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History of Exploration

The Arctic

Early exploration

Around the 16th century it was believed that the North Pole was to be found in a sea, with only a slight chance of reaching it when the ice floes would allow a passage. Whaling ships studied the weather and ice conditions out of curiosity while working in the area.

Economic reasons lured many early expeditions to the far ends of our globe

The first explorer to set out on an expedition specifically aimed at finding the North Pole was the Englishman William Edward Parry, who reached latitude 82°45’ in 1827. He was followed by the American Charles Francis Hall in 1871 with the Polaris expedition, which ended in disaster with his death in November of that year, the ship being crushed in the ice the following October.

The same fate awaited George Washington DeLong on the USS Jeanette, when the ship was crushed by ice at the end of their expedition between 1879 and 1881. DeLong and half of his crew were lost.

In 1895 Fridtjof Nansen invited Frederik Johansen to leave their icebound ship the Fram and try to reach the North Pole on skis. They managed to reach latitude 86°14’ and then began their incredible trek southward to reach Franz Jozef Land.