Northwest passage against the northern sea route. northeast passage

J. Franklin was already 60 years old when he left London in 1845 at the head of a large expedition of 129 people. Already famous sailing ships James Ross's Antarctic Expedition were converted into screw steamers and placed at his disposal. The Erebus was commanded by the head of the expedition, and the Terror was commanded by the experienced polar navigator Francis Crozier, who sailed in the Arctic with Parry and in the Antarctic with James Ross.

Passing north along west coast Greenland, ships entered Baffin Bay. And this is the only thing known about them. No further information about the expedition was received. So three years passed, and the government sent several rescue boats, which could not find anything. For the salvation of at least one of the members of the expedition, a reward of twenty thousand pounds was appointed, half of this amount - for reliable information about the fate of the Franklin expedition. Dozens of ships participated in these searches, but for a long time no traces were found, although almost all the straits, bays and bays of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago were examined. Finally, in different places pyramids of stones (gurii) were discovered; under one of them in the spring of 1859 (fourteen years after the disappearance of the expedition) was found the last report of Franklin. By this time, quite a lot of finds of traces of the expedition had already accumulated: the remains of camps, various abandoned things, graves and skeletons of the dead.

Based on all these finds, the course of events has been restored, but only until 1848. After Baffin Bay, the ships passed Lancaster Strait. While the Terror remained at the southern entrance to the Wellington Strait between the islands of Cornwallis and Devon, Franklin and the Erebus moved on, but the ice did not let him out of the strait, and he, having rounded Cornwallis Island, returned to the Terror, prepared for wintering near Beachy Island. Three people died this winter. In autumn, when the ice cleared the way, the ships traveled about 250 km along the Peel Strait, leading south. Along the way, Prince of Wales Island was discovered. Behind the strait, which later became known as the name of Franklin, a wide expanse of water opened up. However, the ships could not use it - already at the beginning of the second decade of September they were frozen into the ice, being a few miles from King William Island.

The second wintering claimed the lives of twenty participants in the voyage: they were mowed down by scurvy caused by poor-quality products. As the winter drew to a close, eight men walked across the ice to King William Island and piled houris there with a note describing the expedition's route. Upon their return, these people did not find Franklin alive: having become seriously ill, he died on June 11, 1847. Off King William Island, the third wintering took place, by the end of which no more than a hundred people remained alive. Two legendary ships were left at West Bank King William, and the people went south, harnessed to a sleigh with a large boat mounted on them. (Subsequently, two bays along these coasts will be called Erebus and Terror.)

People went south, harnessed to a sledge with a boat mounted on them. They didn't need her. Their path along King William Island is literally lined with dozens of corpses. Strongly knocked together coffins at the beginning of the journey are replaced by hastily knocked down ones, and then the dead were no longer buried - the skeletons lie without coffins. The last traces of the tragedy are on the small island of Aleleid, where the wreckage of a boat and a pile of bones were found, and at the mouth of the Back River, the Eskimos found the last forty skeletons.

Search work began in the spring of 1849, James Ross and a Scottish naval officer, Francis McClintock. During the winter, they sleighed around the northern coast of Somerset Island and through the Peel Strait saw the eastern coast of Prince of Wales Island.

New islands, straits, bays were discovered by subsequent expeditions. But William Kennedy and Rene Bello made a particularly important discovery: they reached the northern tip of the American mainland, the Boothia Peninsula, on a sledge, and proved that the wide Franklin Strait separates it from Prince of Wales Island, the southernmost in the Canadian Arctic archipelago.

The entire third expedition of John Franklin, sent by the British Admiralty to continue the search for the northwest passage in 1845, perished. But a decade-long series of rescue expeditions led to significant discoveries in the north of the American continent. Including those that contributed to the discovery of the northwestern sea ​​passage to the Pacific Ocean from the east.

Four centuries ago, the epic search for this path began. Dozens of ships, hundreds of people took part in it, many victims were brought, and more than once the most authoritative polar explorers stated: it is impossible to pass through the labyrinth of the straits of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, constantly clogged with ice. By the end of the 18th century, a chain of straits was found leading to the Arctic Ocean or even to the Bering Strait. It remained only to make this passage and practically prove its possibility. This is what the young Norwegian Roald Amundsen decided to do. He was in his thirtieth year and had just returned from Antarctica, where he had been navigator on the Belgica and participated in the first Antarctic wintering aboard that ship.

R. Amundsen is carefully preparing for the expedition, which, apparently, must be difficult, long and dangerous, given the experience of previous expeditions, some of them ended tragically. Amundsen would become famous for the fact that none of his expeditions, however difficult they were, had no casualties. Except for the last one, where he himself became the victim.

But so far, only his second expedition (the first is his own) has begun. Having traveled to many shipyards, Amundsen chose a small yacht "Joa" (with a displacement of only 47 tons). For twenty years she went fishing off the coast of Norway and for seals in polar waters. The yacht was the same age as Amundsen - built in 1872.

In the spring of 1901, Amundsen tested the Gjoa in seal hunting between Svalbard and Greenland, making a series of oceanographic observations according to a program drawn up by Nansen. The necessary "finishing" of the vessel was made, but Amundsen's personal funds ended there. I had to borrow money, take out a loan for the future opening of the northwest passage. He himself lived extremely modestly. In Hamburg, where he lived and worked at the Neumeier Observatory, he rented a cheap room in the attic and spent the minimum on food. In the last days before sailing, a state loan was also received - 40 thousand crowns. With exceptional care, Amundsen rebuilt "Joa", himself participating in the work as a carpenter. Food was purchased for five years, and first-class scientific equipment was purchased. And suddenly in one newspaper there is an article under the heading "Does Norway need new skeletons among the icy deserts?". “Joa is a miserable vessel, and its captain is a frivolous person ...” - it was said in it.

The article had an effect on several creditors: they began to demand money back. It was a disaster. Is it really all the work, self-restraint, stress of the last months - all this is in vain?! And the dream of the northwest passage is not destined to come true?

No! Amundsen will not back down. There is only one way out, and it is very important that Nansen, who visited the yacht on the eve of sailing, agrees with this: "Joa" must go to sea secretly, at night, to escape from creditors.

"How wonderful! There are no more sorrows, annoying creditors ... Alone on a yacht! There are seven of us, we are cheerful and happy. We are sailing to unknown lands, but full of hope and faith," Amundsen wrote that day.

A few years later, Amundsen accidentally found out that then Fridtjof Nansen, without telling him anything, vouched for him to creditors. It was a purely Nansen act...

Amundsen took a five-year supply of food, fuel, clothing and equipment on board the ship, a prefabricated house was loaded on board the ship in case of wintering and material for the construction of a magnetic pavilion: after all, in addition to opening the northwestern passage, Amundsen planned to locate the North Magnetic Pole, located, presumably, on the northern tip of the mainland, on the Butia peninsula.

The first encounter with ice occurred off the western coast of Greenland, in Melville Bay, it took two months to fight against them and cross the Baffin Sea. And then the yacht entered the unexplored, unexplored Lancaster Strait. It was a very difficult path: I had to literally maneuver with pinpoint accuracy among numerous islands, rocks and shoals. Amundsen all the time while passing the strait, was in the "crow's nest" - on the front mast of the ship.

Violent storms also attacked the ship. Once, in order to save the ship, when the wind was swiftly carrying the helpless shell right to the reefs, Amundsen gave an order that seemed crazy to everyone: "Throw the boxes from the deck into the sea!" There were food in the boxes, but they had to be donated. The lightened ship was carried by the wave onto a smooth underwater rock, where it safely waited out the storm. But then a new misfortune arose - a fire in the engine room. And by some miracle it was possible to extinguish it, but thanks to the only correct decision taken by Amundsen - to block the access of air to the engine room.

The Lancaster Strait led to the Simpson Strait, along which, bypassing Victoria Island from the south, it would be possible to continue the journey, but Amundsen, having found a convenient bay for the vessel, decided not to risk it and stopped for the winter in early September. In addition, he was going to make magnetic observations on the Butia Peninsula, which was not far away.

Wintering in the bay on the west coast of King Wilman Island, which became known as Gyoa Bay, was exceptionally calm and productive. The ship, frozen into a three-meter monolith of ice, was constantly visited by the Eskimos, who built a kind of town around it from Eskimo igloos made of snow bricks. Communication with the Eskimos all winter was very close and mutually beneficial. In exchange for all kinds of iron products, the Norwegians received dressed deer skins, from the Eskimos Amundsen learned to build snow houses - igloos, load sleds, and transport them through cracks in the ice. The winter passed quickly, but the coming summer brought disappointment: the ice in the bay did not break, which meant a second wintering in the same place. But it also went well: there was not even a hint of scurvy, which accompanied most of the polar expeditions. Of course, the abundance of wild deer around helped, hunting for which provided fresh food. The whole expedition worked hard all winter. In addition to constant meteorological, hydrological and magnetic observations, long trips dog sledding around Victoria Island and the straits; about a hundred small islands were put on the map, but the main thing was that the point of the North magnetic pole was precisely established.

