But the rate of increase is not linear, but exponential, as described by the equation:

Mathematics may not be your long suit; not mine either. But let us pause to note a relationship that helps us visualize constraints that polar explore...
Author: Bruno Lloyd
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Mathematics may not be your long suit; not mine either. But let us pause to note a relationship that helps us visualize constraints that polar explorers confronted. It may sound obvious: as the size of a group (N) increases, the number possible one-on-one relationships or linkages (L) within that group also increases. But the rate of increase is not linear, but exponential, as described by the equation: L = (N2-N)/2. So an N of 2 results in (4-2)/2 = 1 possible Linkage; An N of 10 results in (100-10)/2 = 45 possible Linkages; An N of 20 results in (400-20)/2 = 190 possible Linkages, etc. With time and advancing transportation technologies, as we shall develop this theme a little later, the late 19th century (Gilded Age) into the 20th century, ushered in a steady decline in group size as ships were abandoned for other forms of conveyance: dogsleds, balloons, dirigibles, aeroplanes, etc. How various explorers dealt with the changing constraints of group size makes an interesting story in itself.

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Although Nansen’s expedition with the Fram to investigate theories of transpolar ice drift is the one most remembered today, the tough little ice ship contributed to two further polar expeditions. The second Fram expedition took place under the command of Otto Sverdrup, with a crew of 15. Sverdrup spent four full years in the eastern Canadian Arctic, exploring and claiming for Norway parts of Ellesmere, Ellef Ringness, and other islands. It was a brilliant combination of summer and winter work, resulting in exploration of 100 000 square miles and many bays, fjords, sounds and anchorages. One amusing encounter during this period of 1898-1902 was Sverdrup’s weird encounter with Robert E. Peary, the American, who stopped at the moored Fram while sledging from his exploratory-supply ship, Windward. Peary was so secretive, so protective of his own desire to be first to arrive at 90°N, that he imagined Sverdrup to be his chief rival, and to be disguising his true motives of attaining the Pole behind shams of exploration.

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The second Fram Expedition nearly ended in tragedy, caused by fire in one of her overwintering anchorages. Fortunately the crew returned and quickly extinguished the blaze before serious damage could be done.

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Fram’s third voyage was actually a case of deception. Roald Amundsen was another highly purposeful Norwegian, who made a name for himself by being the first person to navigate the Northwest Passage, between 1903 and 1906, west-to-east. Amundsen made contact with overwintering Yankee commercial whalers during the final overwintering of his little ship, Gjøa(Yew-ah), a few miles east of Herschel Island, and knew that he had effectively completed the first transit of the Northwest Passage. He had a contract with a Norwegian newspaper for first rights to publish news of his feat. But in far northwestern North America there were no telegraph lines yet on the northern coasts, so Roald Amundsen undertook to take one crewmember with him to travel by dogsled to Fort Yukon in Alaska, where he expected to send telegrams to his brother Leon. In fact the closest telegraphy was farther up the Yukon River at Eagle. Amundsen went there, broke, as he often was, and had to send a telegram collect to his brother. The Norwegian newspaper voided Amundsen’s contract because somehow the supposedly secure telegram was leaked to U.S. newspapers, who ‘scooped’ the story. Amundsen was away from his little ship, Gjøa, for five months, then abandoned her again in Nome, to catch a steamship to Seattle. Nansen met Amundsen in 1906 or 07, because Amundsen was now interested in finishing the job of the first Fram Expedition (or so Amundsen said) by sailing, and sledging from her to the Pole. But he needed Nansen’s prestige, gravitas, approval, and permission to raise money, and he needed to use the Fram.

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In time, Nansen agreed, the two raised money for an expedition and Amundsen set about personally selecting a small crew to consist of experienced sailors, dog-sledders, skiers, etc. In that time that it took to raise money, international events took a twist, as it became known that Robert Falcon Scott (Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge, UK) intended to attempt the South Pole in 1911-12. Amundsen saw a perfect opportunity to divert Fram to his own secret desire to reach 90°S. In 1910, Fram left Christiania by night (partly to avoid detection by creditors) but instead of turning right at the exit from the Baltic to the North Sea, turned left (southward). The Fram crossed the Equator, and continued through the stormy South Atlantic to Bay of Whales at the edge of the great ice barrier. A stormy voyage was followed by a stormier falling out among the members of the third Fram expedition once the Boss began to weed out the party members who would make the south polar attempt. Most disappointed and angered by the “Boss’s” ham-fisted diplomacy and leadership was Hjalmar Johansen, Nansen’s companion for 17 months of sledging and kayaking to Cape Flora from the Fram in 1895-96. This picture captured the strange event of Fram and Terra Nova (Scott’s supply ship) temporarily moored in Bay of Whales together in 1911. The respective commanders never met. Scott’s tragedy of coming in second, then perishing on his return is well-known.

