks later the kayaks were once more made as seaworthy as was
possible under the circumstances, and Nansen and Johansen were again
embarking on their adventurous voyage when, by good fortune, they
were found by Frederick Jackson, the leader of the Jackson-Harmsworth
Expedition, which did such good work in Franz-Josef Land. This
meeting between Nansen and Jackson has been compared with the famous
one between Livingstone and Stanley, and even if the latter was the
more dramatic, the former was as opportune, for there is no
gainsaying that Nansen and his companion were in a most perilous
position. In the meantime the drift of the _Fram_ under Sverdrup's
able leadership continued, and she did not return to Norway until
August, 1896.
The results of the _Fram_ expedition were exceptionally important.
"They threw," Sir Clements Markham wrote, "new light on the whole
Arctic problem. Nansen lifted the veil, and his expedition was the
most important in modern times. It was discovered that there was a
deep-sea ocean to the north of Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land,
extending beyond the Pole...."
In 1897 a meeting was held in the Albert Hall in honour of Nansen,
whose work, both geographically and scientifically, more than
deserved the great welcome given to him in England. In an
introduction to his _In the Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in
Early Times_, Nansen quotes words from the old Norse chronicle, the
_King's Mirror_, that are curiously illuminating:--
"If you wish to know what men seek in this land [the Arctic regions],
or why men journey thither in so great danger of their lives, then it
is the threefold nature of man that draws him thither. One part of
him is emulation and desire of fame, for it is a man's nature to go
where there is likelihood of great danger, and to make himself famous
thereby. Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is man's
nature to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard, and
to find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third
part is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in
every place where they learn that profit is to be had, even though
there is great danger in it."
And, indeed, it may well be admitted that the factors which have
helped to make the modern world are mainly a desire for fame, a
desire for knowledge, and a desire for riches; and woe betide the
nation that forgets the first and second of these factors, and loses
its soul in concentration upon the last of them.
II
During the years succeeding Nansen's expedition the desire to reach
the North Pole itself took possession of the minds of many brave men.
Bit by bit the Arctic regions had been mapped out; gradually the
obstacles that maintained the Pole in its splendid isolation were
being overcome. Some years were to pass before its mysteries were
unveiled, but in those years there was an almost continuous effort to
probe those mysteries.
Nansen had discovered beyond any doubt that the Pole lay in an
ice-covered sea, an inhospitable place enough; but this fact did not
prevent explorers from wanting actually to locate it, and in 1900 the
Duke of the Abruzzi tried to reach it by way of Franz-Josef Land.
Owing to a frost-bitten hand, the Duke could not take part in the
main journey of his expedition, and so Captain Cagni commanded it.
The Pole withstood this effort, but Cagni did succeed in reaching 86°
33' N., and thus beat Nansen's record for "farthest north."
Previous to the Abruzzi expedition, Robert Peary had launched his
first great attack upon the Pole. This expedition lasted for four
years--1898 to 1902--but Peary encountered such dense packs of ice,
which blocked his way to the Polar Ocean, that he failed in his main
object.
Another attempt followed in 1906, and although this was not crowned
with complete success, Peary made a world's record for "farthest
north" by reaching 87° 6'. In this expedition he nearly lost his
life, but he returned to America with the grim determination to make
yet another attempt. Experience had been bought by Peary in
abundance and at a great cost, and to this was added an energy that
was remarkable even among Polar explorers. This third voyage to the
Polar regions had, in the nature of things, to be his last. He was,
when he set out upon it, fifty-three years of age, and although,
after spending over twenty years in Arctic work, he had an experience
that was invaluable, even experience cannot make an Arctic explorer
forget that youth is also a great asset in the Polar regions.
In May, 1908, Peary published his programme, the main features of
which are worthy of record. He decided to use the same ship, the
_Roosevelt_, which had taken him to the north in his 1906 expedition.
His route was to be by way of Smith Sound; his winter quarters were
to be at Cape Sheridan, or even nearer to the Pole if the ship could
proceed farther; he intended to use sledges and Eskimo dogs for
traction; and, lastly, he placed his confidence in Eskimos, the
Arctic Highlanders, as the rank-and-file of his sledge parties.
Most careful preparations were made for this expedition, and while
Peary was making them he received much practical support, but also
some suggestions that were not notably helpful. For instance, one
cheerful crank invited him to become a "human cannon-ball"--some sort
of machine was to be taken to the North, and then, when it was
pointed towards the Pole, the inventor assured Peary that it would
shoot him there in no time. The explorer did not see his way to
accepting such an abrupt means of transit!
When the _Roosevelt_ sailed on 17th July, 1908, she had twenty-two
men on board, including Peary himself, Robert Bartlett, master of the
_Roosevelt_, George Wardwell, Dr. Goodsell, Professor Marvin, Donald
McMillan, George Borop, and Matthew Henson, Peary's negro assistant,
who had accompanied him on many expeditions.
When Peary's vast knowledge of the Polar regions is remembered, his
remarks on the essentials required in an Arctic sledge journey must
admittedly be valuable. "The essentials, and the only essentials,"
he writes, "needed in a serious Arctic sledge journey, no matter what
the season, the temperature, or the duration of the journey--whether
one month or six--are four: pemmican, tea, ship's biscuit, condensed
milk."* And it is interesting to note that of these commodities he
took 50,000 lbs. of pemmican, 10,000 lbs. of biscuit, 800 lbs. of
tea, and 100 cases of condensed milk on this expedition.
* Robert Peary's _The North Pole_ (Hodder and Stoughton).
