Written by Cloud Guest
Since ancient times, people have wondered: if we keep going north, where will we go?
In ancient China, there was a "Great Yu who was lost in water and strayed north, and strayed north into the country of the final north." "The story of the place, where there is no grass, extremely barren, there are no flowers, insects, birds and beasts, of course, this is the original imagination of Chinese civilization for the extreme north.
In ancient Greek legend, it was believed that the northernmost end of the earth was located under the constellation Ursa Major, so the ancient Greeks named this mythical land in the extreme north after the "country of the great bear".
The real first explorer to begin his march to the North Pole was Pythias of ancient Greece, who sailed beyond the Strait of Gibraltar in 330 BC and sailed north to Iceland or northern Norway, which belong to the Arctic.
It wasn't until the opening of new shipping routes that Western explorers' desire for shipping routes ushered the Arctic into the Age of Exploration. Because of Marco Polo's trip to China in 1271, Westerners believe that China is a paradise on earth full of jewels and beautiful women. As a result, Westerners began to look for the shortest route to China, the Maritime Silk Road. Europeans at the time believed that by sailing north from the Norwegian Sea and then east or west along the coast, they would be able to reach China in the east. Therefore, the history of medieval Arctic exploration is inseparable from the discovery of the northeast and northwest routes of the Arctic Ocean.
In 1500, the Portuguese Cowrell brothers sailed north along the west coast of Europe to Newfoundland. The following year, they continued north, hoping to find the road to China, but never returned, becoming the first explorers to die for the Northwest Route.
From 1594, the Dutchman Barents embarked on his 3 voyages to the Arctic. In 1596, he discovered Spitsbergen, setting a new record for human advance northward and becoming the first Europeans to winter in the Arctic. On June 20, 1597, at the age of 37, Barents died of hunger and cold on a floating block of ice. Sixteen years later, the Englishman Hudson sailed his ship, the Discovery, to the Northwest Passage, and they reached the bay that would later bear Hudson's name. Unfortunately, 9 of the 22 expedition members froze to death, 5 were killed by Eskimos, 1 fell ill and only 7 made it back to England alive.
In 1725, Peter the Great of Russia appointed Bering the Dane as the leader of the Russian expedition to complete the difficult task of "determining whether Asia and the American continents are connected." In the 17 years that followed, Bering completed two extremely difficult expeditions. He charted Kamchatka and smoothly passed through the shipping route between Alaska and Siberia, now known as the Bering Strait. He reached the west coast of North America and discovered the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. It was his discovery that led to the recognition of Russia's territorial claims to Alaska. However, more than 100 people died in both expeditions, including Bering himself.
In 1770~1773, Yakutsk merchant and fisherman Ivan Lyakhov drove a fishing boat to Veliklikhyakhov Island and Little Lyahov Island, which were later named after him. In May 1806, Scotsman William Scosby Sr. and his 17-year-old son William Scosby Jr. came to the northwestern waters of the Spitsbergen Islands in order to chase whales, setting a new record for sailing north to reach high latitudes. In 1817-1822, they visited the northeast coast of Greenland. Later, Scosby published The Travel Diary of the Northern Whale Hunting Area, one of the classics of geography. The book asserts that the Arctic is surrounded by a thick layer of ice and snow, and that the North Pole can only be reached by sleigh. These are all early discoveries of the Arctic. In the years that followed, humanity's yearning for the Arctic prompted them to take the initiative to move towards the Arctic.
In the exploration of the Arctic, humans discovered an important phenomenon in 1819. That year, the Englishman Captain Parry insisted on rushing into the winter-frozen Arctic seas, and almost opened the Northwest Passage. Although they failed, they discovered the extremely important fact that the Arctic ice sheet was constantly moving. They traveled on ice floes for 61 days, endured all the hardships, walked 1,600 kilometers, but actually moved only 270 kilometers forward. That's because the ice sheet moves in the opposite direction of their travel, and as they travel north, the ice carries them south.
