The history of the search for Sannikov's Land resembles a chase after a mirage. But not in a sandy, but in an icy desert.
Go for it, midshipman
Since the end of the 17th century, the discovery of new islands in the Arctic Ocean has usually been carried out by Russian hunters hunting for mammoth bones. In search of prehistoric animals buried in the permafrost, they moved further and further beyond the line of the Arctic Circle.
The merchant Yakov Sannikov was just such a fisherman. During one of the expeditions, at the beginning of the 19th century, he observed "high stone mountains" from the northern coast of Kotelny Island (the largest of the Novosibirsk Islands), which he could not reach because of the huge open hole that blocked his path.
In 1810, Matvey Gedenshtrom, who was responsible for geodetic surveys in the Siberian General Government, marked a special zone on the map, marking it as "the lands seen by Sannikov."
The fisherman's story was confirmed by the strange behavior of birds, flocks of which flew somewhere north in the spring and returned with their offspring in the fall.
This phenomenon could be explained only by assuming that to the north of Kotelny there is indeed a land mass with a warmer climate than in other (even to the south) Arctic regions. This - hypothetically existing - land began to be called Sannikov Land.
Promotional video:
The expedition of Lieutenant Peter Anjou, equipped in 1820 by the Ministry of the Navy, was supposed to clarify this phenomenon, among other tasks. But Anjou, finding himself on the northern coast of Kotelny Island, did not see any land on the horizon.
In 1879, the expedition of the American George Delong set off on the schooner Jeannette through the Bering Strait to the North Pole. The schooner was crushed, and travelers trying to reach the mainland froze on the way. However, as it became clear from the found diaries of Delong, on the way he discovered a group of islands, one of which he named after the sponsor of the expedition - Bennett Island.
The version that these islands were part of the Sannikov Land, in fact, did not hold up to criticism - they were too far from Kotelny Island. But the theme came up again.
And even Alexander III, at one of the issues of the Marine Corps, remembered Sannikov Land, throwing out the appeal: “Whoever opens this invisible land will belong to him. Go for it, midshipman! They dared.
Dawn goes to the North
A graduate of the University of Dorpat, Baron Eduard Toll, was convinced of the existence of a whole continent at the North Pole - Arctida, of which Sannikov Land, in his opinion, was a part. In 1886, he took part in an expedition to the New Siberian Islands and, standing practically at the same place as Sannikov, observed the outlines of four mountains connected to the ground. It remained to get to her.
In 1893, Toll was sent to explore the coast of the East Siberian Sea, and at the same time to lay warehouses for the planned expedition of the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen. And again he saw (albeit much to the south) what he called “Sannikov Land”. Or did he just dream about it? After all, Nansen, who in the same summer sailed in his "Fram" north of the Novosibirsk Islands, did not find any Sannikov Land.
But Toll was not convinced, and in 1899 he launched in the Russian Geographical Society a project of his own expedition, which was to spend two wintering in the Arctic: one on Taimyr, and the second on Sannikov Land.
The treasury allocated 240 thousand rubles for the equipment of the expedition. On the advice of Nansen, Baron Toll acquired the three-masted barque "Harald the Fair-Hair", built in 1873 in Norway, 44 meters long and 10.2 meters wide.
The ship, renamed "Zarya", was re-equipped, reinforcing the hull with props, insulating the premises, and conducting electricity. The crew consisted of 13 sailors. Lieutenant Nikolai Kolomeitsev became Toll's deputy as the head of the expedition. Zoological research was entrusted to Alexei Birula, astronomical research to Friedrich Seeberg, hydrological and meteorological research to Lieutenants Fyodor Matisen and Alexander Kolchak.
Heavy forebodings
Zarya left Petersburg on June 21, 1900, overwintered in Taimyr, and in September of the following year reached the area of the supposed Sannikov Land. And here Toll got nervous, as can be seen from his notes: "The shallow depths speak of the proximity of the earth, but until now it is not visible … I have heavy forebodings creeping in."
I didn't want to part with the dream. When the fog that covered the sea made further searches meaningless, Toll was relieved: "Now it is perfectly clear that one could have passed the Sannikov Land ten times without noticing it."
The sea was covered with ice, and we had to stand for the winter. The members of the expedition were engaged in scientific observations, but the main question - Sannikov Land - continued to hang in the air. And on June 5, 1902, Toll decided to go hiking. He was accompanied by Seeberg and two local hunters - Vasily Gorokhov and Nikolai Dyakonov.
The route passed from Kotelny to Faleevsky Island, then to Cape Vysoky and then a hundred versts along the ice to Bennett Island.
The Zarya, freed from the ice captivity, was to sail further south and take Toll and his companions at the final point of the route. However, due to the damage received, the schooner had to go to Tiksi Bay.
In the spring of 1903, Kolchak set off on a whaleboat along the route of Baron Toll and in August landed on Bennett Island. Later he said: “We found a pile of stones, which contained a bottle with a note with a schematic plan of the island, indicating that there were documents. Guided by this, we very soon, in the coming days, made our way to the place where Baron Toll and his party were on this island. There we found collections, geological instruments, scientific ones that were with Baron Toll, and then that short document that gave the latest information about the fate of Baron Toll."
This is a note dated October 26, 1902: “We are going south today. We have provisions for 14-20 days. Everyone is healthy. E. Toll.
Not finding the "Dawn", the baron and his companions tried to reach the mainland themselves and died, either falling into the wormwood, or freezing.
The disappeared island
Toll's expedition destroyed the legend of Sannikov Land, although everything was finally determined in 1937, when the zone of its supposed location was combed up and down by the Sadko icebreaker and polar aviation.
But couldn’t she just dream about Sannikov and Toll? In theory, the mountains on the horizon could be giant icebergs, but why did the birds fly to them? These questions tormented the famous geologist Vladimir Obruchev, who tried to answer them in the novel Sannikov's Land (1926).
The book dealt with an island with a huge extinct volcanic crater, in which prehistoric animals lived, as well as two warring tribes. In the book's finale, the island died as a result of the eruption of an awakened volcano. Later, this plot formed the basis of the film of the same name.
However, another version is more likely. Sannikov's land was an island, stones and soil of which lay on a deep-sea ice base. This ice was formed from ancient fresh waters, and the alluvial soil protected it from melting.
External cataclysms could destroy the integrity of the protective layer, as a result of which the ice nevertheless melted and the island plunged into the depths of the sea. It is significant that the ocean depth in the area of the supposed location of Sannikov Land is much smaller than in the adjacent water areas.
It turns out that the Sannikov Land existed, but died before Baron Toll tried to get to it. In this case, fate and nature played a cruel joke with Toll. But who could have guessed that islands sometimes die before people?
Oleg Pokrovsky