List of Arctic expeditions

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gerardus Mercator's 1595 map of the Arctic

This list of Arctic expeditions is a timeline of historic Arctic exploration and explorers of the Arctic.

15th century

16th century

The death of Willem Barentsz

17th century

Thomas Button
  • 1605–1607: Danish-Norwegian king,
    Christian IV of Denmark, sends three expeditions led by John Cunningham, Godske Lindenov and Carsten Richardson (all piloted by James Hall), to search for the lost Eastern Settlement, one of the Norse colonies
    on Greenland
  • 1606: John Knight, who had captained the Katten in 1605 with John Cunningham, dies commanding a joint Muscovy Company/East India Company expedition in search of the Northwest Passage
  • 1607: Henry Hudson explores Spitsbergen
  • 1608: Henry Hudson gets as far as Novaya Zemlya in his attempt to find the Northeast Passage
  • 1609: another unsuccessful attempt by Henry Hudson at finding the Northeast Passage
  • 1610: Jonas Poole thoroughly explores Spitsbergen's west coast, reporting that he saw a "great store of whales"; this report leads to the establishment of the English whaling trade
  • 1610: Russian Kondratiy Kurochkin explores the mouth of the
    Yenisei River
    and the adjoining coast
  • 1610–1611: Henry Hudson reaches Hudson Bay in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage
  • 1612: James Hall and William Baffin explore southwest Greenland
  • 1612–1613: Button expedition, commanded by Thomas Button, in search of the Northwest Passage
  • 1613: Several whaling expeditions, consisting of a total of at least thirty ships from England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands crowd Spitsbergen's west coast
  • 1614: Dutch and French expeditions discover Jan Mayen
  • 1615: Robert Fotherby, in the pinnace Richard, is the first English expedition to reach Jan Mayen
  • 1615: English expedition captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin reaches the Foxe Basin in search of the Northwest Passage
  • 1616: English expedition captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin explores the Davis StraitBaffin Bay region
  • 1619–1620: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by Jens Munk in Enhiørningen (Unicorn) and Lamprenen (Lamprey) to discover the Northwest Passage penetrated Davis Strait as far north as 69°, found Frobisher Bay, spent a winter in Hudson Bay
  • 1633–1634: I. Rebrov explores the mouth of the
    Lena River
  • 1633–1635:
    Yana Rivers
    and intervening coast
  • 1638: I. Rebrov explores coast between the Lena and
    Indigirka Rivers
  • 1641: Dimitry Zyryan and Mikhail Stadukhin explore the mouth of the Indigirka River and adjoining coast
  • 1646: I. Ignatyev explores the mouth of the
    Kolyma River
    and adjoining coast
  • 1648: Ya. Semyonov explores the mouth of
    Kotuy River
    and adjoining coast
  • 1648: Semyon Dezhnev and Fedot Alekseyevich Popov explore from the Kolyma River through the Bering Strait
  • 1649: Mikhail Stadukhin explores the coast from the Kolyma River to the Bering Strait
  • 1676: English expedition led by John Wood fails to find the Northeast Passage
  • 1686–1687: Ivan Tolstoukhov expedition explores the mouth of the Yenisey River and the coast of the Taymyr Peninsula

18th century

Vasily Chichagov

19th century

Ferdinand von Wrangel
John Rae
J. A. D. Jensen
Salomon August Andrée

Early Period (1800–1818)

Ross, Parry and Franklin (1818–1846)

1820s

1830s and 1840s

Search for Franklin (1846–1857)

Nordenskiöld Period (1857–1879)

1860s

1870s

Race for the Pole (1879–1900)

  • 1879–1882: Jeannette expedition commanded by George W. De Long attempts to reach the North Pole by sea from the Bering Strait
  • 1880: Henry W. Howgate leads the Howgate Arctic expedition for scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland
  • 1880: Benjamin Leigh Smith's fourth expedition explores the southwestern area of Franz Josef Land
  • 1881–1882: Benjamin Leigh Smith's final expedition is shipwrecked in Franz Josef Land

International Polar Year

1890s

20th century

Johan Peter Koch
Knud Rasmussen
Georgy Ushakov
David Scott Cowper

Amundsen and the Heroic Age (1900–1925)

Disputed Polar Claims

Byrd and the Aircraft Age (1925–1958)

Polar Conquest

Second International Polar Year

Post-War

Era of Satellites, Submarines and Icebreakers (1958–onward)

