Spend the winter - or die…

From early in the 1700s the English and the Dutch competed for control of the rich whaling grounds around Svalbard. Actual sea battles, with full-size war ships of the time, were fought over these resources in the archipelago`s icy bays, and many stone-covered graves along the shore, bears witness to one such battle.

Boiling stations, where whale and walrus blubber was boiled down to fine oil, were built on land neat good, safe anchoring spots. During the brief arctic summer these stations were lively and filled with hundreds of busy workers, frantivally sevuring the riches for transport to the world markets before

King Winter came howling down from the north. The scramble to secure the best whaling and boiling station sites (Bellsund, Hornsund, Grønnfjorden and Smeerenburg), led to the first intentional winterings on land. After eight British whalers survived an unintended wintering in Bellsund in 1630-31, the world knew that humans could actually survive a Svalbard winter.

Both British and Dutch whaling companies equipped parties to spend the winter to secure and hold the best sites the very next year. They would thus already be established and ready-to-go when the first boats arrived from the south in June or July the following year.

Stories are told of how the English, in the 17th Century, offered prisoners on death row both reprieve from execution and a fair sum of money if they were eilling to be sent to Svalbard to hold the boiling stations for the winter. Compared to a dark dungeon and execution this was, to many a doomed soul, a generous offer. Not surprisingly, quite a few convicts soon found themselves shivering on whaling ships braving the frigid arctic waters - and yet it was still summer…

When October rolled by and the last ship of the year was heading south, it is said that there was no one convict who chose not to join his mates onboard. England - even with a looming execution - was more attractive than the dark hell of a Svalbard winter. Later, both the British and the Dutch pulled out of arctic whaling and hunting, mainly because of the massive over-harvesting of whale and walrus that had taken place, and the resulting decline in profits. Now came the “Age of Expeditions”. From the mid 1800s the world saw a growing commervial interest in accessing the Pacific rim countries (Asia and the Americas) from Europe using a northern sea route.

Great expeditions were sent out to open both the Northeast Passage (north of Russia) and the Northwest Passage (over Canada and Alaska). The North Pole itself, which at the time was believed to be on dry land, had also yet to be conquered. Many of these expeditions used Svalbard waters either as starting point or destination, or at least as a solid reference. These waters were relatively well mapped and the western and northern coasts were more ice-free than other areas at this latitude. These expeditions included scientists and adventurers from England (Parry in 1827), the USA (Lockwood in 1882), Sweden (Torell in 1858, Nordenskiöld in 1878), and Norway.

From the interior of Africa to the outskirts of the Arctic

Gordon Bennet, chief editor of the “New York Herald”, who financed Henry M. Stanley`s elaborate and costly African expeditions in the 1870s, now wants to take part in the race to be first to reach the North Pole. His plan is to have a ship sail north thorugh the Bering Strait until it meets solid pack ice. His team is then to attempt to reach the North Pole from there, using dogs and sleds. A special ship is constructed for the expedition, the Jeanette. On the 1st of July 1879 the expeditions leader, George W. de Long, commands the Jeanette out from port in San Francisco and sets it on a northerly course.

As they sail north they keep a lookout for Swedish scientist and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld and his Vega Expedition. The goal fo this expedition was to reach Eruope from the Pacific by sailing north of Russia. Nordenskiöld and his crew had been locked in sea ice north of the Bering Strait, and the world was concerned about their fate. But Nordenskiöld had been successful; the Northeast Passage had been conquered! The Vega, her crew, and particularly her Swedish commander, receives a jubilant welcome in Stockholm by the King himself, Oscar II, and throngs of exuberant and ecstativally patriotic Swedes. Nordenskiöld thus further secures his status as national hero - and with this success can easily take place among the most prominent international figures in Arctic research and exploration.

Jeanette, on the other hand, gets herself wedged in pack ice at 71 degrees North. The ship is jolted and squeezed and pushed about in the ice for two years before ultimately givin in to the powers of the moving ice. She is finally crushed and pressed down into the dark sea beneath. The already weakened crew sets out walking south over the icy arctic wasteland, with its black gullies and sheer crevasses. Only a handful survive. The leader, de Long, is not among them.

Adrift toward the Pole - The Fram Expedition

“I shall return - when the roses are in bloom, I know this - I have the ability.”
- From Nansen`s diary, 18. Nov. 1894, locked in the drifting sea ice.

In 1890 Fridtjof Nansen presented his theory that the ocean currents of the Polar Sea flow from east to west. He postulated thus that a ship locked in the ice north of Siberia would be likely to drift right over the North Pole and would be released from the ice somewhere north of Greenland. In support of this theory he presented material from the Jeanette expedition that had been salvaged on Greenland three years after the fatal incident.

He had the famed ship constructor Colin Archer design a reinforced ship that would be lifted up by ice pressing on its hull rather than be crushed and pulled down. The ship was named “Fram”. On midsummer`s day 1893 the expedition sails north out of Tromsø, and then heads east over Russia. Fram reaches the New Siberian Islands on the 20th of September. Here Dr. Nansen sets his course due north. They reach the ice edge toward the end of the month, and are quickly locked in its grip. Colin Archer has done well, and the ship rests nicely on the ice. They are at 78 degrees north. The waiting starts.