In June 1827, William Parry, James Ross and Francis Closeyer of England set off from West Spitzbergen in two sleigh boats through icebergs at sea, setting a world record for the farthest northward expedition. 28 years later, the Englishman Inglefield explored the northern Baffin Bay and Smith Channel in search of the missing British explorer Franklin. The following year, the American Cain also came to this sea area, and with the help of Hans Hiedric of Eskimos, he inspected the coast of this sea area, which was later named the Cain Sea. In the same year, the expedition led by Austrian officers Julius Pyer and Karl Vaiprecht was frozen in the northwest sea of Novaya Zemlya and drifted on ice for 372 days.
On May 19, 1845, the British Admiralty sent explorer Franklin to embark on a third Arctic voyage. The 129 people in the team died of cold, starvation and disease during more than three years of arduous travel. This lifeless expedition is the greatest tragedy in the history of Arctic exploration.
In 1875, an expedition led by Englishman George Strong Nales set a new record for approaching the North Pole by boat. During the winter, the expedition explored nearly 300 kilometers of coastline in the northern part of Ellesmere Island as well as northern Greenland and a number of nearby islands. The following year, Malgam led an expedition to the northern latitude by sleigh, at which point many fell ill with scurvy and four died and had to turn back.
In 1878, Finnish Swedish Navy Captain Louis Panlandel led an international expedition of 30 Russian, Danish and Italian naval personnel to open the Northeast Route for the first time on four expedition ships including the Vega. The final victory came in 1905, when Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who conquered the South Pole, successfully opened the Northwest Route. Their success brought the search for the Arctic Eastern Route to a complete end.
The tireless efforts of mankind have also paid off richly. In 1881, an American expedition led by Washington Grimley finally established a weather station north of Ellesmere Island. But the tragedy did not end, and the following year, Rockward set out from the weather station to inspect the northern part of Ellesmere Island and discovered Greely Bay in the western part of the island. The expedition was later almost completely wiped out due to food shortages, and only 7 of the 26-man expedition survived.
On July 11, 1897, Swedish engineer Solomon Andrei and his assistant, physicist Niels, technician Frengel, took off from the Danish island in the "Eagle" airship, intending to cross the North Pole. Thirty-three years later, Andrei's body, Stringberg's grave and their diaries and relics were found on the island of Bere.
In 1912, Russian naval officer Serdov led an expedition from Arkhangelsk on the ship "St. Foka" to Franz Josef Land, but encountered solid ice and returned to Novaya Zemlya. In 1913, he sailed north again, encountered hard ice, had to go south to Hooke Island for the winter, unfortunately contracted scurvy, and died on the way to the North Pole on a sleigh.
At the same time as Shedov's expedition, another Russian naval officer, Georgy Rivovich Brusilov, was going to travel through the Northeast Passage to the Pacific Ocean on the " Santa Ana " . Brusilov and his party conducted a topographic survey of the sea in the northern Kara Sea and discovered the Santa Ana basin, but Brusilov and most of the expedition were killed, and only Valelian Ivanovich Arbarov and sailor Alexander Gunrad survived. Fortunately, thanks to them, they have preserved the precious information obtained from this expedition. In 1910, Sergeyev of Russia led an expedition consisting of two icebreakers, the "Temyr" and the "Vagachi", to Arkhangelsk or Murmansk.
The first explorer to confirm that the Arctic is the ocean: Fridtjof Nansen
Before 1896, humans did not know whether the northernmost point of the Earth was frozen land or frozen ocean. Norwegian hero Nansen gave the whole world the right answer: the Arctic is a frozen ocean. Since then, Nansen's name has been closely associated with the North Pole.
Fridtjof Nansen
Friedjoff Nansen was the son of a lawyer. He was born on October 10, 1861, near Oslo, Norway, to a wealthy family. In 1880 Nansen entered the University of Christiania to study zoology. In 1882, he sailed to the waters of Glenland to conduct research. This maritime survey aroused his passion for studying the Arctic Ocean. Upon his return to Norway, he became the zoological collector at the Bergen Museum. In 1888 he received his doctorate from the University of Christiania. As a result, Nansen became a Norwegian Arctic explorer, zoologist and politician. He is well known in science for his trek to the Glenland Ice Sheet in 1888 and his voyages across the Arctic Ocean aboard the Frem in 1893-1896. Nansen also received the Nobel Peace Prize (1921-1922) for his work in repatriating 500,000 prisoners of war from Siberia, China, and other parts of the world and for directly rescuing the starving Russian people (1921-1923).
