Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
From the Mediterranean
Although there appears to be no first-hand
record, historical accounts indicate that a
Greek named Pytheas, a native of Massali
(now Marseilles), sailed north from the
Mediterranean Sea in 325 B.C. to (probably)
Iceland (perhaps Norway) which he named
Ultima Thule, the End of the Earth. His
motivation seems to have been to break the
trade lock on tin by searching for its origin in
places such as Brittany and Cornwall.
From Scandinavia
Exiles and adventurers
in the ninth century left the
rapidly growing Scandinavia
to sack the coastal towns of
England, France, and
Germany. Conquest and
colonization advanced along
with ship design including
the Viking longships that
were shallow in draft and
light in weight.
Powered by oarsmen
and aided by woolen sails,
the longships fostered
Viking discovery of the
Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the
Shetlands and the Hebrides. They
headed north to the Arctic, rounding
North Cape and reaching the White
Sea and up the River Severnaya
Dvina.
Colonization of Iceland began at
what is now Reykjavik in 874 A.D.
Eric the Red discovered Greenland
in 984 A.D. and the Vikings later
settled at Baffin Island.
From Russia
Semyon Dezhnyov sailed through
Bering Strait in 1648, but his report went
unnoticed until its discovery in 1736 by
German historian Gerhard Müller. In
August 1728 the Danish navigator Vitus
Bering proved (again) that Asia and North
America were separate by sailing through
Bering Strait.
1
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
From England
Sir Martin Frobisher
In 1576 Martin
Frobisher sailed to what
is now Frobisher Bay
and found black stone
then thought to contain
gold. A shore party sent
to collect samples did
not return, and in
response Frobisher took
a local Inuk hunter
hostage, but without
resulting in the return of
his men. Leaving them
behind, Frobisher sailed
back to England and the
collected stone was analyzed and determined to contain
gold. Frobisher returned in 1577 to collect more stone and
to barter for the return of his men, although local stories
later suggested they had sailed away on their own.
After Frobisher returned to England, more of the stone
tested positive for gold, inspiring a third voyage in 1578.
Now with fifteen ships, men, and gear for an Arctic colony,
Frobisher and crew built wooden structures and took
considerable quantities of the black ore until the poor
soil and the cold drove Frobisher to abandon any idea
of settlement. After his return to Dartford, Kent, the ore
was assayed (again) and found to contain no gold. The
remaining ore is now part of a stone wall which can be
seen in Dartford today. The hard earned stone is ~1.5
billion year-old, black and white gneiss.
Henry Hudson
To find a passage across the pole
to the Orient, the Muscovy Company
sent Captain Henry Hudson in 1607
with the Hopewell, a three year old,
80-ton barque (three masted, squarerigged). Hudson left London and
sailed due north believing the idea,
commonly held at the time, that an
open polar ocean was to be found
past a rim of ice. The open polar
ocean was a theory backed by the
belief that the Arctic got warmer
closer to the pole because of the
constant heat from five months of
sun.
Hudson’s First Voyage
2
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
Hudson sailed north along the east coast of Greenland, and
then past Spitsbergen (now Svalbard) to 80 ° N., establishing a
northernmost record that held for more than 150 years.
After his return, Hudson soon sailed again, this time
searching for a northeast passage north of Russia. His voyage
took him north to Novaya Zemlya. He was prepared to continue
the journey east, but his crew forced him to return home.
Hudson’s third voyage was backed by the Dutch after
attempts to secure further financial support from England were
unsuccessful. The Dutch funded Hudson to seek a Northeast
Passage but the crew balked on the way north. Hudson headed
west, ultimately sailing into the mouth of what is now named the
Hudson River. Hudson returned to London (not Amsterdam) and
Hudson’s Second Voyage
was arrested for treason for sailing under the Dutch flag. There
is a suggestion that Hudson was an English spy tasked with
getting Dutch maps. Perhaps
this is so as Hudson was soon
released from his arrest and
able to get funding from
English supporters for a fourth
voyage to search for the
Northeast Passage.
Hudson and his ship
Discovery sailed toward
Quebec, headed north through
Hudson Strait and into
Hudson’s Bay. Discovery
became stuck in James Bay in
the winter of 2010-11. The
records suggest
problems with
Hudson’s ability to
command his
men, secure food,
and fend off
scurvy.
In the spring
Hudson wanted to
search the Bay for
passages north,
but his crew
mutinied. Hudson,
with his son and
other loyal sailors
were cast adrift in
a small boat. Their fate is not known.
