The North-South civil war interrupted American research in the Arctic for a long time. For a whole 10 years, no attempts were made in the United States to reach the North Pole. Only in 1871 the situation changed. It was decided to send an expedition, which had just such a task - to get to the northernmost point of our planet.
Confidence in victory
A small steamer with a displacement of only 380 tons was equipped for a long and risky voyage. The name "Polaris", assigned to the ship, clearly indicated where the expedition was headed and what it wanted to achieve. The ship was well equipped. On board was a supply of various food, designed for three years of life in the ice.
The head of the expedition was Captain Charles Hall, an energetic and strong-willed man, an experienced polar explorer who had lived among the Eskimos for a long time and who had well studied their life in the harsh conditions of the Far North.
The Polaris left New York on June 29, 1871. The first leg of the journey was easy. On the way, Hall visited Eskimo villages and took on board several Eskimos. One of them, Hans Hendrik, went on an expedition with his wife and three children.
Two months later, the Polaris reached the Smith Strait. The state of the ice that year turned out to be very favorable for the sea voyage, and the expedition sailed without any special difficulties to the Kennedy Strait, crossed the Robson Strait and continued to go further and further north.
Such a simple journey could not but delight Hall and his companions. Everyone looked forward to victory, being firmly convinced that the open sea would continue to await them, at worst - easily surmountable ice fields.
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In an icy grip
The Americans entered the Lincoln Sea when, contrary to expectations, they encountered a belt of ice moving from east to west. Fortunately, there were also areas of clear water, and therefore the Polaris was still moving the same course.
Not a single ship had ever sailed into these northern waters before the Polaris, and Charles Hall could be proud of his record achievement. In early September, the expedition was above 82 degrees north latitude. Oddly enough, both the captain himself and his comrades still cherished the hope that in the future they would not encounter any special obstacles.
Alas, soon large masses of broken ice began to move towards the Polaris. And although it was still possible to sail north, the Polaris stopped.
The reason was the disagreements that arose on the ship. One of the expedition members, Lieutenant Buddington, tried to convince Hall to turn south to winter in some convenient bay. This idea found support from other sailors, and Hall relented.
But, moving south, the ship fell into an icy vice. Hall ordered some of the food to be unloaded. The Polaris did not manage to get into the protected bay. I had to winter in a random place between the coast and the icy mountain, where the ice now and then pressed on the ship.
Death of Charles Hall
Expedition physician Emil Bessels described the situation in which he had to stop: “The steamer driven from all directions by the winds with its metal sheathing served as a loud resonator of the terrible sounds of the weather. The masts groaned and creaked, the gear flapped, the blocks cracked, the wind rustled dully under the sail covering the deck. The whole ship shuddered and barely escaped death. None of the polar travelers have ever wintered in such high latitudes.
The polar night fell in mid-October. By this time, Charles Hall fell seriously ill and on November 8, 1871, died with paralysis. With his death, the situation on the ship changed. No one believed that the North Pole could be reached and returned home with glory. Lieutenant Buddington took over the leadership of the expedition, but he failed to maintain discipline on the ship. Quarrels began. Nevertheless, the first wintering ended more or less well. There were even several close sledding trips, and scientific observations were made.
Thanks to a successful hunt (I was lucky to kill 26 musk oxen), there was enough food on the ship. None of the expedition members got sick during the winter. Moreover, the number of people on the ship increased: the wife of the Eskimo Hans Hendrik gave birth to a son. By general agreement, the newborn was named Polaris - after the ship.
On August 12, 1872, the Polaris was finally freed from the ice. The expedition moved south again, abandoning the thought of reaching the North Pole. But freedom turned out to be imaginary. Two weeks passed, and the ice again squeezed the vessel. And on the night of October 15-16, something happened that the participants of the ill-fated journey were so afraid of.
Life on an ice floe
Under the strong pressure of ice, the ship, literally squeezed out of the water, heeled and lay down on a huge ice floe. The participants of the cruise began hastily to dump food and things from the ship that could be useful to them in the event of the death of the Polaris.
And suddenly … The ice floe on which he was lying collapsed with a crash and crash, and yet not all of its passengers had left the ship! The Polaris was again in the water and quickly disappeared into the darkness, carried away by the strong current and hurricane wind.
19 people remained on the ice - 10 Americans and nine Eskimos. Among the latter are the wife of the Eskimo Hendrik and his four children. We managed to save a little food: bread, a few hams, canned food, chocolate. Tents, woolen blankets, weapons and a large boat - a whaleboat - survived from the equipment.
Winter was approaching. It was necessary to prepare for the second wintering, much more severe than the first. Snow dwellings were built on the ice (fortunately, the Eskimos knew how to do this perfectly). They collected the logs and coal thrown from the ship.
They pinned great hopes on hunting. And here again the Eskimos played an important role, shooting accurately. The meat of the harvested musk oxen significantly replenished the food supply. The threat of starvation has receded. This made it possible to survive the polar night, one might say, not so hard. However, with the beginning of spring, new formidable problems appeared.
It was already 1873. The ice floe, on which the travelers were, drifted south. It was considerable in size: about two kilometers in diameter. In early April, the "refuge" of polar explorers was in clear water and under the sun's rays began to thaw and gradually collapse. Now people could only survive thanks to their one boat.
Unexpected salvation
The day came when the ice floe collapsed completely. Taking with them the most necessary, all 19 people, barely accommodating in a whaleboat, set off on a voyage, hoping to reach at least some solid ground. But days passed, and the earth did not appear. Travelers moored to the ice floes they encountered to rest. When the next ice floe broke, they again sat down in a cramped boat and continued the exhausting journey. Now they were really starving. They ate the uncut skins of animals obtained earlier.
At the end of April, a ship suddenly appeared in the distance. The members of the expedition began to send desperate signals. They were noticed on the ship, but they could not approach those in distress because of the heavy ice. Soon the ship disappeared into the fog.
It is easy to imagine the despair of people who have lost their last hope. But a miracle happened. A day later, the unfortunates saw another ship - the whaling ship "Tigress". He managed to get close to the ice floe and take pictures of the polar explorers, who were already simply dying of exhaustion. Two months later, the troubled travelers landed in the United States. Then it was calculated that during their wanderings on ice floes and in a boat, the members of the expedition traveled a distance of two and a half thousand kilometers!
But what happened to those who did not have time to leave the Polaris on that terrible night? There were 14 of them, including Lieutenant Buddington and Dr. Bessels. The vessel did not sink, although it did receive a hole. The people had to continuously pump out the water that arrived in the hold. They managed to escape only by running the Polaris aground at the entrance to the Smith Strait.
Here the members of the expedition built a small house and survived the winter. And in the spring, they went to sea on two homemade boats. This voyage lasted 20 days until the polar explorers were picked up by Scottish whalers. The tragic journey was over.
Source: “Secrets of the XX century. Golden Series No. 1-s