The summer of 1905 freed the Gyoa from ice captivity. On August 13, we weighed anchor and it was possible to move on. But again on the way - islands, shoals, underwater reefs, between which only due to its small size the yacht could maneuver. It was constantly necessary to measure the depth, and a special boat was in front of the ship, with which measurements were made, and sometimes no more than two centimeters of water turned out to be under the keel. Amundsen compared Simpson Sound to a "plowed field" - so carefully one had to move along it. But two weeks later, a whaling ship appeared on the horizon: "A ship is visible!" - there was a cry. It was the American schooner "Charles Hansson", which came from another ocean, from the Pacific. And it was a sign that the northwest passage, to which people had been striving for four centuries, had been passed.

“My throat constricted. I was in an extremely nervous state, overworked, and even if this is a sign of weakness, but ... tears welled up in my eyes ... I quickly threw on my clothes. I lingered for a moment in front of the Nansen portrait hanging on the wall, and the image came to life, it seemed Nansen was looking at me and nodding his head ... I nodded to him in response, smiling with happiness, and went on deck, "- this is how Roald Amundsen described this moment.

The goal was achieved, but then a new test - the yacht was jammed with ice, the further path became impossible. Third winter!

This time it was lucky that a whole fleet of American whaling ships was nearby: you could get everything you need. Amundsen, along with one of the whaler captains, sets out on an eight hundred-kilometer dog sled journey to the nearest radio station to inform the world of his discovery.

It was the most difficult route through the icy desert, with the crossing of a mountain range up to three thousand meters high, in winter conditions, when the air temperature dropped to fifty degrees. The journey took five months. And in the summer of 1906, the Gyoa entered the Bering Strait and arrived in San Francisco, met with triumph.

Amundsen's success was no accident. He was not seduced by the very vast expanse of water to which his predecessors went, but after passing through the narrow and incredibly difficult Simpson Strait, he chose a route near the coast of Northern Canada and Alaska. The expedition of the Norwegians on the tiny yacht "Joa" did so much that it took about twenty years to process the material she brought back.

However, unlike the northeast passage - the Northern Sea Route - this route from ocean to ocean has not found practical application. The Canadian entrepreneur Bernier tried to use it for trading purposes immediately after Amundsen passed it, but failed. Only during the Second World War did they return to this idea, and a small ship "Roch" was sent from Greenland to the west for transportation. But it was possible to pass the track only in two navigations. Only in 1944 did the Norwegian sailor Larsen pass in one year from Atlantic Ocean to Tichiy, 12 years after a similar crossing was made along the Northern Sea Route. After successfully passing in 1954 northwest route American icebreaker "Glesher", from time to time icebreakers began to go around North America. However, this way remains economically inexpedient.

Numerous islands of the northwestern part of the American continent are separated from each other and the mainland by the waters of the Arctic. Sea routes in this part of the planet are called the North Western passage.

The search for a waterway from the Pacific to the Atlantic began in the early 19th century. In 1818, the Englishman Ross went to the Arctic. Later the attempt was repeated several times. And only in 1904, the Norwegian Amundsen managed to find a passage through the water in two navigations.

In June 1940, the small motor schooner Saint Rock left the Canadian port of Vancouver, located on the Pacific coast. The schooner, with a displacement of 328 tons, was specially designed and built for sailing in northern latitudes. The eight-man expedition was led by a Canadian police officer of Norwegian origin. Henry Larsen. Before the war, Larsen, having received the rank of inspector, was appointed responsible for organizing the Arctic detachments.

He took the St. Rock along the coast of Alaska along the usual route that fishermen and fur hunters set off for northern waters. After passing the Bering Strait, the schooner ended up in the Beaufort Sea. After passing the Amundsen Bay, the daredevils reached Victoria Island. Off the northwest coast, in Walker Bay, the expedition made its first wintering.

Larsen tried to choose optimal route. The following year, 1941, the expedition tried to go around Victoria Island from the north, to pass through the strait separating Banks from the island. The traveler believed that the waters of the Prince of Wales Sound would be freer than the Dolphin Sound. However, he was wrong in his assumptions. The Prince of Wales Sound was clogged with heavy ice. Difficult ice conditions forced them to return. The schooner headed east along the mainland. Passing Coronation Bay, she found herself in the waters of the Victoria Strait. In the most difficult navigational conditions, the water had already begun to freeze with ice, "Saint Rock" reached the Butia Peninsula. Larsen then turned north and took refuge in Pasley Bay in early September.

Here the expedition settled down for the second wintering. Conditions were much harsher than at the last stop. The air temperature dropped below 57°C. During this wintering, one of the crew members died. The next year, due to the harsh winter, the waters were free of ice only in June. Saint Rock moved on. Passing between the Boothia Peninsula and Somerset Island, the schooner headed through the Lancaster Strait and ended up in the Baffin Sea. It could be considered that the expedition was a success. In October 1942, the St. Rock anchored in Halifax. The journey, which lasted 842 days, is over. The success of the expedition was achieved due to the right choice of vessel, equipment and proper training of the crew.

It should be noted that the leader of the trip himself very reservedly assessed the results of the expedition, calling it reconnaissance for laying the continuation of the Northern Sea Route. This route was very important during the Second World War. According to Larsen, his expedition proved that the Northwest Passage can be completed in one navigation, but it can not be done every year.

The Larsen expedition was unable to assess the extent to which the northern route is suitable for vessels with a large draft. It wasn't until 1954 that the first commercial ship sailed through the Northwest Passage. Over the past 30 years, the movement of ice in the western part of the Arctic has been constantly monitored from space. Meteorologists have come to the conclusion that due to climate change, the amount of sea ice is significantly decreasing, which makes the Northwest Passage open to navigation.

About the Northeast Passage

In the old days, Europeans knew only salt from preservatives, all other spices were in East Asia. Of course, there were no refrigerators and refrigeration equipment either, it was difficult to save products for export, so finding a way for spices was very important for Europeans. The Portuguese Vasco de Gamo and the Spaniards were the first to circumnavigate Africa and pave the way to the countries of East Asia.

Vasco de Gamo

In 1543, the Portuguese landed on the island of Tanegashima, a strong storm washed a Chinese junk with three Portuguese merchants on board near South Kyushu, by the way, now there is a Japanese spaceport on this island. If you look at the map, you can see that it is much closer to get to the Japanese archipelago from Europe by sea through the Arctic Ocean. The best European navigators also understood this; from the end of the 16th century, English and Dutch sailors tried to find their way to East Asia, sailing to the north, and then to the west and east, these sea routes were named - the North-West and North-East Passage, respectively.
Northwest Passage

Northeast Passage (Sevmorput)

Now the Northwest Passage is under the jurisdiction of Canada, and the Northeast Passage was privatized by the Soviet Union under the name of the Northern Sea Route in Stalin's time. Europeans learned about the existence of this route to the countries of East Asia for the first time in 1525 from the book of the Italian scientist Paolo Giovio, who suggested that if you sail from the Northern Dvina to the east, keeping to the right bank, you can get on ships to the borders of China.

Paolo Giovio

The Italian's consultant was Dmitry Gerasimov (Demetri

Erasmius) is a Russian diplomat, scientist and theologian who relied on the results of the Pomors' voyage in the 13th century. But in the search for the Northeast Passage, the British played a leading role.

English King Henry VII (1457 - 1509)

Navigators John Cabot (1450 - 1499) and Sebastian Cabot (1476-1557)

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America, ahead of the British by 5 years. In England at that time, the monarch was Henry VII (1457 - 1509), before accession to the royal throne, he bore the name of Earl of Richmond, belonged to an ancient Welsh family that adopted the surname Tudors. The reign of Henry VII lasted 24 years, it was one of the most peaceful eras in the history of England, the British bred and sheared sheep, spun wool, traded and fished. The main seaport of western England and the center of English fishing in the Atlantic was the city of Bristol. Since 1480 Bristol merchants have sent ships west several times in search of new land, but these ships have returned without making any discoveries. Having learned about the discoveries of Columbus, Bristol merchants gave money to equip a new western expedition and put it at the head of the Italian Giovanni Caboto, who then lived in Bristol and is better known as John Cabot. It was he and his sons that the English king Henry VII allowed to search, discover and explore all new lands, stipulated for himself a fifth of the income from expeditions.

seeing off Cabot

Navigator John Cabot (1450 - 1499)

John Cabot was from Genoa, had the citizenship of the Republic of Venice. He was a sailor and a merchant, went to the Middle East for Indian goods, even visited Mecca and asked Arab merchants where they get spices from. At one time he lived in Valencia, offered services to the Spanish and Portuguese kings to reach India and China, but they were not interested in his proposal. The merchant moved with his family to England and settled in Bristol, where they began to call him in the English manner John Cabot.

