Abstract
AbstractThe indirect cause of death of the three members of the Andrée balloon expedition on White Island in early October 1897 was the ice drift during their attempted retreat after the forced landing at 82°56′N 29°52′E. They initially tried to reach Cape Flora to the southeast of their current position in the Arctic pack ice even though they could deduce from prior explorers’ experience that the expected long-term direction of the ice drift in the area would be to the southwest. However, when they finally turned towards the Seven Islands in the southwest, the ice unexpectedly began to drift in a southeasterly direction. In this paper, trigonometrical methods are used to derive more precise measures of the ice drift the expedition members actually experienced, based on their own position fixes and their own descriptions of their marches. The results confirm that they were exposed to a southwesterly ice drift, on average, during the weeks they were trying to head southeast, and to a southeasterly ice drift, on average, during the weeks they were trying to head southwest. Hence, the disastrous ending of the expedition was, at least to some extent, a result of bad luck.
Highlights
In 1897, the Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée, together with his colleagues Nils Strindberg and Knut Frænkel, tried to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. They departed on 11 July from Danes Island (Danskøya in Norwegian) in the northwestern part of Svalbard, but hydrogen leakage in combination with moisture and ice on the balloon forced them to land on the Arctic pack ice at 82°56 0N 29°52 0E after less than three days in the air (Andrée, Strindberg, & Frænkel, 1931)
While this general pattern of actual ice drift during the two parts of the march across the ice, has been known ever since the diaries were found in 1930, this paper provides detailed approximations of the speed and direction of ice drift between all positions they fixed during their time on the ice, verifying the erratic pattern that Arctic ice drift is known to exhibit in the short term
306.0 and Frænkel tried to reach Franz Josef Land, the ice basically drifted towards Svalbard, but during the period they tried to reach Svalbard, the ice they travelled on drifted largely towards Franz Josef Land
Summary
In 1897, the Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée, together with his colleagues Nils Strindberg and Knut Frænkel, tried to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon They departed on 11 July from Danes Island (Danskøya in Norwegian) in the northwestern part of Svalbard, but hydrogen leakage in combination with moisture and ice on the balloon forced them to land on the Arctic pack ice at 82°56 0N 29°52 0E after less than three days in the air (Andrée, Strindberg, & Frænkel, 1931).
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