Aeronautics -- Flights; Arctic regions; North Pole
We have plenty to do in the hut. Roasting, cooking and making coffee
the whole day, but we have plenty of time to look at the remains of
André and Wellmann’s expedition equipment, which lies spread about in
the valley where the hut stands. They are not just small things. The
apparatus they used to make the gas for filling the balloon, which is
lost forever, and the airship, which fell down immediately after the
start, lie in a heap, rusted and weather-stained during the passage
of time. Heaps of cases filled with filings, damaged acid-balloons and
heaps of timber from the collapsed balloon sheds lie spread about.
On the lids of the packing cases we can still read the half-blurred
addresses. In Wellmann’s house the stonework is still standing
practically untouched, and there is a kitchen range which looks much
better than the old trumpery one we have in our hut. The other part of
the house has disappeared--until some years ago it was still there, but
then it was stolen (in the true sense of the word). An enterprising
skipper who had bagged no seal that year pulled it down and took all
the timber on board, covering his expenses for the trip (and even more
than that) by selling it all to one of the collieries.
The northwest corner of Spitzbergen is, on the whole, one of the
most classical parts in the history of Arctic expeditions. The first
expedition which started from here for the North Pole was a British
one. Two men-of-war passed here in 1773, but they did not get further
north than 80° 36′ when the ice forced them south again. On board one
of these was Nelson as midshipman, and during this trip he was not far
from being killed by a polar bear. In the following decades several
attempts were made to get northwards from Spitzbergen, but all the
experiences which these expeditions showed was that it was impossible
to reach the great goal from this side by sailing ship. The ice
stretched too far down, and the current turned the boats southwards
as soon as they had got well amongst the ice, so that maneuvering was
difficult. For a long time no attempt was made--the next was André and
Wellmann’s. It was left to Fridtjof Nansen to show the way to the North
Pole, with the “Fram.” This last-named boat when it came out of the ice
in 1896 passed Virgo-havn steering southwards to Norway. That summer
André was on Danskeöen waiting anxiously for a favorable wind to allow
him to start his balloon trip, but it did not take place that year and
it was only in the following summer that he got away.
_Danskeöen. Saturday, June 13th_
Weather fine, calm and clear with slightly blurred sky.
_Danskeöen. Sunday, June 14th_
Same as yesterday.
_Danskeöen. Monday, June 15th_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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