Monument to John Cabot at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland

Bristol merchants equipped one small ship "Matthew" with a crew of 18 people. John Cabot sailed west from Bristol on May 20, 1497, and on June 24 he reached Newfoundland, discovering North America. A month later, the English ship returned to Bristol. In England, they decided that John Cabot had discovered China. In May 1498, the British organized a second expedition of five ships from Bristol under the command of John Cabot. But the navigator died on the way, his son Sebastian Cabot (1476-1557) led the expedition. English ships reached the North American mainland and passed along it. east coast far to the southwest. Sailors sometimes landed ashore, and returned to England in the same 1498. The British realized that the newly discovered lands were not China or India.

English King Edward VI

Sebastian Cabot again tried to find a sea route to East Asia, in 1506-1509 he led English expeditions, searched for the Northwest Passage and managed to reach Hudson Bay. Having not found a shortcut to India, England showed little interest in open lands across the ocean. And Sebastian Cabot led the Venetian expedition, which set off from Seville in search of the fabulous wealth of China, but after the accession to the throne of King Edward VI in 1547, the navigator moved to England. King Edward VI died of tuberculosis at the age of 16, but left a bright mark on the history of England. He was a staunch Protestant, well educated - he knew Latin, Greek and French, sent a sea expedition in search of the Northeast Passage from Europe and the countries of East Asia. Circumnavigation Magellan, who circled America from the south, contributed to the search for a similar sea route to the north, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan

The initiator of the search for the Northeast Passage was Sebastian Cabot, in 1551 he organized the "Company of Merchant Adventurers" (Company of Merchant Adventurers), with the money of which the English Expedition of Willoughby-Chenslor was sent in 1553 to find a road to China and Japan.

Sebastian Cabot

Willoughby-Chancelor Expedition of 1553

Richard Chancellor

expedition ships

The head of the expedition and the commander of the best ship was appointed English navigator Sir Hugh Willoughby, and the captain of the largest ship, Richard Chancellor. Sebastian Cabot wrote instructions for the ships. For the first time, a ship's log was introduced on ships, where the course of the ship, the height of the sun were noted, and incidents were also recorded. In search of the Northeast Passage, the British ships Bona Esperanza, Edward Bonaventura and Bona Confidence decided to bypass Eurasia from the north. They sailed to Novaya Zemlya and moved along the coast to the south. Two ships were trapped in ice and wintered at the mouth of the Versina River, during the winter the crew froze, all the people died.

Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery

The third ship, under the command of Captain Richard Chancellor, reached the Pomeranian coast and landed in the bay of St. Nicholas near the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery in the area of ​​the modern city of Severodvinsk, 35 km from Arkhangelsk. From local residents, amazed by the appearance of a large ship, the British learned that this coast was Russian, and not India. Then they announced that they had a letter from the English king to the tsar and wished to start trade with the Russians. Having provided them with food supplies, the chiefs of the Dvina land immediately sent a messenger to Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who invited Richard Chancellor to Moscow.

Old English courtyard in Moscow on Varvarka street house number 4

The crew of the ship arrived in Moscow, Captain Richard Chancellor met with the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and a trade agreement was concluded.

Englishmen in Moscow

at the reception of Ivan IV the Terrible

In 1554, Richard Chancellor returned to England, the companions renamed the "Company of Merchant Travelers" into the "Muscovy Company" (Muscovy Company).

Sebastian Cabot took part in the preparation of the next expedition of the Moscow Company, led by Stephen Barrow. In 1556, Stephen Barrow was sent to the Ob, hoping to penetrate China through the Ob, the British reached only Vaygach Island.

English attempts to pass the Northeast Passage to the countries of East Asia in the middle of the 16th century ended in failure, but they contributed to the conclusion of diplomatic relations between England and Russia and the organization of the Moscow Company in London.

Navigator Willem Barents (1550 - 1597)

The Dutch followed the British in search of the Northeast Passage. In June 1594, an expedition on three ships and a yacht left Holland to the north with the task of opening a convenient sea route to the kingdoms of China and Sinskoe, passing north of Norway, Muscovy and Tataria. One ship was commanded by an Amsterdammer, Willem Barentszon, better known to us as Willem Barentsz. The expedition reached Novaya Zemlya and Vaigach Island. In September, all ships returned to Holland.

V. Barents routes

Barents ship, soon crushed by ice in 1596

In 1595, a Dutch expedition of 7 ships with his participation made an attempt to pass between the coast of Siberia and the island of Vaygach through the Yugorsky Shar Strait. Willem Barents was the chief navigator and captain of one of the ships.

Death of Willem Barents, Von Christian Portmann, 1836

In 1596, the third expedition of the Barents started to find a northern route to Asia. At the same time, he managed to discover Bear Island (Spitsbergen archipelago). Expedition of the Barents, rounding New Earth reached the Kara Sea. Fearing death among the ice, the expedition landed and arranged a winter camp (Het Behouden Huys), during which Barents died of scurvy. This expedition was the last Dutch attempt to find a northern route to Asia. The Arctic voyages of the Barents brought worldwide fame to the navigator, although the goal of passing through the Northeast Passage to the countries of East Asia was not achieved.

Theologian, astronomer and cartographer Peter Plancius (1552 - 1622)

Willem Barents was a cartographer by profession, even before the Arctic voyages, he, together with Peter Plancius, published an atlas of the Mediterranean, which was the result of his voyage to this region. Peter Plancius (Petrus Plancius) (1552 - 1622) - Dutch theologian, astronomer and cartographer. At the age of 24, he became a Dutch Calvinist priest, interested in navigation and cartography. Peter Plancius made globes and maps, in 1594 he published the famous map known world, the first in the history of cartography, decorated with allegorical multi-fiction plots. This topic has become the leading one in cartographic images of the world for two hundred years to come. Peter Plancius was an assistant to the Dutch government in organizing expeditions to the East Indies, teaching celestial navigation to their leaders, he wanted to lay a northeast route across the Arctic Ocean.

Map of Japan, copperplate engraving, hand coloring

This detailed map of Japan was published in the famous atlas "Novus Atlas Sinensis" in Amsterdam in 1655. The map is based on the cartographic sources of the missionary Martino Martino, who lived in 1643 - 1709 in China. The Dutch rendering of Japan has been greatly improved, and Korea looks like a peninsula for the first time and connects to the continent.

Japanese funeral ceremony. The engraving was published in the famous Dutch travel book "Getrokken uit de Geschriften an der Reiseaentekeninge zelver Gesanten". Amsterdam, 1669

Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832 -1901)

The first route from Europe to the countries of East Asia by the Northeast passage with one wintering was passed in 1878 - 1879 by the expedition of the Swede Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld on the barge "Vega". This was the first through voyage in the direction from west to east. Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld) had Swedish-Finnish roots, was born in Helsinki. In 1853 he graduated from the University of Helsingfors and participated in the Swedish expedition of Otto Thorell to Svalbard. He was an outstanding geologist and geographer, explorer of the Arctic, navigator and historical cartographer. In 1875 and 1876 he led expeditions along the Kara Sea and the Yenisei River, mastered the passage from Norway to the Yenisei. The archipelago to the north of the Taimyr Peninsula, the bays off the coast of Novaya Zemlya and the North-Eastern Lands of Spitsbergen, the peninsula of Western Spitsbergen are named after Nordenskiöld. The Laptev Sea was originally named Nordenskiöld. The baron was a member of the Stockholm and St. Petersburg Academies of Sciences, an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society.

Bark "Vega"

Nordenskiöld's expeditions took place on the barque Vega, which was built in Bremerhaven in Germany in 1872. The steamer was 150 feet long and had a 70 hp auxiliary steam engine. The bark was built as a whaling ship, then it was purchased and rebuilt for the development of the Arctic, Nils Adolf Eric Nordenskiöld received financial assistance from the Swedish king Oscar II. On June 22, 1878, the ship set out from Sweden through the Northeast Passage around north coast Eurasia. The crew of the ship consisted of 21 people, as well as numerous scientists and officers. "The commander of the Vega was the Swedish naval lieutenant Louis Palander.

Wintering of Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in the Arctic

Barque "Vega" was blocked by ice on September 28, 1878 at a distance of 120 miles (200 km) from the Bering Strait, the ship was freed from ice on July 18, 1879. Two days later, the ship crossed the Eastern Cape, the steamer became the first ship to complete the voyage along the Northeast Passage.

Harbor of Nagasaki

After being released from ice captivity, Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld continued his voyage to Japan. He reached the city of Yokohama on September 2, 1879, already a celebrated hero. After a few months in the harbor of Nagasaki, the barque "Vega" set off on a further voyage.

