Polar Books Collection

The brainchild of Lt. Karl Weyprecht of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the first International Polar Year (1882–83) represented a remarkable early example of international scientific cooperation in the polar regions. 

A total of 12 countries established 14 stations, 12 in a circumpolar ring in the Arctic and 2 in the SubAntarctic. The United States established stations at Point Barrow, Alaska, and Lady Franklin Bay, Ellesmere Island, and Great Britain (with Canadian assistance) dispatched a party to Fort Rae, on Great Slave Lake. The German stations were at Kingua Fiord, Baffin Island, and at Royal Bay, South Georgia, while the Russian stations were at Malyye Karmakuly, Novaya Zemlya, and at Sagastyr’ in the Lena Delta. The Dutch scientists were bound for Dikson at the mouth of the Yenisey, and the Austro-Hungarians were on Jan Mayen. The Danish station was at Godthåb (Nuuk), Greenland; the Swedish station, at Kapp Thordsen, Svalbard; the Norwegian station, at Bossekop, North Norway; the Finnish station, at Sodankylä, Finland; and the French station, on Isla Hoste, near Cape Horn. 

Each station carried out a standard, synchronized programme of observations for at least one year, the major focus being on meteorology and earth magnetism. Supplementary programmes included studies ranging from ornithology to soil temperatures to ethnography. The entire programme was coordinated by an International Polar Commission, chaired by Professor H. Wild in St. Petersburg.

This book describes in detail all of these expeditions, as well as several auxiliary operations. It records the problems of logistics involved in the scientists’ reaching the various sites and the considerable hardships suffered by some of them. The extreme case was that of the American expedition, under Lt. Adolphus W. Greely, which was stranded on desolate Pim Island in Nares Strait during its retreat south from Lady Franklin Bay. Only six of the 25 expedition members survived that desperate winter of 1883–84. Potentially equally disastrous were the experiences of the Dutch expedition, whose ship, Varna, became beset in the ice of the Kara Sea and was ultimately crushed. The Dutch scientists retreated by sledge and boat to Ostrov Vaygach, where they were rescued by two merchant ships.

This is a new edition of a book first published in 1985, also by the Arctic Institute of North America. Research for the first edition was carried out in 1982–83, the centennial of the first International Polar Year.

The book is illustrated with maps and with numerous contemporary photographs and drawings. Photos of the sites of the Lady Franklin Bay and Kingua Fiord stations as they appear today are also included.

William Barr is a senior research associate at the Arctic Institute of North America and a professor emeritus, Department of Geography, University of Saskatchewan.

The author has published 17 books and over 100 articles on the history of polar exploration and is currently working on three more books. In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Historical Association for his contributions to the historiography of the Canadian North.

• Introduction
• Conclusion

The Arctic Institute of North America www.arctic.ucalgary.ca

Published by the Arctic Institute of North America (April 2008)

Softbound, maps and illustrations, xiv+417pp

ISBN: 9781894788038