Arctic Explorations
The first explorer to reach as far north as the Arctic Circle may have been the Greek navigator Pytheas, in the fourth century B.C. Irish monks in the sixth century A.D. and Norsemen beginning in the ninth century also sailed to the Arctic Circle and settled on islands in the North Atlantic and Arctic waters. Intensive exploration of the Arctic regions did not begin, however, until the mid-16th century, when Europeans began seeking new trade routes to the Far East.
Northwest and Northeast Passages. The English and the Dutch were in the forefront of the search for the Northwest Passage (a sea route along the northern coast of North America to the Pacific Ocean). Martin Frobisher, often called the first real Arctic explorer, sailed along the western coast of Greenland in an attempt to locate a northern passage in 1576. His voyage, although unsuccessful, stimulated others.
Carefully planned expeditions were organized to penetrate the uncharted Arctic regions. In 1585 John Davis, an English sea captain, sailed into the strait later named for him. In 1596 Willem Barents, a Dutch navigator, reached Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and was credited with its discovery, although it is likely that Vikings had been there first.
In 1607 Henry Hudson of the English Muscovy Company sailed farther north than had anyone before him. Attempting to find a passage to the Pacific by way of the northern coast of Asia (the Northeast Passage), he discovered the island later called Jan Mayen. On a voyage to the northwest, he located Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, 1610-11. In 1616 William Baffin, an English explorer, sailed through Davis Strait into what is now Baffin Bay.
Reports by Hudson and other explorers of whales, seals, and walruses in the Arctic waters caused polar exploration to become secondary to the development of fisheries in the area during the 17th and early 18th centuries. Sealers and whalers, in turn, discovered new islands while plying the Arctic.
Exploration of the Bering Strait in 1728 by Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of Russia, renewed interest in a passage over the "top of the world." However, not until 1773 and the British expedition of Constantine Phipps did anyone reach a point farther north than that reached by Henry Hudson more than a century and a half earlier.
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars early in the 19th century, times were favorable for accelerated exploration of the polar region. Men and ships were available, and important advances in maritime technology had been made. During 1819-25, William Parry, a British naval officer, led three expeditions in search of a Northwest Passage. In 1827 he made the first overland attempt to reach the North Pole, coming to within 437 miles (703 km) of the Pole by sledge.
In 1847 the expedition under the experienced polar explorer Sir John Franklin was lost when seeking a northwest route. Numerous search parties were sent to the Arctic, arousing widespread interest in the region. One rescue expedition led by Robert McClure became the first to locate a Northwest Passage (one of several eventually discovered), although crossing partly on foot, 1850-54.
During 1878-79, the Swedish explorer Nils Nordenskjöld successfully navigated the Northeast Passage. He sailed along the Siberian coast from Scandinavia to the Bering Strait. A Northwest Passage from Greenland along the Canadian Arctic coast to the Bering Strait was finally navigated by ship by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, 1903-06.
Many attempts to reach the North Pole were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1896 Fridtjof Nansen of Norway traveled by kayak, by dogsled, and on foot to within about 225 miles (362 km) of the Pole.
The first man credited with reaching the Pole was Robert E. Peary. Peary, accompanied on his expedition by Matthew Henson and four Eskimos, claimed to have reached the Pole on April 6, 1909. The first airplane flight over the Pole was credited to Richard E. Byrd in 1926. A dirigible flight was made a few days later by Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth of the United States, and Umberto Nobile of Italy.
(Questions have been raised concerning the authenticity of the claims of both Peary and Byrd. The claim of yet another explorer—Frederick A. Cook of New York, who said he reached the Pole in 1908—is rejected by most historians.)
As late as the mid-1940's, much of the Arctic remained unmapped and unexplored, challenging scientists and explorers from many nations. Also, the strategic military importance of the region caused some countries, particularly the United States and the Soviet Union, to expand their Arctic programs. Research and communication stations were constructed not only on the polar ice cap and on lands within the Arctic Circle, but also on ice islands adrift in Arctic waters. (The United States discovered the first such island, T-1, in 1946.)
During the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58, and International Years of the Quiet Sun, 1964-65, many nations cooperated in studying and mapping the region.
In addition to its scientific and military importance, the Arctic has value as a travel route. In 1952 the first commercial transarctic flight, from Los Angeles to Copenhagen, was made. Soon polar flights became commonplace. The feasibility of using the shortest undersea route between the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans—under the Arctic ice cap—was demonstrated by the voyage of the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus in 1958.
In 1969 the United States tanker Manhattan navigated the Northwest Passage to demonstrate that the route could be used for oil shipments. In 1977 the Soviet ship Arktika became the first surface vessel to reach the Pole.
