Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.2.
Roald Amundsen, the
first to conquer the Northwest Passage
(and the first to reach the South Pole)
(From “The South Pole”, Volume
II, Library Call Number M82.1/99
A529s., libr0351, Treasures of the
NOAA Library Collection, by Mr.
Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS)
Zemlya in 1871. The following year, they were less fortunate and the ship drifted
northwestward in the ice. In August 1873, they discovered Franz Josef Land and
were obliged to over-winter. The ship was abandoned and they were rescued in a
small boat off Novaya Zemlya in August 1874. They advanced a new hypothesis
that Franz Josef Land pointed to a landmass over the North Pole. This same idea
led Lt. George De Long to explore the East Siberian Sea in the vicinity of Wrangel
Island. However, his ship, the
Jeanette
, became trapped in the ice in September
1879 and drifted northwestward before being crushed north of the New Siberian
Islands in June 1881. Only three members of the crew survived. Three years later
a remarkable find was made of some wreckage from the
Jeanette
on the southwest
coast of Greenland. Professor Henrik Mohn proposed that the Arctic ice, drifting
under the influence of winds and ocean currents, must have transported them. Nils
Nordenskiold finally conquered the Northeast Passage in 1878-1879. The steam-
powered
Vega
became beset in late September off the North Cape and could not
proceed into the Bering Strait until July 20, 1879. Nevertheless, the feasibility of the
Northern Sea Route had been established.
The first polar icebreaker, the
Yermak
, was built for the Russian navy in Newcastle,
England in 1898. After sustaining some damage in heavy ice off Svalbard in 1899,
it was operated mainly in the Baltic Sea (Barr,
1991
). Two small icebreakers were