Route of the Swedish Nordenskjöld Expedition

The expedition was returning from the western part of the Pacific Ocean through Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal. Barque "Vega" was the first ship to sail through the Northeast Passage and circumnavigate the Eurasian continent. Nils Adolf Eric Nordenskjöld became a national hero of Sweden, and after the expedition the barque "Vega" returned for whaling and seal hunting. It remains to add that in the reverse order, from east to west, along the Northeast Passage, for the first time, a hydrographic expedition of Boris Vilkitsky on the icebreaking ships Taimyr and Vaigach passed in 1914-1915.

Boris Andreevich Vilkitsky

"Taimyr" and "Vaigach"

This voyage was also the first through passage by the Russian expedition.

Navigation in the Northwest Passage has claimed the lives of many fishermen and Arctic explorers. The legendary sea route along the coast of North America cuts through coastal ice, pack ice and past icebergs, and even today it is an exciting adventure.

Soon after Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, navigators began to make the first daring attempts to go around New World from the north to find a sea route to East Asia. At the beginning of the 16th century, in terribly difficult conditions, navigators-explorers, among whom were Corte Real Gaspar and Sebastian Cabot, reached the Canadian Arctic archipelago. However, all attempts to find a way in the labyrinth of narrow straits and endless fjords failed, as the path was invariably blocked by impregnable blocks of drifting ice floes. Even in the 19th century, the fate of the ill-fated expedition led by the English explorer John Franklin did not discourage other adventurers.

The search for the missing Franklin expedition, which dragged on for a whole decade, marked a new contribution to the study of the Far North. The first to prove the existence of the Northwest Passage was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. With a tiny ship and a small crew at his disposal, between 1903 and 1906 he successfully sailed along the northern coast American continent. However, even after the passage was conquered, this place still represented great danger for sailors. Only in 1942, the second expedition led by Henry Larsen on the schooner "St. Rock" managed to sail along the passage, but this time in the opposite direction - from west to east. Today, thanks to the latest navigation equipment, travel can be considered relatively safe. True, however, and now no one can guarantee that the voyage will take place strictly according to a pre-planned route. The first cruise ship sailed through the Northwest Passage in 1984.

The Northwest Passage never became an important maritime trade route, because the weather here is still unpredictable, and the navigation season here is limited to only a few weeks a year, although the use of this sea route has become a great help to the mining industry in the Arctic regions of Canada. However, the Northwest Passage is now used only by those who work at the Polaris field on Bathurst Island.

For local residents of the Far North, the arrival of the ship is an exceptional event; and although roads do not link this region with the southern parts of Canada, the settlements are no longer as cut off from the rest of the mainland as they used to be. Nearly all Inuit research stations and settlements have air links to southern Canada. Thanks to modern technologies traveling around the Arctic region has become much easier, but the magical landscape, the feeling of loneliness and peace have remained unchanged, which is what makes these places look so beautiful. After all, the shining surface of coastal ice in estuaries and fjords, as well as bizarrely shaped icebergs or heaps of ice floes, are forever imprinted in the memory. But even today life in the regions of the Far North is still extremely difficult. The main danger is the inhospitable climate. In winter, the temperature often drops to -40℃ and below. And even in May, when the sun is high above the horizon, the thermometer rarely rises above zero.

The cruise starts from the coast of Greenland towards the Arctic regions of Canada - it was from there that Roald Amundsen set sail through the Northwest Passage. Then the route continues along the coast of Alaska and ends at the Aleutian Islands, on the border with Russia.

Information for tourists:
Length: approximately 2500 km.
Duration: about 4 weeks
Route map: Kangerlussuaq, Sisimiut, Ilulissat, Upernavik, Pond Inlet, Dundas Harbor, Beachy Island, Resolute, Franklin Sound, Cambridge Bay, Ross Point, Holman Island, Barrow, Point Hope, Diomede Islands, Nome, Gambell, St. Paul, Dutch Harbor, Col Bay.
Note to tourists: The Northwest Passage here can only be explored by joining a cruise.
When to go: The Northwest Passage is only open for navigation for a few weeks in the summer and even at this time. cruise companies due to weather conditions and glaciers often forced to change it. Be prepared for swarms of mosquitoes if you're going on day trips to the tundra in the summer, and don't forget to bring insect repellant with you. It's also a good idea to stock up on windproof clothing with a high collar to ensure maximum comfort.
Tourist information:

• www.greenland-guide.gl (Greenland Tourist Guide);
• www.hl-cruises.com (Hapag-Lloyd cruises);

1. Kangerlussuaq. The largest airport in Greenland is located in this town, it is here that most tourists arrive. The Arctic island cruise starts at the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, which stretches for about 170 km. Then the route passes numerous glaciers, which, thawing, fall into the estuary. Descending from the Greenland ice sheet, they, rushing to the water, cut the road to the fjord deep in the rocks.

2. Sisimiut. When a cruise ship comes to the mouth of the fjord, the route turns to the north and stretches along the rocky coast. You will cross the Arctic Circle, and soon the town of Sisimiut will appear on the horizon. The fish factory and refrigeration warehouses around the port eloquently testify to the main occupations of the local population. A separate export item is Greenland crab meat, which is supplied to almost all countries of the world. Back in the 18th century, Dutch whalers established a small base here, however, as did the Norwegian Lutheran missionary Hans Egede in 1724. The settlement that exists here today, whose original name is Holsteinborg, appeared four decades later under the patronage of Count Ludwig Holstein. The emergence of the city brought with it a major change in the traditions and way of life of the local population, and now most Inuit enjoy the comforts of modern civilization.

3. Ilulissat. This town, formerly known as Jakobshavn, which means "Jacob's harbor" in Danish, is the third largest in Greenland and one of the most popular tourist ports. Ilulissat (meaning "icebergs" in the Inuit language) is a very appropriate name for this locality, as the surrounding landscape is dominated by snow-white giants slowly drifting out of the fjords into Disko Bay. The Greenland ice sheet, which in places reaches a thickness of 3 km, ensures an uninterrupted supply of ice. Due to its own gravity ice block by inertia slides into the fjord, and when the tongue of the glacier reaches open waters bay, it splits and icebergs form.

4. Upernavik. The urban appearance of Upernavik ("Spring Place") is formed by several small groups of buildings, huddled around the steep cliffs of the northwestern coast of Greenland. About three thousand inhabitants live here. The main settlement is located on one of the many small rocky islands just off this part of the coast. The landscape around Upernavik, especially the cliffs in the Apparsuit area, provides an excellent opportunity to observe the local nature: reindeer and musk ox live in the tundra of the Svartenhooken peninsula. The landscape to the north of Upernavik seems even wilder, here the glacier breaks directly into the sea. For the inhabitants of Upernavik, the sea is the main source of food. Even today, most of the families living here make a living from fishing and seal hunting. The northernmost museum in the world, located in the open air, is open in the building of the former trading post of Upernavik. Here, tourists can learn about the history of the emergence and development of the city and the traditional life of the Inuit.

5. Pond Inlet. Further, the route continues along the narrow Pond Inlet to the settlement of the same name in the north of Baffin Island. Here, along the Eclipse Strait, you will cross the Canadian border for the first time. The name of the village of Mittimatalik founded just a few decades ago is associated with the name of an English astronomer and means "the place where Mittima is buried", and "Pond" is already the Inuit name of the same place. Of the 1,300 inhabitants of the village, Inuit make up the majority. At the beginning of the 20th century, a whaling factory was founded here, which was abandoned just a few years later. Despite the inhospitable climate, people have lived in the area around Pond Inlet for at least four thousand years. Archaeologists have found traces of both the Dorset culture and the later Thule culture here. In 1929, two missionary organizations appeared here - Anglican and Catholic - simultaneously began to spread Christianity in the region. As is the case with most communities in the Arctic, detached houses in Pond Inlet are simple and functional. However, this simplicity makes the village, nestled against the backdrop of spectacular impregnable mountains, even more memorable. Closer to the south of the island, mountain peaks reach a height of more than 1500m, and to the north in the direction of Bylot Island, visible in the distance, the mountains become even higher, up to 2000m. Both in Eclipse Bay and nearby Pond Inlet, which separates Bylot from Baffin Island, icebergs and sea ice drift even during the summer months. You will not only be mesmerized by the Arctic landscape itself, but you will also enjoy watching unique nature estuaries, in the waters of which there are beluga whales, narwhals, bowhead whales, sometimes even sperm whales and killer whales swim here. Among the others marine mammals- walruses and different kinds seals, including ringed seals. Most of Bylot Island is occupied by the Sirmilik National Park, established in 1999. But the island is more known as a bird sanctuary: hundreds of thousands of thick-billed guillemots and common kittiwakes nest on the rocks, and a large population of Atlantic blue geese also lives here. For bird and whale watching, separate excursions are organized from Pond Inlet, for lovers of fishing - boat fishing, and in the spring snowmobiling and dog sledding. Learn more about the bird sanctuary at Bylot Island and Sirmilik National Park, as well as at the Nattinak Visitor Center in Pond Inlet.

