Most northerly latitude reached by explorers before the conquest of the North Pole
Farthest North
describes the most northerly latitude reached by explorers, before the first successful expedition to the
North Pole
rendered the expression obsolete. The
Arctic
polar regions are much more accessible than those of the
Antarctic
, as continental land masses extend to high latitudes and sea voyages to the regions are relatively short.
Early voyages
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The most northerly point of mainland Europe,
Knivskjellodden
in Norway, lies at
71° 11' N
. War and trade had led to voyages between western Norway and Northern Russia around Knivskjellodden and the
North Cape
since at least the 15th Century.
John Davis
on his third voyage to seek the
Northwest Passage
in 1587 sailed up the Strait that
bears his name
, between
Greenland
and
Baffin Island
, to a latitude of
72° 12' N
.
[1]
A Dutch expedition led by
Willem Barentz
, attempting the
Northeast Passage
reached
79° 49’N
on
16 June 1596
, on the NW coast of
Spitsbergen
.
[2]
In 1607,
Henry Hudson
probably reached Hakluyt's Headland (a little south of the latitude reached by Barentz), but could not proceed further as ice lay packed along
Spitsbergen
's north coast.
In 1612, an explorer from
Hull
,
Thomas Marmaduke
, claimed to have reached 82°N, while Dutch explorers in 1614 and 1624 claimed to have sailed even further north to 83°N.
These latter claims lack basis in fact, with the second, made by
Joris Carolus
, impossible knowing ice conditions that season; although Marmaduke did at least reach Grahuken, at
79° 48′N
. English whalers reached
Svalbard
's Nordkapp at
80° 32′N
, in or before 1622, as shown on the
Muscovy Company's Map
of 1625. The
Seven Islands
, at
80° 49′N
, north of
Nordaustlandet
, were first marked on a Dutch map of 1663, but were allegedly reached by a ship of
Enkhuizen
as early as 1618.
In 1707, the Dutch whaler
Cornelis Giles
rounded the northernmost point of Nordaustlandet in Svalbard, passing 81°N.
In 1806, the
Resolution
of Whitby, under William Scoresby, Sr, was said to have sailed north of the Seven Islands and reached
81° 50′N
.
Nineteenth century
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One of the first expeditions with the explicit purpose of reaching the North Pole was that of
Sir William Edward Parry
in 1827, who reached
82° 45′N
, a record that stood for decades.
Sir Albert Hastings Markham
, a member of the
British Arctic Expedition
of 1875 was the next one to get closer to the pole 48 years later, when he reached a latitude of
83° 20′26″N
by a dog sledge.
Adolphus Greely
's
Lady Franklin Bay Expedition
bested Markham by a few miles, reaching
83° 24′N
in 1882.
In 1895, Norwegians
Fridtjof Nansen
and
Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen
reached
latitude
86° 14′N
. In 1900,
Umberto Cagni
of the
Italian Royal Navy
left the base camp established by
Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
, and reached latitude
86° 34′N
on April 25, beating Nansen's 1895 mark by 35 to 40 kilometres (22 to 25 mi).
[
citation needed
]
Cook and Peary
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Two American explorers claimed to reach the North Pole;
Frederick Cook
in 1908 and
Robert Peary
in 1909. Cook's claim was soon judged to be fraudulent, and Peary was credited as the discoverer of the North Pole for much of the 20th century. In recent decades, however, Peary's claim has become
the subject of controversy
,
[8]
though he did set a new record for Farthest North ? his support party was dismissed at
87° 45′N
. With Peary's claim accepted at the time, overland expeditions to the North Pole came to an end.
Roald Amundsen
of Norway redirected his planned Arctic expedition and instead aimed for the South Pole, which he
achieved in 1911
.
Wilkins?Ellsworth expedition
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In 1931, an expedition led by
Sir Hubert Wilkins
and
Lincoln Ellsworth
and partly financed by
William Randolph Hearst
attempted to reach the North Pole with a leased US Navy submarine named
Nautilus
, formerly the USS
O-12
. The
Nautilus
was modified for under ice operations by submarine designer
Simon Lake
so it could detect openings (or, if necessary, drill them) in the ice pack and surface to recharge her batteries. While the expedition was a failure, the
Nautilus
did reach a latitude of 82 degrees north. In accordance with the lease agreement, the
Nautilus
was scuttled after the expedition to prevent her reuse as a warship.
Conquest
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On 9 May 1926,
Richard Evelyn Byrd
attempted to fly over the North Pole in an airplane. He was widely credited with achieving this, but his claim subsequently became subject to doubt.
Finally, on
12 May 1926
, the airship
Norge
carried
Roald Amundsen
and fifteen other men including the craft's designer and pilot
Umberto Nobile
, helmsman
Oscar Wisting
, navigator
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen
, and the expedition's sponsor,
Lincoln Ellsworth
, over the North Pole, en route from
Spitsbergen
to
Alaska
, the first achievement of the Pole about which there is no controversy.
The first person definitely to set foot on the Pole was the Russian
Alexander Kuznetsov
, who landed an aircraft there in 1948.
On
3 August 1958
, a US Navy submarine, also named
USS
Nautilus
, was the first to sail under the ice pack to reach the North Pole. On
17 March 1959
, the
USS
Skate
became the first submarine to surface at the North Pole.
Ralph Plaisted
and his three companions, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, are regarded by most polar authorities to be the first to succeed in a surface traverse by snowmobile across the ice to the North Pole on 20 April 1968, making the first confirmed surface conquest of the Pole before being airlifted out.
On 6 April 1969, British explorer
Sir Wally Herbert
became the first person to indubitably reach the Pole on foot, having sledged from Alaska. His expedition was supported by air drops.
See also
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References
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Sources
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External links
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