Robert Bylot, the expedition’s navigator, and the other mutineers returned to England.
Astonishingly, they avoided charges of mutiny. Some accounts suggest that the English courts
were not inclined to punish the crew because Hudson had explored under a Dutch flag.
3
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
Sir John Ross
A Scotsman by birth, Ross
was a British Royal Navy officer
ordered by the Admiralty in
1818 to explore Baffin Bay. At
the time, reports by William
Scoresby were indicating
reduced ice for two consecutive
seasons in northern Greenland
waters. Additionally, Sir Joseph
Banks, who was with James
Cook 40 years earlier, theorized
that the Arctic was warming. To
take advantage of what might
be another reduced ice season,
the British Admiralty sent two
expeditions north. One to
Spitsbergen with Captain David
Buchan and First Lieutenant
John Franklin. They were
blocked by ice in the winter of
1818.
The other expedition, commanded by John Ross, circumnavigated Baffin Bay and
encountered the Inuit group, or Inighuit, in North-West Greenland. Ross called them "Arctic
Highlanders" and their settlement at Etah was the northernmost known settlement. Ross then
sailed into Lancaster Sound but turned back, believing the passage was blocked by the
mountains he claimed see in the distance. This decision was strongly criticized by Ross’s
second in command, William Edward Parry, who did not see distant mountains but instead
noticed the uninterrupted sea swell and believed a passage forward might exist. Ross was
retired out of the Navy although he returned to the Arctic in 1829-1833 as head of a private
expedition that discovered the site of the magnetic pole.
Ross sailed again in 1850, in search of Sir John
Franklin.
Sir William Edward Parry
Asked to return to the Arctic in 1819 by the British
Admiralty, Parry was given two ships, the Hecla
(commanded by Parry) and the Griper (commanded by
Matthew Liddon). Griper proved a marginal ship,
causing Parry to write that the vessel was of “such
lubberly, shameful construction as to baffle the
ingenuity of the most ingenious seaman in England.”
Parry was helped in getting the expedition by John
Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804-1845.
When Parry found clear sailing in the narrows beyond
Lancaster Sound, he named it Barrow Strait. Parry then
continued sailing west, reaching and naming Melville
Island. We now know that 1819 was an unusually lowice year, but the heavy ice in this region blocked Parry
4
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
from further advance
toward the Beaufort Sea.
Parry and his men
overwintered at Winter
Harbor, on the southeast
side of Melville Island. In
the spring, a team of 12
including Parry made an
overland journey to the
north shore of Melville
Island, to what they named
Hecla and Griper Bay.
When the ice finally
went out, Parry tried again
to sail west, venturing
slightly beyond his previous point,
to 113 ° 46’W, and named the
nearby land Cape Dundas. Parry
had succeeded in sailing farther
west than any other nineteenthcentury explorer. Parry and crew
returned home safely in October
1820.
Parry’s second (of three) Arctic
expeditions was also in search of a
northwest passage, this time via
Hudson Strait. Parry had decided
that the thick ice in M’Clure strait
would continue to block any
passage to the
Arctic Ocean.
In April 1821
the expedition left
for the Arctic with
Parry in
command of the
Fury and George
Francis Lyon in
command of
Hecla. James
Clark Ross was
aboard as a
midshipman.
They worked
their way through
Hudson Strait
(see map above),
and discovered
Fury and Hecla
5
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
Strait which connects Foxe Basin to
the Gulf of Boothia. They could not
break through the ice, which even
today is challenging for modern ships.
Parry’s third expedition in search
of the Northwest Passage was based
on the hope that a path west was via
a more southerly route, rather than
through Lancaster Sound and the
formidable ice at the end of M’Clure
Strait. Prince Regent Inlet was of
primary interest.
Parry reached Davis Strait in the
summer of 1824, but the ice was
worse there than on previous
expeditions and damaged the Hecla.
But they managed to reach Prince
Regent Inlet when gale force winds
pushed Hecla and Fury almost back to Davis Strait. The winds, however, also cleared much of
the ice, and when the weather subsided, both ships made their way into Prince Regent Inlet
where they overwintered. The following spring both ships continued to survey, but on August 1,
1825 the Fury was driven hard onto the ice and badly damaged. She was abandoned, under
orders by Parry, and both crews crammed aboard Hecla and returned to England.
Sir John Franklin
Much of the greatest
nineteenth century explorations
of the North America Arctic are
due to John Franklin. He was a
member of four expeditions and
commanded three, although
there was significant loss of life
on two of these expeditions.