6 Dundas Harbor The route continues along the rocky west coast of Bylot Island between the narrow glacial plateaus of the Navy Bod Inlet to the north of the Lancaster Strait, which is the main gate of the Northwest Passage (at this point its width reaches 80 km.). The depth here rarely exceeds 300m, so that part of the route where it reaches 1000m is the deepest section. Then the path lies to the town of Dundas Harbor, which is located almost at 75º north latitude at southeast coast Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened a military base here in 1924 as part of a government policy to curb the activity of foreigners, but in 1932. the base was abandoned. In 1934 Inuit families were moved to the island, but in 1936. they decided to leave, considering the living conditions here too harsh. The sovereignty of Dundas Harbor is still disputed. In the area north of Dundas Harbor, the height of the mountains reaches 1900m, and here they are completely covered with glaciers. IN coastal areas archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric settlements of the Dorset and Thule cultures. Dundas Harbor is the perfect place to learn more about the nature of the Arctic. Walruses and seals on the coast, musk oxen on land seem to be waiting to be photographed, but one must always be careful, especially when meeting polar bears.

7 Beachy Island This island in Wellington Sound was discovered in 1819. English explorer of the Arctic, William Edward Parry. And it got its name in honor of Frederick Williams Beachy, an officer from the Parry team. Beachy Island has played an important role in the history of Canadian Arctic exploration. In 1845 The English navigator and Arctic explorer John Franklin decided that the well-protected port of the island was an excellent place to anchor a ship in the first winter of his expedition, which ended tragically. When in 1851 a rescue party arrived here, on the shore they discovered the graves of three members of the ship's crew, marked with stones, but so far nothing is known about the fate of the rest of the crew. In the 1980s, the remains of three polar explorers, quite well preserved in permafrost conditions, were exhumed and subjected to scientific study. It suddenly turned out that people died, apparently from lead poisoning: the cans with which they ate for many months were made of poorly processed lead. In 1979 The government of the Northwest Territories declared Beechey Island a site of natural and historical significance. Today, like most of northeast Canada, the island belongs to the territory of Nunavut, founded in 1999. Today, the graves of three sailors are the most visited place by tourists.

8. Resolute. Founded on Cornwallis Island in the northern part of Resolute Bay, the settlement of the same name is one of the northernmost settlements on the planet, about 250 inhabitants live here, mostly Inuit. There is a fairly large airport serving the Arctic part of Canada. This town is named after the Resolute ship, but of the many ships that took part in the search for the missing Franklin expedition, the Resolute was locked in ice for two winters, and in order to avoid a third wintering in polar night and cold conditions, Captain Belcher took the decision to abandon ship and the crew returned to England aboard a rescue ship. The Resolute was found in fairly good condition by American whalers in 1855, who freed it from pack ice. Resolute is home to important meteorological and research stations. The Canadian government took over the management of the original Inuit settlements only in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, in addition to the Inuit, scientists and engineers live here. In the 1960s and 1970s on the nearby island of Bathurst, 150-200 km. west of Resolute, the north magnetic pole was discovered. Thanks to this, the town has become a base for research expeditions that set off to study the Earth's magnetic field. Since then, the magnetic pole has moved north past 80º latitude, but meteorologists still work in Resolute, where geophysical surveys are carried out, the biennial Polar Race and the annual Polar Challenge, during which several teams simultaneously trying to reach the north magnetic pole. Resolute is also considered an important transport hub, because it provides the functioning of the Polaris field on Bathurst Island. For some time it was the northernmost in the world of the developed deposits of lead and zinc ores, until it was recognized as unprofitable in 2003. closed.

9. Franklin Strait. This strait got its name in honor of the explorer John Franklin, who led an expedition to the islands of the Canadian part of the Arctic in 1845. Franklin's ships Erebus and Terror, under the command of Captains James Fitzjames and Francis Crozier, were seen by whalers north of Baffin Island, but soon the ships were lost among the drifting ice. Several rescue parties were sent in search of the missing expedition, but nothing was known about their fate until 1989, when the diary was found. It turned out that Franlin and his crew spent their first winter near Beachy Island and then sailed through Peel Sound and Franlin Sound. In September 1846 the ships were once again trapped in the ice in the Victoria Strait. Heading south on foot, all members of the expedition died. The route continues past King William Island. At the Northwest Passage Nature and History Park near Yon Haven, learn about the history of exploration of the pass and the surrounding area. Gorodoak was named after the ship "Joa", on which Roald Amundsen first sailed through the Northwest Passage in 1903-1906. Amundsen account this place is ideal for bright parking and conducting research on the Earth's magnetic field. Also in the park, everyone can get acquainted with the life and work of the famous polar explorer, who spent almost three long winters here.

10. Cambridge Bay. The village was named in honor of Prince Adolf, Duke of Cambridge, it is also called Ikaluktutiak ("place of many large fish"). It is located on south coast Victoria Island and thanks to a convenient harbor is perfect place for parking of ships. Over time, the small settlement, where about 1,500 inhabitants, mostly Inuit, lived, turned into a center of arts and crafts. The Nunavut College of Fine Arts has even set up Inuit Art Courses, where not only locals but also tourists can learn. This place is also famous for its jewelry. They are mainly made from local ornamental stones (serpentine) and bones of marine mammals. Traditionally, the Inuit used copper, but today they use other metals as well as modern materials. In the vicinity of the village of Cambridge Bay, the ruins of ancient Inuit settlements built of stone and earth have been preserved, they are also called "karmak". However, among the sights of the bay itself are the remains of the Maud ship, named after the Queen of Norway and later renamed Bay Maud. This ship was specially built for Amundsen's second Arctic expedition in 1925. sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, and in 1930. flooded. Since 1947, a lighthouse has provided security at the entrance to the waters of the bay. In the 1920s, the Hudson's Bay Company trading post and a small police station in Cambridge Bay became a Canadian outpost in this part of the Arctic region. The Inuit who had previously lived in these areas did not begin to settle again until after the 1950s. Cambridge Bay is a great place to learn about the unique flora and fauna of the Arctic. And if you decide to ride through the hills in off-road vehicles, you will have a unique opportunity to see entire herds of musk oxen.

11. Ross Point. Further, the path lies west along the southern coast of Victoria Island, through Dees Strait and Coronation Bay. If you get a chance to disembark at Ross Point, take a little walk. Here you will have unique chance enjoy the wild nature of the tundra in its pristine beauty. The most imposing animal in these parts is the musk ox. If you are lucky, you will see whole herds of these giants.

12. Holmen Island. After another 250 km. you will find yourself in Amundsen Bay. This marks the end of the most difficult section of the Northwest Passage. This is the border between the Inuit territory of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The community of Ulukhaktok is the place where the northernmost golf course on the planet is located, as part of a specially organized tournament in the summer, international competitions are held here. Holmen Island has become a real Mecca for artists, they are especially attracted by traditional types of printed graphics - lithography, engraving, printmaking, linocut, which reproduce the symbolic motifs of the Arctic world. Dancing and drumming also play an important role in the life of Ulukhaktok. Before the current legacy was founded, a trading post functioned here. In Reed Island, you can still visit the buildings that have survived from that time.

13. Herschel Island. The route continues along the vast Amundsen Bay in the Beaufort Sea, passing the Mackenzie Delta and approaching Herschel Island. On the coast you can often see a lot of trees thrown ashore, which come here from the forested regions of Canada through the Mackenzie channel, are used for construction and heating, since wood is rare in these places. The local name for Herschel Island is Kwiqiktaruk, which means "this is an island" in the Inuit language. Although the island is small - its area is only a few kilometers - it is reliably sheltered from winds and bad weather. The port is regularly visited by whaling and research ships, and thanks to the long-standing Inuit settlement, the port has become real center supplying the island with all necessary goods.

14. Barrow. The meridian line 141º west longitude the route crosses near Barrow, a town located 80 km. west of Herschel Island. This is the border between Canada and Alaska. Crude oil prospectors began to appear in Prudhoe Bay as early as the 1940s, but exploitable deposits were discovered only in 1967. Crude oil is pumped to the city of Valdez on the south coast of Alaska through a nearly 1,300 km long pipeline, which was completed in 1977. Barrow is an important supply center for the region's oil fields. During the summer, when the pack ice briefly recedes from the coast, ships can enter the port and bring in goods and food for the city's residents. And about 15 km. north of Barrow is Cape Barrow, or Nuvuk, the northernmost point of the United States, the starting point of many expeditions to explore Aktika. The first mention of these places dates back to 1576, when pioneer settlers arrived here to challenge the harsh climate.

