THE REAL HERO OF THE NORTH-WEST

PASSAGE

HAD the North-West Passage been discovered a hundred years ago the world would have rung with the name of its illustrious discoverer ; yet on a quest in which Sir John Franklin lost his life, and where Sir Leopold McClintock failed, a Scandinavian named Amunsden, in a tiny sealing craft named the Gjöa, with a little crew of six men all told, has in this twentieth century unostentatiously succeeded.

Singularly and strangely silent, too, has the journalistic press been upon this remarkable achievement, and I doubt, beyond the small minority of interested geographers, if the great world of sensation-hunters outside are even aware that this noteworthy landmark in the world's history has at last been reached.

To geographers the event has been a red letter one indeed, and Captain Amunsden has received the Patron's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, for his intrepid journey through Arctic ice and magnetic regions in the cause of science, and the clearing up of one more uncertainty in the universe of scientific minds.

The event so unostentatiously accomplished is full of interesting detail, and worthy of more enduring reference than the few brief lines I am able here to devote to it. Though Amunsden has achieved what others have hoped for and failed, and for which men have waited and watched for centuries, yet his success was only an accompaniment to his main project—that of reaching and making observations in the vicinity of the North Magnetic Pole. With one stone he has reached the two birds! But it is not of what perhaps might be described as the greater achievement which I desire to speak, but of the lesser, yet possibly the more popular one, that of having safely pioneered his little craft through the Arctic floes-leaving the Atlantic Ocean at the coast of Greenland, passing by water North of the great American Continent for the first time, and emerging at the other side of the Western hemisphere, from the Behring Strait into the wide Pacific!

His vessel, the Gjöa, unlike the Fram, was not built specially for his purpose. It was quite an old barque, having been launched at

Hardanger as far back as 1872; but it was both trusty and tried, having done excellent work in the herring fisheries on the Norwegian coast, and afterwards in the Arctic sealing trade.

In the early morning of the 17th of June, 1903, the Gjöa's anchor was weighed at Christiania, and after crossing the turbulent Atlantic in his little craft, Cape Farewell, the extreme southern point of Greenland, was sighted on the 11th of July. On the 15th of August he reached Dalrymple Rock, in the vicinity of Baffin Bay, where he received a large consignment left by two Scotchmen, Captains Milne and Adams. Here he fell in with the Danish Literary Greenland Expedition, and with them he and his crew spent some days of rest, before proceeding to the kernel of their adventurous quest.

Of the entire crew of the Gjöa and their qualifications some mention should be made. In command was Captain Roald Amunsden, who had entered into his project with a thoroughness and self-disinterestedness which amongst explorers it is difficult to match. In the first place we are told by Sir George Taubman Goldie that he had put himself under the tuition of Dr. Von Neumayer, one of the greatest living authorities on magnetism, and devoted a long period to the study of the subject in order to qualify for his observations on terrestrial magnetism; he then went as first officer of the Belgica to the Antarctic regions for two years, purchasing and carefully selecting his magnetic instruments beforehand. Dr. Nansen's tribute to Amunsden sums up his thoroughness in a few words.

He was the man [he said] who planned the Expedition; and he had learnt the secret of success in Arctic expeditions, that is, in planning first, and then in preparation. The first thing he did was to learn to make his scientific observations, the next to purchase his instruments, the third to buy his ship. It is generally the opposite with explorers. They go first for the ship and then are satisfied with what scientific information they can obtain before they start.

But it was not in scientific knowledge alone that Amunsden had made his preparations. He had gathered all the information which in a journey of the sort it was necessary for him to know, and in the failure of others he had gathered strength. In his address in February last to the Royal Geographical Society on his return he is particularly unassuming, and I may say almost apologetic in his

tone.

To Sir John Franklin [he remarked] must be given the honour to have discovered that there was a North-West Passage; to Admiral Sir Robert McClure, that of being the first to pass through it, partly in his vessel the Investigator and partly on foot.