The _Roosevelt_ reached Cape York, Greenland, on 1st August, and
there she said a temporary good-bye to the civilized world. There
also Peary met the Eskimos, whose friendship he had gained by many
and continuous acts of kindness. The Eskimos are, within their
limits, a lovable and loyal people; their good qualities are those of
nice children, their bad qualities those of mischievous children. "I
have made it a point," Peary says, "to be firm with them, but to rule
them by love and gratitude rather than by fear and threats. An
Eskimo, like an Indian, never forgets a broken promise--nor a
fulfilled one." These Eskimos live on the verge of starvation for
many months in the year, but if they are not troubled by questions of
morality in one sense of the word, they are at any rate ready to
share what they have got in the way of food, or of means to obtain
it, with those who are less fortunate than themselves. Religion, as
we understand it, does not enter into their scheme of things, but
they pay studious attention to spirits--especially to Tornarsuk, who
is the devil himself, and consequently leader of all evil spirits.
One can appreciate the childlikeness of people who will rip an old
garment to shreds so that the devil may be prevented from wearing it!
After leaving Cape York, Peary transferred himself for some days to
the _Erik_, his auxiliary supply steamer, so that he could collect as
many Eskimos and dogs as he required. By 11th August the _Erik_
reached Etah, and rejoined the _Roosevelt_. Finally, Peary selected
49 Eskimos and 246 dogs, and having transferred them to the
_Roosevelt_, the explorers set out to fight their way through the 350
miles of ice-blocked water that separated Etah from Cape Sheridan.
And the ice during that journey was in no gentle mood. So great were
the risks that the ship might at any time be crushed, that the boats,
fully equipped and provisioned, were always ready to be lowered at a
moment's notice.
A terrific battle with that uncompromising opponent, the ice,
followed, but not until 30th August did the struggle reach its
climax. On that day the ship was "kicked about by the floes as if
she had been a football," and the pressure was so terrific that Peary
decided to dynamite the ice. This operation was successful in
relieving the situation, but some days passed before even the
greatest optimist in the ship could consider her free from danger.
But on 5th September the _Roosevelt_ managed to fight her way through
to Cape Sheridan; and after a project to take her on to Porter Bay
had been abandoned, the work of unloading her was begun, and with her
lighter load Captain Bartlett proceeded to get her as near the shore
as possible.
The first stage on the way to the Pole was behind the explorers, and
if the next stage was shorter in distance, it was no less important a
part of the whole scheme. This second stage consisted of the
transportation of supplies from Cape Sheridan to Cape Columbia,
ninety miles north-west of the ship. Cape Columbia is the most
northerly point of Grant Land, and from there Peary had determined to
make his dash over the ice to the Pole. But to move an enormous
quantity of supplies over such a distance was work that needed much
thought and care, for in the first place some of Peary's companions
were unused to driving sledges, and, secondly, neither the weather
nor the track were likely to give them much assistance.
These sledging parties on the way to Cape Columbia were soon
organized, and, in addition, hunting parties were sent out, and a
supply of fresh meat for the winter was obtained. "Imagine us,"
Peary wrote, "in our winter home on the _Roosevelt_ ... the ship held
tight in her icy berth, a hundred and fifty yards from the shore, the
ship and the surrounding world covered with snow, the wind creaking
in the rigging, whistling and shrieking round the corners of the deck
houses, the temperatures ranging from zero to sixty below, and the
ice-pack in the channel outside groaning and complaining with the
movement of the tides."
In these words Peary gives us an excellent picture of the explorers'
winter home--a home upon which the sun never shone for many months,
but which, in spite of the darkness, was a home of unceasing industry
and preparation. And among the innumerable activities that took
place, none was more important than the task of attending to the
dogs. Early in November, Peary had become anxious about these
all-important factors of his expedition. Over fifty of them were
already dead, and a few days later only 160 dogs out of the 245 with
which he had arrived were left. A change of diet from whale to
walrus meat put an end to these appalling losses; but Peary's anxiety
until he discovered a way to prevent them can be easily imagined.
For without any adequate supply of dogs he knew all too well that
neither he nor any one else would ever reach the Pole.
By the end of the autumn season snow igloos had been built on the
track to Cape Columbia. We have the best authority--namely,
Peary's--for saying that one of these snow-houses can be built by
four good workmen in an hour. Into this shelter the traveller
literally crawls, for the only means of entrance is a hole at the
bottom of one side, and when the last man of the party has got in,
this opening is closed up by a block of snow already cut for the
purpose.
Except for one most alarming experience, when in a terrific gale the
ice made a stupendous attempt against the invading ship, the winter
was spent rather with anxiety about the future than with worry about
the present. No wonder that Peary speculated over what awaited him
when he started upon his great march. After leaving Cape Columbia,
over 400 miles separated him from his goal, and these miles had to be
travelled over the ice of the Polar sea. "There is no land," he
writes, "_between Cape Columbia and the North Pole, and no smooth and
very little level ice._" But even ice through which the traveller
must sometimes pick-axe his way is not the most serious impediment to
those who would reach the Pole. The great obstacles--the
ever-present source of anxiety--are the "leads" which constantly
appear. These "leads" are really patches of open water, varying in
extent, which the winds and tides cause in the ice's movement. For
no reason that is apparent, these dangerous obstacles suddenly block
the explorer's advance, and little can be done save to wait for them
to remove themselves. These "leads" were to be Peary's greatest
impediment in his march, and were destined to be fatal to one valued
member of his party.