Explorations Between the Barents Sea and the Bering Strait: Reporting on the Pursuit of the Northeast Passage

ABSTRACT

The cartographic unveiling of the Northeast Passage was a continuous and cosmopolitan process from the 1820s (Novaya Zemlya) to the 1910s (Severnaya Zemlya). Milestones including the ship expeditions Tegetthoff, Vega, and Jeannette are discussed from the angle of contemporary coverage in German geography journals.

KEYWORDS:

• Northeast passage
• Novaya Zemlya
• Franz Josef Land
• Severnaya Zemlya
• New Siberian Islands
• Wrangel Island
• Bering Strait
• history of cartography
• German language geography journals

Notes on contributor

Imre Josef Demhardt is a geographer and a historian interested in post-enlightenment cartography, colonialism and regional studies focusing on the Arctic, Africa and the Americas. His publications include the exhibition catalogue Der Erde ein Gesicht geben. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen und die Entstehung der modernen Geographie in Deutschland (2006) and the anthology Die Arktis (2016). Imre currently serves as co-editor of Vol. 5 (Nineteenth Century) of University of Chicago encyclopedia History of Cartography and as Chair of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography.

Notes

1 For an in-depth discussion of Arctic explorations in the nineteenth century, including the Northeast Passage, as reported in German geographical journals see Imre Josef Demhardt (2016) “Aus allen Weltteilen Die Arktis”. Springer Spektrum, Berlin/Heidelberg.

2 Since 1594, the Dutch pilot Willem Barentsz (c. 1550–1597) pushed for the Northeast-Passage, thereby discovering Novaya Zemlya (for Western Europe) on July 10, 1595. Following its western coasts northwards, drift ice forced him to turn back. The second attempt in 1596 got his ship to Northeast Cape, where ice not only prevented him from entering the Kara Sea, but also forced the crew to make the first recorded wintering by Western Europeans in Arctic latitudes.

3 Medieval Russian fishing vessels.

4 As in all quotes, the author has translated the original German into English, thereby trying to preserve some of the old-fashioned style of reporting.

5 Ferdinand von Wrangel in 1817–1819, together with Lütke, participated in Golovnin's circumnavigation on board of Kamchatka. After a couple of expeditions in 1829–1835, he served as Governor-General of Russian America Alaska, 1840–1847 as Principal of the in 1799 founded monopolizing trading firm Russian-American Company. In 1845, together with Lütke and von Baer, he was one of the founding members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in Sankt Petersburg.

6 Long refers to the Hawaii Islands from where his report was transmitted into the world.

7 Traditional Slavic term for a high-ranking administrator.

8 Bennet Island, which measures only about 150 square km and rises up to 426 m, is by far the largest of the five small islands of the so-called de Long (sub-)group of the New Siberian Islands.

9 Payer was a member of the Second German North Polar-Expedition 1869–1870 to the eastern shores of Greenland, where by dog sled he had reached 77° 2’ N, then the highest degree of latitude on that coast.

10 Nordenskiöld in 1858 became head of the Mineralogical Collections in Stockholm and in the same year began with Arctic expeditions. On the fourth expedition on board the mail steamer Sofia on September 19, 1868, he reached 81° 42′ N, the highest latitude achieved by ship until then. In 1870, he ventured into Greenland's inland ice shield and in 1872–1873 made one of the earliest recorded winterings on Svalbard.

11 The discoverer by the same name already in 1742 had reached the northernmost point of Siberia by means of an overland trip.