However, it is only the humility of a great nature like Amunsden's which desires to share what undoubtedly are his laurels alone, and what he accomplished by water alone, for McClure's overland journey cannot be described as a passage, even allowing that he may have suspected, if not been really aware, that the passage did exist.

On the foundations laid by the splendid work done [said Amunsden], and the rich fund of experience gained by English navigators in these regions, I succeeded in the track of Sir James Ross, Dr. John Rae, Sir Leopold McClintock, Sir Allen Young and many others, in making my way in the Gjöa to the region round the earth's North Magnetic Pole, and furthermore in sailing through the North-West Passage in its entirety! If I have been the first to sail through the North-West Passage, it is with pleasure that I share the honour with those brave English seamen, who here, as in most other parts of the world, have taken the lead and shown us the way.

Of the rest of the crew, all were selected by Captain Amunsden. His second in command was Lieutenant Godfred Hansen of the Danish Navy. He was the navigator of the expedition; astronomer, geologist, surgeon, photographer, electrician, and expert in dealing with explosives, also, as Amunsden humorously observed, he played starparts,' as meteorologist and magnetician. Next came Gustav Juel Wiik, who was the one life sacrificed in the journey, and that regrettably almost within sight of home. He was the second engineer and left most valuable notes of magnetic observation and research behind him, made during the expedition. He had qualified previously at the Observatory at Potsdam. The first engineer was Sergeant Peder Ristveldt, who also filled the role of meteorologist, smith, clockmaker, copper and tinsmith, and gunsmith. The mate of the expedition, Anton Lund, the veteran of the band, being born at Tromsö in 1864, graduated in the Norwegian sloops of the Arctic Ocean. The second mate, Helma Hansen, had been a fisherman and Arctic navigator. Last of all came the cook, Adolf Henrik Lindström, who had taken part in Sverdrup's expedition in the Fram, and who, as Amunsden described it, 'voluntarily filled the vacant posts of botanist and zoologist, and with his collecting box, his shotgun in his hand, and his butterfly-net, woe to the flower, bird, or insect that came his way on the Arctic summer evenings, once his kitchen-work was ended!'

It will be seen from this that Amunsden had a reliable back to aid him in the accomplishment of his purpose, and the little crew of the little Gjoa were all diplomaed.

After bidding his friends of the Danish Literary Greenland Fund adieu on the 17th of August, the Gjöa made her way across Baffin Bay, sighting the Carey Islands. She was deeply laden and had at this time (having acquired stores), as Amunsden describes it, a skyscraping deck cargo,' as well as eighteen dogs shipped at Godhavn. Fortunately the weather was fine and the sea smooth. Here he met icebergs, and the land seemed extremely barren. On the 22nd of August the expedition reached Beechey Island, where are situated the ruins of a house erected by the British Government for the relief of the Franklin Expedition. Here were also five graves of members of the relief party as well as a handsome marble tablet to the memory of Sir John Franklin, erected by his wife.