Franklin’s first expedition in
1818 put him second in
command to David Buchan
during an attempt to sail
north of Spitsbergen, but
heavy ice forced their
return.
Franklin’s second
expedition had him
commanding an overland
journey to explore the
Arctic coast with the intent
to meet Parry’s 1819
expedition. Franklin skirted
the Great Slave Lake, and
canoed the Yellowknife
6
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
and Coppermine Rivers to reach the Arctic Ocean late in the summer of 1821. In birch bark
canoes they explored east to the mouth of the Back River and the southern side of the Kent
Peninsula.
With supplies running low and winter fast approaching, Franklin decided on August 22 to
return south. The return march was disastrous. Most of the French-Canadians who had
successfully paddled the canoes northward died, and with the canoes lost, the return was slow.
The remaining stragglers returned to Fort Enterprise close to starvation, and there are reports of
cannibalism. The arrival of the Dene first nations people (the Coppermine Indians), summoned
by Franklin's
Midshipman George
Back, who had gone
ahead, helped nurse
Franklin and the last
few survivors back
to health.
They reached
York Factory on
Hudson Bay in July
1822. In England,
Franklin became
known as "the man
who ate his boots".
Franklin returned
again to the Arctic in
1825 to explore the
coastline west of the
Mackenzie River.
This time, Franklin had boats made to his specification and used them to descend the
Mackenzie, reaching the Arctic coast at Garry Island in August 1825. They returned via the
Mackenzie and headed to their base on Great Bear Lake having covered almost 6,000 miles
between March and August of 1825. After over wintering, they split into two groups at the
Mackenzie River delta, with one group heading east to the Coppermine River and Franklin’s
group heading east with the goal of reaching Icy Cape. They reached a location they named
Beechey
Point after
the Captain
of the
Blossom that
was heading
east from
Bering Strait.
Franklin
retired from
Arctic
service, but
in 1845 was
recalled to
command his
final
7
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
expedition in search of the Northwest
Passage aboard the ships Erebus and
Terror. All 129 of the crew were lost, and
their fate remained a mystery for fourteen
years and held the public’s attention in
both Britain and the U.S.
Although none of the men were
rescued, these expeditions mapped a vast
area of the eastern Arctic, and eventually
proved the existence of a Northwest
Passage, although at that time no single
vessel managed to navigate it.
James Clark Ross
The goal again was to find the
Northwest Passage by exploring west of
Prince Regent Inlet. James Clark Ross,
nephew to John Ross mentioned above,
was in charge of Victory, a vessel
equipped with steam driven paddles.
These were found to be “not merely
useless” but also a “serious encumbrance
since it occupied with its fuel two-thirds of
our tonnage”. The engine was dumped on
the ice and the Victory proceeded, by sail,
to Prince Regent Inlet. They passed
Sir John Franklin and a drawing of HMS Terror and
Somerset Island where Fury had wrecked
Erebus in the Northwest Passage in 1845.
in 1823, and noticed her supplies still
neatly stacked on the shore. Ross proceeded south to Bellot Strait which Ross mis-identified as
a bay. In fact, Bellot Strait is the only channel leading west from Prince Regent Inlet.
Ross headed south to Felix Harbour and overwintered there for two winters. The next
summer the Victory moved slightly in heavy ice to a new anchorage and they endured a third
winter. The following summer the crew managed to move north to Fury Beach, using the
supplies found there to overwinter a fourth season. Using the Fury’s small boats in the summer
of 1833, they reached Lancaster Sound where the whaler Isabella picked them up and returned
them to England.
Ross’s four year expedition was unprecedented in Arctic history and there were only three
casualties. Ross and crew learned about native ways including hunting, building show shelters,
and using dogs and sleds to move across the snow and ice. On the Boothia Peninsula at a spot
we now know is the magnetic north pole, James Ross noted peculiar behavior of his compass
needles, with the horizontal one spinning round.
However, during an overland journey from Felix Harbour, Ross reached the west coast of
King William Island by crossing what is now named James Ross Strait. Ross at the time did not
realize he had crossed water, and this error was recorded in his journal. There were no
additional major naval expeditions until Franklin’s in 1845. But Franklin made the fateful
decision in 1847 to head west to Victoria Strait under the false impression, based on Ross’s
records, that land connected the Boothia Peninsula to King William Island.
8
Nibbling at the Arctic’s Boundaries
9