15. Point Hop. This small town is located on a cape that cuts from the western side into the Chukchi Sea. Local attractions include original indigenous cult objects carved from whalebone. From here the route continues south along the Bering Strait, which, like the Bering Sea, the island, the glacier and Beringia, was named after Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741), who explored the area. Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost tip of the American continent, is only 100km away. from Cape Dezhnev, eastern point Asia.

16. Diomede Islands. This is the meeting place of two superpowers - Russia and the United States. Two rocky islands - the American Small Diomede and the Russian Big Diomede - are separated by only 3 km. This is the only place where the border of the territories of the two states passes. The demarcation time line also bisects the strait between the two islands.

17. Nom. This city played an important role in the history of Alaska during the gold rush. When in 1898 gold was discovered in nearby Anvil Creek, word of the discovery quickly spread, and prospectors from all over the world began to arrive. Today, Nome is best known as the final destination of the Iditarod dog sled race, held in memory of the dog sled that in 1925. delivered a shipment of vaccine to Nome that helped end the diphtheria epidemic among the Inuit.

18. Gambell. Located on the northwestern tip of the island of St. Lawrence, Gambell was almost completely settled by the Yuits, or Asian Eskimos, the indigenous inhabitants of the northeastern part of Russia.

19. St. Paul's Island. This is one of the four Pribylov Islands located in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia. It has a volcanic origin, and therefore the island is, in fact, a feeding ground for seabirds and seals. The Pribylov Islands are inhabited by the Aleuts, whose original possessions also include the Aleutian Islands and the Shumagin Islands, as well as West Side the Alaska Peninsula.

20. Dutch Harbor. This small settlement is located on the Aleutian island of Amaknak and bridged with its nearest island, Unalaska. It is worth visiting the Russian Orthodox Church in Unalaska, which is a testament to the times when Alaska was still part of the Russian Empire. In those days, Russian fur hunters founded a settlement on the island, subduing the indigenous population. The missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived here later and in 1825. built their first church here. Despite some remoteness from the whole world, the events of the Second World War also affected the Aleuts. While the United States sought to protect the islands by organizing the construction of military bases, they were unable to prevent Japanese fighter raids, and on the morning of June 3, 1942. Japanese aircraft raided Dutch Harbor.

21. Cold Bay. From Unalashka, the journey continues along Krenitsyn Island and leads us to Unimak Island, the largest in the Alutian archipelago. Pavlova volcano rises above the bay at 2862m, and its peak is often enveloped in fog. Like the islands of this region and the vast expanses of Alaska, Unimak is declared national reserve. Here you can meet many representatives of the North American fauna, from huge brown bears to silver foxes. And the local airport is considered an important transport hub, and the development of this town is directly related to it. It was built during World War II to strengthen the defenses of this remote part of the United States and prevent Japanese air raids. At that time, the port was also used as a transit point for the transportation of goods from the United States to the Soviet Union. Today, Cold Bay is inhabited mainly by airport employees, military observers, and meteorological station employees. Cold Bay, surrounded by small islands and famous for its rocky coast, replete with grottoes and creeks, perhaps can be attributed to the most beautiful and memorable parts of Alaska. Over the past two hundred years, Pavlova volcano has erupted about forty times, and today it is the most active volcano in Alaska. Izembek National Reserve - real paradise for animals, even wild geese live here and stop migratory birds. The participants of the cruise along the North American part of the Arctic, full of new experiences, end their journey in Col Bay. From here most of passengers returning to the mainland are already on the plane.

NORTHWEST PASS

At the age of fifteen, Amundsen accidentally got a book by the English polar explorer John Franklin, in which he talked about an expedition that explored the coast of North America between the Hudson Bay and the Mackenzie River. J. Franklin's book "The story of a journey to the shores of the Polar Sea in 1819-1822." abounded with descriptions of the difficulties that lie in wait for man in the Arctic. Often, travelers had to eat lichens and even eat worn out shoes. Many members of the expedition died. Young Amundsen was fascinated by the descriptions of these adventures.

“It is surprising that of the whole story, it was precisely the description of these hardships experienced by Franklin and his companions that most of all attracted my attention. A strange longing flared up in me to endure the same kind of suffering someday” (“My Life”, p. 8). In 1845, John Franklin led a major expedition on the ships Erebus and Terror to find the Northwest Passage. The expedition disappeared into an archipelago of islands north of Canada. For many years, dozens of rescue expeditions have been looking for Franklin and his companions. Only in 1859 was it possible to discover evidence tragic death expeditions. During the search, a significant part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was described and the Northwest Passage was discovered in parts.

This passage went through complex maze straits almost permanently clogged with sea ice. This circumstance cooled the ardor of the captains and shipowners, who hoped to use this passage, which was the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized that this passage has no practical significance.

The young Norwegian, after reading a mountain of books about the search for the Northwest Passage, dating back to the time of John Cabot, set on fire with the idea to conquer it. And he began to prepare for the implementation of this goal in secret. Secretly because his mother, whom he loved very much, did not want him to become a sailor, much less a polar traveler. Then he realized that for polar travel, first of all, endurance and physical hardening are needed, and he was a sickly boy. He began to play sports: he played football, went skiing, slept in the winter with the windows open.

At the insistence of his mother, after the gymnasium, Amundsen entered the medical faculty of the university. But three years later, his mother died, and he left the university.

“Death saved her from the inevitable discovery that my ambition and interests had taken completely different paths” (“My Life”, p. 10).

At that time he was in his twenty-first year. After completing his compulsory military service, he began to study navigation on his own. IN summer seasons From 1894-1896, Roal was hired as a sailor on sailing schooners that hunted seals in the Greenland Sea in order to gain seamanship. Soon he passed the exam for a sea navigator. Just in those years (1893-1896) the Norwegian ship "Fram" made its famous drift through the Arctic basin. When it became clear that the ship was drifting much south of the Pole, the leader of the expedition, Fridtjof Nansen, took Hjalmar Johansen as his companion and left Otto Sverdrup in command of the ship, set off on skis to the North Pole. They did not reach the goal, but set a record for moving north and, turning back, went out on the ice to Franz Josef Land. There the travelers met with the English expedition of Jackson. By a happy coincidence, almost on the same day that Nansen returned to Norway, the Fram broke the ice off Svalbard.

Nansen became the most popular polar explorer. The triumphal meeting arranged for him in Norway further fueled the ambition of the young Amundsen. In 1897, he heard that the Belgian de Gerlache de Gomery was forming an expedition to Antarctica. Amundsen went to Antwerp and secured a meeting with de Gerlache. The Belgian sailor quickly realized that the Norwegian was exactly the person he needed: he was young, hardy, had experience sailing in polar waters. In addition, Amundsen did not demand high pay for work on the expedition and agreed to land on the coast of the icy continent and stay there for the winter. At twenty-five, Amundsen became the first navigator on the Belgica (Belgium) ship.

The purpose of the Belgian expedition was to discover the South Magnetic Pole - the point where the Earth's magnetic field lines intersect. By that time, only one thing was known - this point is located somewhere on the Antarctic continent.

At the end of 1897, at the height of the Antarctic summer, the Belgica, after entering Tierra del Fuego headed for Victoria Land. At the South Shetland Islands, the scientific staff of the expedition, together with its leader, began collecting zoological and geological collections, surveying the coast, and making magnetic and meteorological observations. Carried away by scientific work, the travelers missed the most favorable time for the realization of the main goal of the expedition. As a result of a combination of circumstances, the Belgica was caught in ice in the southern part of the current Bellingshausen Sea and fell into a long drift.

Of all the members of the expedition, only four - the Romanian biologist Rakovitsa, the Polish meteorologist Dobrovolsky, the American doctor Cook and the Norwegian Amundsen - were prepared for life in polar conditions; it was this four that was intended to land on the continent. But she was not destined to take place.

The food supply and crew equipment were not designed for such a long period. The winter was tragic. Two of the sailors went mad, and most fell ill with scurvy and were on the verge of death. Cook and Amundsen knew from descriptions of previous polar voyages that fresh meat was a good cure for scurvy. Even at the beginning of wintering, they began to kill seals and penguins; their carcasses were kept in the snow at the side of the ship. However, out of some strange prejudice, de Gerlache forbade the use of this meat for food. But when the head of the expedition and Captain Lecointe also fell ill with scurvy, and so seriously that they were forced to transfer the leadership of the expedition to Amundsen, the first thing he did was make the cook cook seal meat.

“It was amazing to observe the effect caused by such a simple change of food. Within the first week, everyone began to noticeably get better” (“My Life”, p. 26).

The forced drift of the ship lasted thirteen months. Having recovered from the illness, the scientists of the expedition resumed their scientific observations. Only in the late Antarctic autumn, at the end of March 1899, the ship broke free from ice captivity. Two years after setting sail, the expedition returned to Europe.