On the 24th the Gjoa entered Peel Sound, along which she made a slow progress through the floating ice. On reaching Prescot Island, the compass, which had been capricious for some days, became unmanageable altogether, the northern point dipping and becoming fixed. Still, although a dense fog prevailed, and they were in doubt as to their bearings, they continued their journey, and on the 28th of August reached the spot where Sir Allen Young's vessel, The Pandora, had been blocked by impenetrable ice. Later on the same day they passed the entrance to Bellot Strait, which Sir Leopold McClintock had endeavoured to force and failed. Then came their journey along the coast of what had been named Boothia Felix. Here they met with shoal water, constant fog, and pitch-dark nights, and here they grounded for the first time. After this there followed a period of calm and deep water, with many small islands hitherto unmapped, the previous chart having been made in winter time when land and sea were alike covered with a mantle of ice, and the islands were from this cause indistinguishable. It was during an anchorage at one of these that the progress of the little band nearly came to an abrupt termination, and that they narrowly escaped the fate that had met Sir John Franklin and his party. A cry of 'fire!' rang out one night amid the great Arctic solitude! An ominous pillar of flame was seen by those ashore shooting up from the engine-room skylight, for the Gjöa carried a small petroleum motor, of thirty-nine horse power, which Amunsden had fitted into her to enable them to proceed when there was a lack of wind. There were seven thousand gallons of petroleum on board besides great quantities of gunpowder and other explosives. It looked as if the vessel was fated, and the loss of their vessel meant the loss of their lives, for they were anchored at a small island, with no means of getting to the mainland, and by the time the winter would have frozen a passage across they must inevitably have perished from starvation or exposure. Fortunately poor Wiik, the engineer on watch, had not vacated his post, and he was beheld battling bravely with the overpowering smoke. Those on shore ran with terrorwinged steps to his aid, and by their combined efforts the fire was got under; but it was through Wiik, who lost his own life later on in the expedition, that the lives of the rest of the party were saved and the vessel suffered to achieve her triumph! The fire had arisen through some cotton becoming saturated with petroleum, and, possibly through contact with the engine, igniting. Fortunately the injury sustained was able to be remedied before long, and they were suffered to proceed on their way. After meeting with very rough, dark weather, shoals, rocks and bergs, the Gjëa passed all unharmed in her charmed course, on the 9th of September into a haven of peace and safety at the head of Petersen Bay, in King William Land. This was christened Gjöahavn, or Gjöa Harbour, and here in the neighbourhood of the North Magnetic Pole Amunsden's band devoted nineteen months

to continuous magnetic observations, which were kept up uninterruptedly night and day for this period, the instruments carried by the expedition being of the best that money could buy or experience select. Professor Mohn had equipped the expedition with a complete set of meteorological instruments and seen to the competence of the meteorologist of the expedition, while Dr. Aksel Steen, the Norwegian meteorologist, had been Amunsden's instructor before his departure, and Professor Geelmuyden had attended to the entire astronomical equipment.

In Gjöahavn a nice shelter was afforded to the adventurous little ship by a bank of sand rising 150 feet high and then breaking abruptly away, leaving a small basin of smooth water, where the vessel could lie at anchor in absolute security.

The meeting of the white men with the first Esquimo at this high latitude is very amusing. These Esquimo, who spoke no Esquimo language that any of the party were familiar with, called themselves Ogluli Esquimo. At first they formed themselves in fighting line, but by signs discovering that the Gjöa party's intentions were pacific, they stroked and patted Amunsden and his followers before and behind, and the white men in token of friendliness followed suit, and, as Amunsden observes, 'shouted and howled, patted and slapped to the best of their ability' till the utmost camaraderie prevailed. It was with the Nechjilli Esquimo that they secured the best friends, and this almost unknown race of Esquimo, who visited their happy hunting ground shortly after, became their inseparable allies during the long stay of two winters which they made in this Arctic haven, Of these two tribes Amunsden speaks well, but there was a third tribe he met, called the Ichjuachtorvik Esquimo, whom he describes as thieves, and who stole his store of provisions; he found they could not be trusted as he did their compatriots.

Amunsden's description of the Aurora Borealis, while wintering at Gjöahavn, in this focus of terrestrial magnetism, is worth repeating, and is best told in his own words.

The days had begun to be shorter and the cold sharper. Then came Christmas Eve, the first on board the Gjöa. The weather was splendid; absolutely still, and sparklingly bright. And what a Christmas Eve it was out here! The most glorious Aurora we had yet seen lighted up the entire sky in chasing rays from the horizon towards the zenith. The rays seemed to be racing one another, racing to see which would be the first in the wild chase. Then they all suddenly unite, as if at a given signal and change into the shape of a soft, delicately-formed ribbon, twisting in light and graceful movement. It is as if the unquiet beams had suddenly sought rest. Are they, perhaps, thinking of something new? Then, suddenly the beautiful ribbon is, as it were, torn in many pieces. Again begins the chase. Again the wild flight. It is as if the zenith would now be chosen as the central point of the whole movement. And so it is. Suddenly, as if by magic, the most glorious corona streams forth from it.