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The Canadian Arctic Expedition CAE of 1913-1918 is a strange, anomalous piece of history that features mishaps and misunderstandings. In overall charge of this operation, which involved several small steam & sail vessels was the controversial and complex character, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who was born William Stephenson in Manitoba to an Icelandic couple, and who as a young man chose to convert his name back to Icelandic format, There is much controversy and recrimination involved with Stefansson’s long career. Canada was becoming concerned about its real or practical sovereignty over Arctic lands that the Dominion considered belonged to it. Somehow, the CAE was meant to clarify sovereignty issues in the western part of the Canadian Arctic in the Beaufort Sea. The Karluk, pictured here, was to lash up with two or three other ships east of Alaska to survey lands and islands in the Beaufort. But Karluk was nipped near Flaxman Island off Alaska, was carried off westward…

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…and crushed and sunk near where the Jeannette was nipped in 1879, just east of Wrangel Island in the Russian Chukchi Sea.

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Stefansson left the Karluk soon after her entrapment in ice with two companions for the expressed purpose of hunting for caribou and other game onshore, and bringing back local foods for the crew in case they were icebound for the winter. His account stresses that the hunting party returned, only to find that Karluk had been blown impossibly far to the west for them to reach. I’m hoping to spend time considering “Stef” and whether he was a scoundrel or not, in a later edition of this course.

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Meanwhile, we are far from having finished with Roald Amundsen. After hijacking the Fram for her third Expedition to the “wrong” Pole, Amundsen, like Nansen himself, and millions in Europe, was distracted by the developing winds of war, the Great War, or WW I. Already, soon after his successful trek to the South Pole in 1912, Amundsen became convinced that aircraft would soon be the way to conquer and explore polar regions. He learned to fly, but had to put that on hold during the war. The Great War emphatically ended the European version of Gilded Age 1 (La Belle Epoque) but as economic recovery stirred, aircraft technology began to re-assert its attractiveness to exploration-minded folks. Finally connected to a wealthy patron in the American, Lincoln Ellsworth, Amundsen purchased two Dornier Wal flying boats in 1924 and prepared them to fly from Spitsbergen toward 90° N in 1925. Known simply as N24 and N25, the two airplanes set off with 3 men aboard each airplane. They needed to come down on water when they believed they were close to the Pole, so that they could take a sextant reading. They found that they were still 200 km short of the Pole. N24 turned out to have been damaged on takeoff from Spitsbergen, and began to sink after touching down. Its crew threw everything of value onto sea ice and trekked several km to the lead in which N25, piloted by Riiser-Larsen had landed. The six men decided to try flying back to Svalbard in the one remaining Dornier, but had to make an ice and snow runway, and lighten the load to barest essentials. They managed to take off and make it back, some 26 days after leaving Kings Bay. People there had given them up for lost.

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The next year (1926) Amundsen decided to try using a dirigible, a semi-rigid airship as a way to reach 90°N. The Italians had developed powered lighter-than-air technology to a greater degree than any other nation, so Norway arranged to buy an Italian airship for Amundsen, with money provided by Lincoln Ellsworth. As with the year before on the near miss with Dornier flying boats, Ellsworth’s conditions for patronage included that he was to be a participant. Here’s the scene at the formal transfer of the airship, Norge (Norway) from Fascist Italy to Norway.

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Amundsen, Nobile, Ellsworth, all made it to the North Pole in 1926, then kept on flying until they came down in Teller Alaska, where the Norge was deflated of its hydrogen.

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During their 26 days on the polar pack ice in 1925, Amundsen and Ellsworth had plenty of time to reflect on the virtues of dirigibles compared to fixed wing aircraft as potential conveyances to achieve the North Pole. By 1926, however, more and more aviators were drawn to the use of faster-moving fixed-wing aircraft. In Alaska, Sir Hubert Wilkins of Australia and Carl Ben Eielson of Fairbanks had teamed up, and were exploring the ice north of Alaska by airplane for any undiscovered lands in the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean. They had plenty of mishaps along the way, but were not deterred, despite having to walk home several times when their equipment was not up to the task. While Amundsen, Nobile, and their crew were waiting on weather, to launch the Norge, Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett arrived at King’s Bay in their fixed wing aircraft for an assault on the Pole. Upon their return, Amundsen cheerfully congratulated the pair on their claim to have reached the North Pole. For many years, Richard Byrd was acclaimed as the first aerial conqueror of both the North Pole and the South Pole. But his North Pole attainment has been thrown into serious doubt by more recent analyses of the pair’s logbook and broken sextant. One possible reason for Amundsen’s gracious welcoming of Byrd and Bennett back from their flight was genuine relief: had they gone missing, or overdue, Amundsen would have felt compelled to go searching for them using the Norge.

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