The first wintering in the ice was a good school for Amundsen. The experience gained and a careful study of the descriptions of successful and unsuccessful polar expeditions convinced him that victory and success are guaranteed only to those who are carefully prepared for work and life in harsh conditions.

Returning from the expedition, Amundsen passed the exam and received a captain's diploma. Now it's time to take on the dream of youth - the conquest of the Northwest Passage.

But this required money and moral support. And Amundsen decided to turn to his famous compatriot - Fridtjof Nansen. Now he was no longer the enthusiastic youth that Nansen had met in a crowd of his kind after returning from expeditions. After swimming with the Belgians, Amundsen himself became a famous person.

“I knew that one word of encouragement from his lips would be invaluable support for my plan, just as an unfavorable review could be fatal to him” (“My Life”, p. 29).

But Amundsen's fears were in vain: Nansen approved the plan and, moreover, began to actively help the expedition. He recommended not only trying to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but also making observations in the region of the North Magnetic Pole in order to find out how much its position had changed compared to 1831, when it was discovered by James Clark Ross.

“Otherwise, my plans would not have been taken seriously and I would not have been able to get the necessary support” (“My Life”, p. 30). Amundsen approached this task with the utmost conscientiousness. He goes to Hamburg to the well-known geophysicist Professor Georg von Neumeier in order to acquire skills in geomagnetic observations. Neumeier treated the young Norwegian very favorably and gave him the opportunity to study at the Hamburg Naval Observatory. After spending several months in Hamburg, he continued his internship at the Wilhelmshaven and Potsdam observatories. Thus, Amundsen prepared very thoroughly for the implementation of the program of scientific observations. He first purchased scientific instruments, and in 1900 bought a small sailing yacht with a displacement of 47 tons, built in 1872, that is, in the year of his birth. He named her "Yoa". Having repaired the ship, in the summer of 1901 Amundsen went to the Greenland Sea to test it in open ocean and simultaneously perform oceanographic observations here.

The fact is that Nansen, in processing oceanographic observations made during the drift of the Fram, expressed. hypothesis about the formation of cold deep waters in the center of the Greenland Sea. However, to speak more confidently about this, he needed additional observations. According to the program drawn up by Nansen, Amundsen carried out such observations near the coast of Svalbard from the Gjoa.

“I knew that Dr. Nansen needed some data, and I wanted to get it for him as a token of my gratitude. He was extremely pleased to receive them from me in the autumn” (“My Life”, p. 32).

These observations proved to be very valuable. They made it possible for Nansen to establish that cold deep waters are formed in the Greenland Sea as a result of the subsidence of surface waters that cool in winter between Jan Mayen and Svalbard. This was a very major discovery in oceanography.

Another year was spent on raising money, preparing equipment and re-equipping the ship. As an advance payment for future scientific. results of the expedition Amundsen managed to get a large loan from the state. But even this was not enough. In search of money, he besieged everyone and everything, he had to take many goods on the security of the ship. In the end, he went on a voyage in secret - at midnight, in the pouring rain. It was June 16, 1903.

“When the day broke on our fierce creditors, we were already at a safe distance on the high seas - seven pirates, the happiest of all that have ever sailed under the black flag” (“My Life”, p. 32).

Yes, there were only seven of them: the head of the expedition, Amundsen, who is also the captain, his assistant, two navigators, two mechanics and a cook. But these people knew how to do everything. Six Eskimo huskies were taken on board, a gift from Otto Sverdrup - he brought them from a voyage on the Fram in the Canadian Arctic archipelago.

At first, the voyage of the Gjoa proceeded safely, mainly under sail, since the engine was low-powered - only 13 horsepower. Having entered the small village of Godhavn, located on the western coast of Greenland, the ship took on board ten more sled dogs, sleds, kayaks, skis, cans of kerosene and other polar equipment ordered in advance. The ship then headed north along the Baffin Sea along the western coast of Greenland, choosing a route through floating ice and maneuvering between icebergs.

From Cape York, the ship proceeded through the northern part of the Baffin Sea to the west, to Lancaster Sound. This strait was free of ice. On August 22, the Gyoa anchored off Beachy Island in Erebus Bay. Here Amundsen made a series of magnetic observations. In these places in 1845/46 the first wintering of the Franklin expedition took place. From here, the British headed southeast and then south across Peel Strait.

According to Amundsen, 1903 was "an extraordinarily happy year in regard to the ice." All previous expeditions encountered solid sea ice here. And the Gyoa sailed through a chain of straits between the islands in clear water, however, with strong waves, frequent fogs and poor visibility. On August 30, 1903, the ship passed along the western coast of the Boothia Peninsula, where James Ross had located the magnetic North Pole 72 years earlier.

It cannot be said that the voyage was completely serene. In these almost unexplored waters, the ship landed on stones, but then a huge wave picked it up and carried it over the reef. However, during the impact on the stones, the steering pins popped out of the sockets of the hinges. The case rescued the Norwegians this time too - a few minutes later the pins slipped back into their sockets and the steering wheel again began to obey the helm. And one night spilled kerosene caught fire in the engine room. Luckily, the fire was spotted and extinguished in time. And finally, for four days a fierce storm raged in unfamiliar waters, and only skillful maneuvering saved the fragile ship from death.

In September, frosts began, the polar night was approaching, and Amundsen decided to put the ship in for the winter. At south coast King William Island, a calm cove surrounded by hills was discovered. It was called Joa Bay. To the west stretched the narrow Simpeon Strait, separating King William Island from the North American continent. The strait was completely clear of ice, and the ship could move further west.

“So the Northwest Passage was open to us. But our goal, first of all, was to make observations in the region of the North Magnetic Pole, and the passage was already a matter of secondary importance ” .

Even on the way to the wintering place, travelers landed on the shore in a boat and placed houris of stones in conspicuous places, under which Amundsen left notes on the state of affairs in the expedition. Although the expedition was prepared with the utmost care, the entire history of polar travel indicates that in the polar regions, and even in unexplored places, randomness easily develops into a pattern and at any moment can lead to disaster. Even before leaving Norway, Amundsen agreed with his mentor Nansen about the installation system of the Guriev in case of searching for an expedition.

So, the first stage of the expedition was completed successfully. On September 12, 1903, leaving behind a significant part of the journey through unexplored waters, the ship was put up for the winter. For magnetic observations, a magnetic observatory was built on the shore of the bay. It was knocked together from empty boxes with special copper nails; boxes for stability were covered with sand. The foundation for the installation of tools was laid out of stones and fastened with cement. A dwelling house for two observers was built 65 meters from the observatory.

In early October, the bay and the strait froze over. WITH northern islands herds of deer went south, and winterers made a solid supply of deer meat. At the end of October, the Eskimos came to the wintering place. Relations with the indigenous people of these places have been favorable from the very beginning.

“Our friends were dumbfounded - the Eskimos visited us many times and always in whole crowds. They willingly came at dinner time, built their snow huts and stayed with us for several days.

The Eskimos taught Amundsen and his comrades how to build snow huts - igloos. In marching conditions, they were more comfortable than European tents, if only because they did not need to be carried with you. This was an important circumstance, since in winter, with frosts reaching -60 °, travelers made long trips in order to more accurately determine the location of the magnetic pole.

A long time has passed harsh winter, the polar day came, followed by a short spring and summer. Somehow suddenly the earth was full of flowers and herbs, birds, mosquitoes and flies appeared. Everything was in a hurry to live after a long winter sleep. In August, Amundsen undertook a tour of the area, making geomagnetic observations. Unlike last year, this summer the straits were not free of ice, only narrow strips of water formed near the coast. Winter was approaching, and the Gyoa was still trapped in the ice. Soon, open areas of water began to become covered with ice again.

Amundsen wrote about this:

“Although it was still early, we had to admit to ourselves that winter would soon come ... On the night of September 21, real ice formed everywhere and the second wintering began” (“Northwest Passage”, p. 154).

Amundsen often made trips to the Eskimo villages, trading small household items and various European trinkets for fish and venison.

One day, Amundsen ended up in the Famine Bay area, in the area where the remains of the main group of the Franklin expedition were found.

“Ironically, this terrible name is given to exactly the place that is the most beautiful and richest on the entire American coast,” writes Amundsen in his book The Northwest Passage (p. 163). - In the spring, when the coastal polynya opens up, countless large fat salmon are caught here. A little later, endless herds of deer appear and stay here for the whole summer. In autumn, you can catch cod in unlimited quantities ... But the fact is that travelers came here when the lowland was covered with snow. ., where nothing spoke of life ... And, of course, on the whole earth in winter there is no other place so abandoned and so deserted as this.

Roald Amundsen in his cabin on the Gjoa. The hardships of the journey were not in vain for him: at 33, he was already completely gray-haired.

The famous "Fram" arrived in the Bay of Whales. From here Amundsen started to the South Pole.

The Norwegian flag crowned the southern end of the earth's axis.