Supplies and equipment have been brought along for five years. Months come and go. The ship drifts in a zigzag pattern toward the northwest, only soon to drift due south again for a while. The navigational measurements are the highlight of the day. Fram doesn`t cross the critical 80th degree northern latitude until February. Nasnen notes in his diary: “Given this speed we will, at best, be home in eight years”.
By October they have reached 82 degrees North. They now realize that the ship will not be drifting over the actual Pole. They make arrangements for a daring and hazardous alternate plan. Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen are to attempt to reach the Pole using dogs and sleds. Fram crosses 83 degrees North on March 14th. This is the decisive moment. Nansen and Johansen pack their sleds, and to a chorus of cheering comrades and yelping dogs bid farewell to the expedition ship. They have 800 km of choppy, uneven ice to cross, two sleds (that can be converted into kayaks) and 28 huskies. They can not count on finding the ship upon returning from the Pole. Instead they must try to return to dry land on Svalbard or Franz Josefs Land.

They are an odd couple; the ambitious, determined, and distinguished professor Nansen, and the slow-witted, but experienced and brutally strong athlete Johansen. They now take on this draining battle against massive ice blocks, gaping holes in the ice, howling winds and bitter cold temperatures. Day after day, week after week, they force themselves and their dogs forward, but the conditions get ever worse. After having passed 86 degrees North they realize the fight is futile. They know they could probably reach the Pole, but they would not have the strength nor the resources to make it back alive. Still, they were now the farthest north anybody in the world had ever been.

The return trip is even more exhausting. They use ailing dogs as food for the other dogs. In the end they are without dogs and must pull the loads themselves, alternately over sharp ice, through thisck slush, or over open water - where they must convert the sleds to kayaks. They are constantly wet, cold and hungry. As they start reaching the ice edge, they find themselves in the company of the true inhabitants of this icy realm. They manage to hunt the odd bird or seal for food, but must also defend themselves against aggressive polar bears. During this time Hjalmar Johansen delivers one of his classic lines. He is attacked by a polar bear and is on his vakc with the large animal over him. In Johanses`s opinion Nansen was taking a little too long getting a proper shot at the bear. Nansen writes in his diary on 5 August 1885: “….then I heard Johansen calmly say: - You`d best hurry a bit, Sir, if it is not to be too late”.

Miraculously, on August 14th, they reach Franz Josefs Land. Though they are not quite sure where that are, they can touch solid earth for the first time in over two years. They hope they can reach the western coast of Spitsbergen by the end of the summer, and want to attempt the crossing over from Franz Josef Land in their kayaks, (a stretch that even under the best of conditions is not possible to cross by kayak - but which was not properly mapped, so the determined explorers believed it was possible.) Luckily (in retrospect), but to their frustration at the time, the weather turned foul. A harsh and long-lasting storm blew in, and the two weary adventurers realized that they had to make arrangements to spend the winter where they were.

The two of them end up spending nine months in a small tent made of walrus hides, rocks and driftwood, still both sleeping in the same – by now very worn-out – double sleeping bag made of reindeer fur. They survived practically only on polar bear and walrus meat. When they emerged in the spring they had actually gained weight. Late that next spring, as Nansen is walking near Cape Flora, still planning to cross the sea over to Svalbard by kayak, he hears dogs barking. Nansen runs to catch a glimpse, and in the distance he sees a small figure, a dog. And behind it a human. He shouts and screams and waves with his hat. The man with the dog does the same, and sets out towards nasnen. “How do you do?” the man says. “How do you do?” Nansen answes. The man is the English scientist Dr. Jackson. In proper attire, a checkered suit, an emitting the distinct smell of fresh soap, he stares at the wild-looking mang in front of him: His clothes in tatters, his hair matted, his face black with soot from burning candles made of walrus blubber for light and heat in the tent for 9 months. “Say, you wouldn`t happen to be Dr. Fritjof Nansen, by any chance?” he asks. “Yes”, is Nansen`s brief answer.

Later that summer, Nansen and Johansen are reunited with their crew and ship in Tromsø. Fram had been released from the ice just north of Svalbard. They reached land near Raudfjorden (Red Bay) in northwestern Spitsbergen. At Danskøya (Danish Island) they meet the expedition ship of the Swedish scientist and explorer salomon August Andrèe. The ship is called “Virgo”. The ship`s name is given to the site from whisch Andrèe started his fatal attempt at reaching the North Pole by balloon – Virgohamna. In this way the homecoming of Fram is connected to the beginning of numerous expeditions trying to reach the ever evasive North Pole by balloon, dirigible, and aircraft.

In addition to proving that the ocean currents north of Russia mobe in a curve from east to northwest, the Fram expedition proved that a well-constructed ship can in fact withstand the enormous pressures exerted by the moving pack ice – even for years.

THIS HAS INSPIRED US TO DO THE SAME AT OUR SVALBARD LOCATION, BUT THIS TIME SAFE AND COMFORTABLE IN A PROTECTED BAY WITH STABLE ICE.