North! Will, hope, a country without borders. Snow without mud is like a long life without lies. The crows will not pluck our eyes out of our eye sockets - Because crows are not found here … (V. Vysotsky)
For the first time it was reported in 1811 by the pet trader Yakov Sannikov, who was hunting Arctic fox on the northern shores of the Novosibirsk Islands, an experienced polar traveler who had previously discovered the Stolbovoy and Faddeevsky islands. He expressed his opinion about the existence of a "vast land" to the north of Kotelny Island. According to the hunter, "high stone mountains" rose above the sea.
Another evidence in favor of the existence of vast lands in the north was the numerous observations of migratory birds - polar geese and others, which migrate further north in spring and return with their offspring in autumn. Since birds could not live in the icy desert, it was suggested that the Sannikov Land located in the north is rich and fertile, and the birds fly there. However, the obvious question arose: how can fertile lands be located north of the desert coast of Eurasia?
After Sannikov, the mysterious land was revealed to the expeditions of Matvey Gedenshtrom and Peter Anjou. They just couldn't get to her. Confirmation or refutation of the existence of Sannikov Land was fraught with significant difficulties. The New Siberian Islands are located near the very border of the permanent northern ice cap: even in warm years, the ocean in the vicinity of the islands is accessible for navigation for two or three months a year, in late summer and early autumn; in cold years, the islands can remain frozen in ice all summer.
The brave polar explorer Baron Eduard Toll could not resist this mysterious land. He dreamed about it since the time of his 1st expedition, when he, standing on the tops of the mountain, about. The boiler house unexpectedly appeared in the north-west the outlines of four mesas. On August 13, 1886, Toll recorded in his diary:
“The horizon is perfectly clear. In the northeast direction, we clearly saw the outlines of the four mesas, which in the east joined the low-lying land. Thus, Sannikov's message was fully confirmed. We have the right, therefore, to draw a dotted line in the appropriate place on the map and write on it: "Sannikov Land" …"
Toll was even able to calculate the distance to the mountains from the island - about 150 versts (1 verst corresponds to the current 1066.8 meters) and determine that they are composed of basalt rocks.
Since then, the baron dreamed of only one thing: "Once to step on this land and die." And in the spring of 1899 he began to complete an expedition to search for this Terra Incognito, lying north of the coast of Siberia. He selected people for the polar expedition not according to their track record, but according to their abilities, skill and enthusiasm. Therefore, Alexander Kolchak, the future Russian naval commander and admiral, was immediately enlisted as a hydrologist and meteorologist.
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Despite financial difficulties, Toll even sent his hydrologist for an internship in Norway to the Arctic explorer F. Nansen. “Our hydrographer Kolchak is an excellent specialist, devoted to the interests of the expedition…” - Baron Toll would later write about him in his diary.
On June 23, 1900, the Russian polar expedition on the Zarya schooner gave up the mooring lines and set off in search of Sannikov Land. Already at the beginning of September 1901 the schooner was in the right area. Despite the prize promised by the chief, the one who first sees the land, unfortunately, did not manage to find anything. In addition, the next day a strong storm began, the ice floes were raised by a wave above the vessel. The situation was aggravated by a thick fog, in which they could easily pass by Sannikov Land ten times and not notice it! So, not everything was lost!
In a lagoon off the western coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, the vessel, covered with ice, stopped for the winter. Polar explorers mainly went on short scientific expeditions, and Toll and Kolchak, in search of Sannikov Land, traveled 500 km in dog sleds in 41 days. But the island never seemed to them. And at the beginning of May, Toll decided to carry out
make your own risky plan.
In the northeast of their wintering place lay a small mountainous island. Bennett, which Toll and the polar explorers could get there only one way: go about. Boiler room on sledges and light canoes, then cross the ice to the island of New Siberia and then go to the island. Bennett in order to examine the northern horizon from its peaks and see Sannikov Land.
Leaving the hibernation, Toll appointed Kolchak as the head of the expedition and gave the captain of the ship Mathisen clear instructions on where, how and when to look for him, and when the Zarya should weaken anchor and sail home.
A group of polar explorers led by Kolchak clearly followed Toll's instructions all summer. But in August, the Zarya was captured by ice, due to which its hull was severely damaged. When there were only 8 tons of coal left in the bunkers, the captain ordered the ship to turn around and head to Tiksi Bay. The polar expedition arrived in St. Petersburg without its leader. Later, evil tongues claimed that Toll and his companions died because of the captain, but the expedition simply had no other choice but to leave.
At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences in search of polar explorers stuck in the ice, it was decided to equip the expedition again. And since no one allocated funds for this, they decided to send Zorya again. Captain Mathisen was angry. To steer a yacht in such a state into the ice means to doom the rescuers in advance to failure, if not death: there was a leak in the holds of the schooner, the hull was damaged and required major repairs.