In 1887, Nansen proposed a sleigh to explore the Glenland Ice Sheet. But the Norwegian government refused to provide funding. Later, he received financial support from a Dane and began to carry out his plan. In May 1888, Nansen left Norway accompanied by five companions. Due to the state of the ice, the expedition retreated to considerable difficulty after docking. On 16 August, they began their arduous march from east to west. In early October, Nansen reached the village of Golde on the western coast of Görlenland. But because the last steamer had already set sail, they had to spend the winter there. That winter gave Nansen a chance to study the Eskimos. He eventually wrote a book called The Eskimo Life, which was published in 1891.
The success of the Grlenland expedition greatly reduced the difficulties Nansen's fundraising efforts for his next expedition, using ice floes to float across the Arctic Ocean. Nansen used funds that were mostly private donations to build a ship. and named the ship "Frem". The best feature of the ship is its round hull. This makes it easy for the boat to squeeze into large ice groups and arch over them. On June 24, 1893, Nansen set off for the Arctic Ocean with 12 companions. During the floating, Nansen calculated that the road could not allow the ship to cross the North Pole. So, back to Norway.
After returning to Norway, Nansen became a professor of zoology at the University of Christiania. However, his interest turned to physical oceanography. Later, in 1908 he became professor of oceanography. From 1896 to 1917, Nansen devoted himself to scientific research. He participated in the creation of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and, after a trip to the Arctic in 1896, proved to the world for the first time that the Arctic was a frozen ocean.
The first person in human history to reach the North Pole: Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Peary (1856–1920), American, a rear admiral, cartographer, and explorer, always had a dream of exploring the North Pole.
In 1886, Pierri visited Greenland for the first time, examining the topography and climate of the ice field. In 1900, he discovered the northernmost land in Greenland, later known as "Pirry Land".
In 1902, Pirry embarked on his first expedition to the North Pole, but was unable to cross the frozen Arctic Ocean and turned back.
In 1905, at the age of 50, Pirry made a careful plan to hit the North Pole for the second time. The expedition was still a failure, with great damage. But they reached 87°06′ north latitude, only 273.58 kilometers away from the north pole, setting a new record for human northward advance.
In July 1908, Pirry made the most comprehensive preparations for the sprint to the North Pole, and launched the Third Arctic Expedition from the United States. But in the end, the third exploration ended in failure again because the ship was frozen in ice.
At the end of February 1909, the Pirry expedition once again embarked on a vast expedition to the North Pole. On April 6, 1909, after 36 days and crossing 240 kilometers of ice sheets, they finally reached their final goal, the North Pole. He has been pursuing a goal for more than 300 years, he has struggled for 23 years, explored the Arctic for 10 years, and finally spent more than 30 days to realize this dream.
Pirry found that there is no so-called "Arctic continent" from Greenland to Arctic ice, which is just an area covered by frozen oceans. After many challenges and many failures, Pirry finally became the first person in the world to reach the North Pole at the age of 54, drawing the first stroke in the history of exploration on the top of the earth and going down in history forever. This marked the conquest of the last commanding heights of the Arctic by mankind and the end of the era of Arctic geographical discovery.
Pirry's map for detecting the North Pole
Pirry at the camp
On April 6, 1909, Pirry and his party arrived at the North Pole
Looking back at the entire history of Arctic exploration, the price paid by humans to conquer the North Pole is quite expensive and extremely tragic, according to incomplete statistics, the number of people who died in the official Arctic expedition alone reached 508.
Many explorers have followed the exploration of the Arctic route, accumulating human geographical understanding of the Arctic with courage and life.
Now, the purpose of people's exploration of the Arctic has gradually transitioned from the initial "exploration" to systematic earth science research (including geomagnetism, heavy mechanics, geology, geomorphology, meteorology, geodesy, physical oceanography, glaciology, atmospheric physics, atmospheric dust, cosmic radiation, etc.) and life science research (including biology, human physiology, psychopathology, marine biology, ecology, zoology, botany, algae, etc.).
For the mysterious Arctic, we still have a lot to know, and we will approach it step by step with awe.