Roald Amundsen and Robert Peary, discoverers of the Earth's poles. Between them is polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Amundsen passed his entire research path under the guiding star of Fridtjof Nansen.

The man sitting next to Amundsen in the cockpit of the seaplane is the American pilot Lincoln Ellsworth.

Travelers tirelessly cleared the runway for a hydroplane that had crashed on the way to the North Pole ...

.. . so that after the next shift of the ice to start all over again.

A seasoned polar explorer congratulates Richard Byrd on his successful jump to the North Pole.

When summer came and the flowers bloomed in millions in the meadows, when all the lakes shone and all the streams sang and rejoiced for a brief moment of liberation from the icy shackles, when the birds chirped and whistled in a thousand joyful ways, and the head of the first deer appeared at open edge Arctic Ocean, then only a pile of white bones indicated the place where the remnants of Franklin's brave team breathed their last - at the last act of the great tragedy ... At this place, hiding so many sad memories, - Amundsen ends this peculiar epitaph, - now the Eskimos are leading a merry lively life until the true night comes and lowers its iron curtain between this land and light and life.

During the polar night, many Eskimo families again settled in their primitive huts near Joa Bay. In this neighborhood, there were also minor misunderstandings. By the middle of winter, the Eskimos had run out of meat, and they began to take canned food from the pantry of the ship, that is, to put it simply, to steal. But Amundsen did not make a tragedy out of this, but with tact and calmly settled such conflicts.

In winter, the Eskimos began hunting seals. The study of the life and way of life of the Eskimos was the second, after geomagnetic and meteorological observations, the scientific task of the expedition. At the beginning of the 20th century, the culture of the northern Canadian Eskimos was still almost untouched by the influence of Europeans. This generation of Eskimos did not see the white man. Their grandfathers met in almost the same places with members of the expedition of James Clark Ross, but it was only a short meeting, although the story of the white people was preserved in the legends of the Netchilli tribe.

Amundsen not only studied the language, life, life and traditions of the Eskimos, but also collected a rich collection of Eskimo household items: clothes, kitchen utensils, hunting and fishing tools.

Upon his return, he donated these collections to Norwegian museums, and they are still studied by ethnographers.

In his book The Northwest Passage, Amundsen devoted a large chapter entitled "Inhabitants of the North Magnetic Pole" to describing the life of the Eskimos (pp. 185-240). The value of this description is that it is based on personal observations and not on any preconceived ethnographic or anthropological theories. Here is what he himself writes about this at the beginning of the chapter:

“Beginning the story about the inhabitants of the North Magnetic Pole, the Netchilli Eskimos, I want to make an attempt to portray them as I met them and as I knew them. There are many sources and authorities in this field, and I could turn to them to write a more detailed chapter on the Eskimos for readers, but I deliberately did not read such materials, fearing that I might not report what I myself did not see and did not worry among the Eskimos.

At the end of the chapter on the Eskimos, Amundsen exclaims: “My best wish to our Netchil Eskimo friends - so that "civilization" does not touch them!

But this wish was unrealistic. In the 20th century, when the turn came to develop natural resources In the Canadian North, all the “charms” of capitalist civilization touched the Eskimos: the mineral-rich lands where they roamed freely were occupied by industrial firms without any compensation, and the Eskimos themselves became the object of the most cruel exploitation. Changed radically and their way of life.

Another spring came, the polar summer came again, and finally, on August 13, 1905, the ice broke and the ship left the bay into the narrow Simpson Strait. The further way to the west ran through a maze of completely unexplored straits, often in thick fogs. The nervous tension of these days did not pass without a trace for the head of the expedition.

"... on my return, everyone determined my age between 59 and 75 years, although I was only 33 years old."

“The Northwest Passage has been passed! My dream of adolescence at that moment became a reality.

It was in a bay later named Amundsen's Bay. Further west stretched the Beaufort Sea, clogged with powerful polar ice. Making her way along the coast to the west, on September 2, the Gyoa got stuck in the ice north of the mouth of the Mackenay River and here, at Cape King Point, remained for the third winter. 12 American whaling ships wintered nearby. As in previous winters, the Norwegians carried out geomagnetic and meteorological observations on the coast. Amundsen, in the midst of the cold weather, took a dog ride through the eastern spurs of the Brooks mountain range to the nearest telegraph station to notify the world of his victory. He made this 700 km long journey together with the captain of the deceased American whaler and an Eskimo with his wife. This journey, in addition to the harsh natural conditions, was complicated by the whims of the American,

for the first time on such a journey. Be that as it may, on December 5, 1905, Amundsen and his companions, having passed Fort Yukon, reached Fort Egbert, where there was a telegraph office. After sending telegrams and receiving many congratulations in return, as well as exchanging business messages with his brother, who was in charge of his financial affairs in Oslo, in March 1906 Amundsen returned to the wintering place of Joa.

In July, the ice broke, and the Gyoa, rounding Cape Barrow without much difficulty, entered the Chukchi Sea. On August 30, the ship left the Bering Strait behind, and in October anchored in the port of San Francisco. Amundsen donated his small ship to this city as a memento of the conquest of the Northwest Passage. "Joa" was put on eternal parking near the shore of the Golden Gate Park as a museum piece. Nowadays, Norwegians dream of returning this famous ship to Norway to put it next to the famous Fram and Kon-Tiki.

Thus, Amundsen's first independent expedition ended in brilliant success. However, his triumph was overshadowed: although he was the first conqueror of the North-Western Sea Route, the prize assigned by the British government for its discovery did not go to Amundsen. Many years before his voyage, it was paid to an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, Dr. John Rae, and to the English polar explorer, Admiral McClure. McClure, entering northern Canadian waters from the west, swam to Mercy Bay, Banks Island, where the expedition was forced to abandon ship; in the end, she was rescued from trouble by a rescue expedition. As for Dr. Re, he never sailed in Arctic waters, but was the head of a number of land expeditions to northern shores Canada and brought the first reliable information about the tragic fate of the Franklin expedition.

This circumstance deeply hurt the Norwegian traveler. Moreover, he had large debts for the expedition. I had to earn money in a different way. During 1906-1907, Amundsen traveled around Europe and America lecturing about his expedition and, as he himself wrote, "... returned to Norway with enough money to pay all my creditors."

Amundsen's achievement is not limited to the conquest of the Northwest Passage alone: ​​he delivered important scientific results to Norway, and although they did not bring money, they formed the treasury of human knowledge. Ethnographic records about the life of the Eskimos and collections of things remained, perhaps, the only material documents characterizing the life of the Canadian Eskimos at the beginning of our century. And the magnetic observations, as Amundsen wrote in his autobiography, “were so extensive and complete that it took about twenty years for the scientists to whom we passed them on our return in 1906 to process them ...”

Calculations have shown that over the 70-odd years that have passed since the discovery of J. Ross, the North magnetic pole has moved 3 degrees to the north. For unknown reasons, the magnetic poles move even in short periods of time, and in different directions.

The expedition to the Gjoa remained the only end-to-end voyage Northwest Passage for nearly forty years. It was repeated only in 1944 by the Canadian motor-sailing vessel Saint Rock under the command of Captain Henry Larsen. This voyage took 86 days. The first part of it passed along the path of Amundsen, however, having reached the Barrow Strait, Larsen led the St. Rock in a more northerly way: through the straits of Barrow-Wycount-Melville-Prince of Wales, and brought him to Amundsen Bay. Since then, voyages in the straits of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago have been undertaken annually and on a large scale with the aim of delivering cargo and supplying settlements and naval bases of the United States and Canada. The next end-to-end voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the third in a row, was made by the Canadian icebreaker Labrador in 1954, spending only 68 days.

In 1957, three American hydrographic vessels passed along the Northwest Sea Route, also from east to west.

In 1968, in the north of Alaska, on the coast of the Beaufort Sea in the area of ​​Prudhoe Bay, large oil fields were discovered by American oil companies. The Northwest Sea Route began to be considered as one of the options for exporting oil from the Beaufort Sea from west to east to the southern Atlantic ports of the United States.

As an experiment, a large tanker "Manhattan" with a displacement of 150,000 tons was converted for ice navigation. In the summer of 1969, the tanker, accompanied by American and Canadian icebreakers, passed from the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Barrow through the same straits that the St. Rock had sailed 25 years before, and then returned to the Atlantic in the same season and by the same route. Thus, in our days, the North-Western Sea Route has acquired practical significance.

Trip to the West Wall The purpose of Hitler's next trip was the West Wall. Whereas his inspection last August was kept secret, the Führer was now accompanied on his trip from 15 to 19 May by a large retinue with the participation of the press. Let the whole world know that the German people

8 WESTERN TANTRISM It must not be forgotten that MacGregor Mathers twice appeared in court to testify against Crowley. As in the first case, when he unsuccessfully tried to obtain an injunction against the publication of the third issue