and his voyages in 1874, 1875 and 1876 led the way for a trade
between the ports of Europe and the mouth of the Yenisei River.
In June 1875 Professor Nordenskiöld sailed from
Nordenskiöld and the N.E. Passage.
Tromso in the Norwegian vessel, the “Proven,”
reached the Yenisei by way of the Kara Sea, and discovered
an excellent harbour on the eastern side of
its mouth, which was named Port Dickson, in honour of Baron
Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, the munificent supporter of the
Swedish expeditions. It having been suggested that the success
of this voyage was due to the unusual state of the ice in 1875,
Nordenskiöld undertook a voyage in the following year in the
“Ymer,” which was equally successful. By a minute study of
the history of former attempts, and a careful consideration of all
the circumstances, Professor Nordenskiöld convinced himself
that the achievement of the north-east passage was feasible.
The king of Sweden, Baron Oscar Dickson, and M. Sibiriakoff, a
wealthy Siberian proprietor, supplied the funds, and the steamer
“Vega” was purchased. Nordenskiöld was leader of the
expedition, Lieut. Palander was appointed commander of
the ship, and there was an efficient staff of officers and naturalists,
including Lieut. Hovgaard of the Danish and Lieut. Bove
of the Italian navy. A small steamer called the “Lena”
was to keep company with the “Vega” as far as the mouth of the
Lena, and they sailed from Gothenburg on the 4th of July 1878.
On the morning of the 10th of August they left Port Dickson, and
on the 19th they reached the most northern point of Siberia,
Cape Chelyuskin, in 77° 41′ N. On leaving the extreme northern
point of Asia a south-easterly course was steered, the sea being
free from ice and very shallow. This absence of ice is to some
extent due to the mass of warm water discharged by the great
Siberian rivers during the summer. On the 27th of August the
mouth of the river Lena was passed, and the “Vega” parted
company with the little “Lena,” continuing her course
eastward. Professor Nordenskiöld very nearly made the
north-east passage in one season; but towards the end of
September the “Vega” was frozen in off the shore of a low
plain in 67° 7′ N. and 173° 20′ W. near the settlements
of the Chukchis. During the voyage very large and important
natural history collections were made, and the interesting
aboriginal tribe among whom the winter was passed was
studied with great care. The interior was also explored for
some distance. On the 18th of July 1879, after having been
imprisoned by the ice for 294 days, the “Vega” again proceeded
on her voyage and passed Bering Strait on the 20th. Sir Hugh
Willoughby made his disastrous attempt in 1553. After a
lapse of 326 years of intermittent effort, the north-east
passage had at length been accomplished without the loss of
a single life and without damage to the vessel. The “Vega”
arrived at Yokohama on the 2nd of September 1879.
In 1879 an enterprise was undertaken in the United States, with the object of throwing further light on the sad history of the retreat of the officers and men of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, by examining the west coast of King William Island in the summer, when the snow is off the ground. The party consisted of Lieut. Schwatka of the United States Schwatka. army and three others. Wintering near the entrance of Chesterfield Inlet in Hudson Bay, they set out overland for the estuary of the Great Fish river, assisted by Eskimo and dogs, on the 1st of April 1879. They took only one month’s provisions, their main reliance being upon the game afforded by the region to be traversed. The party obtained, during the journeys out and home, no less than 522 reindeer. After collecting various stories from the Eskimo at Montreal Island and at an inlet west of Cape Richardson, Schwatka crossed over to Cape Herschel on King William Land in June. He examined the western shore of the island with the greatest care for relics of Sir John Franklin’s parties, as far as Cape Felix, the northern extremity. The return journey was commenced in November by ascending the Great Fish river for some distance and then marching over the intervening region to Hudson Bay. The cold of the winter months in that country is intense, the thermometer falling as low as −70° F., so that the return journey was most remarkable, and reflects the highest credit on Lieut. Schwatka and his companions. As regards the search little was left to be done after M‘Clintock, but some graves were found, as Well as a medal belonging to Lieut. Irving of H.M S. “Terror,” and some bones believed to be his, which were brought home and interred at Edinburgh.
Mr Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald, having resolved to despatch an expedition of discovery at his own expense by way of Bering Strait, the “Pandora” was purchased from Sir Allen Young, and rechristened the “Jeannette.” Lieut. de Long of the United States navy was appointed to command, and it was made a national undertaking De Long. by special act of Congress, the vessel being placed under martial law and officered from the navy. The “Jeannette” sailed from San Francisco on the 8th of July 1879, and was last seen steaming towards Wrangell Land on the 3rd of September. This land had been seen by Captain Kellett, in H.M.S. “Herald” on the 17th of August 1879, but no one had landed on it, and it was shown on the charts by a long dotted line. The “Jeannette” was provisioned for three years, but as no tidings had been received of her by 1881, two steamers were sent up Bering Strait in search. One of these, the “Rodgers,” under Lieut. Berry, anchored in a good harbour on the south coast of Wrangell Land, in 70° 57′ N., on the 26th of August 1881. The land was explored by the officers of the “Rodgers” and found to be an island about 70 m. long by 28, with a ridge of hills traversing it east and west, the 71st parallel running along its southern shore. Lieut. Berry then proceeded to examine the ice to the northward, and attained a higher latitude by 21 m. than had ever been reached before on the Bering Strait meridian—namely, 73° 44′ N . No news was obtained of the “Jeannette,” but soon afterwards melancholy tidings arrived from Siberia. After having been beset in heavy pack ice for twenty-two months, the “Jeannette” was crushed and sunk on the 13th of June 1881, in 77° 15′ N. lat., and 155° E. long. The officers and men dragged their boats over the ice to an island which was named Bennett Island, where they landed on the 29th of July. They reached one of the New Siberia Islands on the 10th of September, and on the 12th they set out for the mouth of the Lena. But in the same evening the three boats were separated in a gale of wind. A boat’s crew with Mr Melville, the engineer, reached the Lena delta and searching for the other parties found the ship’s books on the 14th of November, and resuming the search at the earliest possible moment in spring, Melville discovered the dead bodies of De Long and two of his crew on the 23rd of March 1882. They had perished from exhaustion and want of food. Three survivors of De Long’s party had succeeded in making their way to a Siberian village; but the third boat’s crew was lost. The “Rodgers” was burnt in its winter quarters, and one of the officers, W. H. Gilder (1838–1900), made a hazardous journey homewards through north-east Siberia.
The Norwegian geologist Professor Amund Helland made an expedition to Greenland in 1875 and discovered the marvellously rapid movements of the Greenland glaciers.Helland.
The Danes have been very active in prosecuting discoveries and scientific investigations in Greenland, since the journey of Nordenskiöld in 1870. Lieut. Jensen made a gallant attempt to penetrate the inland ice in 1878, collecting important observations, and Dr Steenstrup, with Lieut. Hammar, closely investigated the formation of Danes in Greenland. ice masses at Omenak and Jacobshavn. In 1883 an expedition under Lieuts. Holm and Garde began to explore the east coast of Greenland. In the summer of 1879 Captain Mourier, of the Danish man-of-war “Ingolf,” sighted the coast from the 6th to the 10th of July, and was enabled to observe and delineate it from 68° 10′ N. to 65° 55′ N., this being the gap left between the discoveries of Scoresby in 1822 and those of Graah in 1829. Nansen sighted part of the same coast in 1882. Lieut. Hovgaard of the Danish navy, who accompanied Nordenskiöld in his discovery of the north-east passage, planned an expedition to ascertain if land existed to the north of