  • 1958: USS Nautilus (SSN-571) crosses the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific to the Atlantic beneath the polar sea ice, reaching the North Pole on 3 August 1958
  • 1959: Discoverer 1, a prototype with no camera, is the first satellite in polar orbit[10]
  • 1959: USS Skate (SSN-578) becomes first submarine to surface at the North Pole on 17 March 1959
  • 1960: TIROS-1, is the first weather satellite in polar orbit; eventually returned 22,952 cloud cover photos[11]
  • 1968: Ralph Plaisted and three others reach the North Pole by snowmobile and are the first confirmed overland conquest of the Pole
  • 1968–1969: Wally Herbert, British explorer, reaches Pole on foot and traverses the Arctic Ocean
  • 1971: Former football player Tony Dauksza becomes the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage in a canoe
  • 1977: Arktika, nuclear-powered icebreaker, reaches the North Pole
  • 1979–1982: Kenichi Horie in Mermaid, was the first person to sail the Northwest Passage solo
  • 1982: As part of the Transglobe Expedition Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Charles R. Burton cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season
  • 1986: Will Steger and party reach the north pole by dog sled without resupply
  • 1986–1989: David Scott Cowper became the first person to have completed the Northwest Passage single-handed as part of a circumnavigation of the world
  • 1988: Will Steger completes first south–north traverse of Greenland
  • 1988: Soviet–Canadian 1988 Polar Bridge Expedition a group of thirteen Russian and Canadian skiers set out from Siberia skiing to Canada over the North Pole aided by satellites.
  • 1991-1992: Lonnie Dupre completes first west to east winter crossing of arctic Canada traveling by dog team from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska via the northwest passage before turning south ending in Churchill, Manitoba. The 3000-mile journey started in October and ended in April.
  • 1992: Crossing of the Greenland inland ice from east to west by a Japanese expedition led by Kenji Yoshikawa
  • 1993–1994: Pam Flowers dog sledded alone2,500 mi (4,000 km) from
    Barrow, Alaska, to Repulse Bay (Naujaat), Canada[12]
  • 1994: Shane Lundgren led expedition that began in Moscow and proceeded north of the Arctic Circle across Siberia to Magadan
  • 1995: Marek Kamiński and Wojciech Moskal reached the North Pole on 23 May 1995 (27 December 1995, Marek Kamiński reached the South Pole alone)

21st century

Fiann Paul, Alex Gregory and Carlo Facchino ocean rowing aboard Polar Row.

See also

Footnotes

  1. . Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. ^ Roots, Fred (14 March 2017). "Why the North Pole matters: An important history of challenges and global fascination". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  3. ^ Beechey, F. W. (1843). A Voyage Of Discovery Towards The North Pole, Performed In His Majesty's Ships Dorothea And Trent, Under The Command Of Captain David Buchan, R. N., 1818. London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  4. ^ *An Officer Of The Expedition (1821). Letters Written During The Later Voyage Of Discovery In The Western Arctic Sea. London: Sir Richard Phillips And Co. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  5. ^ "Polar Discovery". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  6. ^ King, Richard (1836). Narrative Of A Journey To The Shores Of The Arctic Ocean In 1833, 1834, and 1835; Under The Command Of Capt. Back, R. N., Volume I. London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  7. ^ King, Richard (1836). Narrative Of A Journey To The Shores Of The Arctic Ocean In 1833, 1834, and 1835; Under The Command Of Capt. Back, R. N., Volume II. London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  8. ^ Sonntag, August (1865). Professor Sonntag's Thrilling Narrative Of The Grinnell Exploring Expedition To The Arctic Ocean In The Years 1853, 1854, and 1855 In Search of Sir John Franklin, Under The Command of Dr. E. K. Kane, U.S.N. Philadelphia: Jas. T. Lloyd & Co. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  9. ^ "Charles Everett Ranlett Papers". Williams College Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  10. ^ Discoverer 1
  11. ^ "POES Project Timeline". NASA. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012.
  12. ^ Alone Across The Arctic
  13. ^ "Jean Lemire Chief of mission". 1000jours.canald.com. Canal D. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  14. ^ Dougary, Ginny (May 20, 2003). "Pen Hadow makes history by walking solo to the North Pole". The Times. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  15. ^ "Polar Row". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  16. ^ "Freezing Temps and Rotting Hands: Speaking With the Men of the Record-Breaking Polar Row Expedition". Men's Journal. Retrieved 2017-10-05.