What to do? People need to be saved! Kolchak found a way out. He proposed to remove a whaling whaleboat (a light boat with a mast) from the Zarya, deliver it to Kotelny Island on the ice and from there paddle to Bennett Island through open water. Despite the fact that Kolchak's proposal was the same gamble as the act of Baron Toll, there was no other option. In mid-April 1903 a rescue expedition arrived in Tiksi and removed the whaleboat from the Zarya.
Their failure is an achievement for science
For a whole month the polar explorers were pulling a 36-pound boat on two sledges, cutting through the hummocks, to the Novosibirsk Islands. Even through the scanty lines of Kolchak's reports, one can understand what hardships and hardships the expedition endured in order to fulfill the task assigned to it.
It was snowing and foggy all the time. Nothing was visible. Polar explorers walked for 12 hours every day, constantly entering the ice crushed like porridge. Hungry and wet, they spent the night on high ice floes, tired so that they could not eat. And from food they only had oatmeal and broth concentrate. And finally, the sailors saw the white peaks of Fr. Bennett. It seemed impossible to go out in a storm on a boat into the open ocean. Having weighed all the pros and cons, Kolchak ordered: "Forward!"
The first 12 hours in the ocean 1 polar explorers rowed continuously. The expedition even managed to land on a large ice floe, which was driven north by a strong wind from the north and "drive up" on it "with an opportunity." But at night the ice floe broke, and the rescue team nearly drowned. They rowed again for 24 hours without rest, until on August 17, 1903, the whaleboat landed on Bennett's Island.
On its shore, they immediately found the lid of Toll's aluminum pot: it means that the polar expedition reached the island! They also found boxes with collections, and in a cookery, half filled with frozen snow, some instruments, sheets from Ziegler's astronomy, scraps of a dress, a leather belt for a geological hammer. Under a heap of stones lay a sheathed canvas box containing a document addressed to the president of the Academy of Sciences:
“Accompanied by the astronomer FG Seeberg and two industrialists.… Nikolai Dyakonov and Vasily Gerokhov, I set off on June 5 from the Zarya winter harbor (Nerpichya Bay on the Kotelny Island). We walked along the northern shores of Kotelny and Faddeevsky islands to Cape Vysoky on the island of New Siberia. July 13 headed for Bennett Island. The ice was in a rather destroyed state. On July 25, at a distance of 3 miles from Cape Vysokoye, the ice was finally broken by the wind. In preparation for sailing in canoes, we killed the last dogs here. From here we were carried on the ice floe of our camp for 4 and 1/2 days 48 miles along the course. Noticing then the removal of our ice floe 10 miles to the south, we left it on July 31. Having sailed safely on two canoes the remaining 23 miles to Bennett Island, on 3 August we landed at Cape Emma.
According to the photographs of the astronomer Seeberg, who determined here, in addition to, as well as along the way, the magnetic elements at only 10 points, Bennett Island is no more than 200 square kilometers. Bennett Island is a plateau no higher than 1,500 feet (457 m). In terms of geological structure, Bennett Island is a continuation of the Central Siberian Plateau, composed here of the most ancient sedimentary rocks (Cambrian), cut by eruptions of basalts. In some places, under the streams of basalts, flakes of brown coal with remnants of ancient coniferous vegetation have been preserved. In the valleys of the island, washed-out bones of mammoths and other Quaternary animals occasionally lie.
In addition to the polar bear and the temporary guest of the walrus, the deer turned out to be a living inhabitant of Bennett Island: a herd of 30 heads was found on the rocky pastures of the island.
We ate his meat and sewed shoes and clothes for the winter return trip. The following birds lived on this island: 2 species of eider, one species of waders, bullfinch, 5 species of gulls and pink in between. Birds of passage were: an eagle flying from south to north, a falcon from north to south, and geese flying in a flock from north to south. Due to the fogs of the land from which the birds flew, it was also not visible, as during the last navigation, - Sannikov Land.
We have left the following instruments here: the circle of Pistor and Martens with the horizon, the Krause inclinator, the anemometer, the photographic apparatus "Nora" and some others. We will go south today. We have provisions for 14-20 days. Everyone is healthy. E. Toll. Paul Köppen's lip of Bennett Island, 26X-8XI 1902"
They nevertheless headed south on the treacherous drifting ice. What made them leave the island on a polar night at a temperature of -40 degrees, when it is impossible to move on the ice porridge either by dogs, or by boats, or on foot? After all, all the members of the expedition were healthy, there were enough animals on the island so as not to starve to death, waiting for the rescuers.
But something forced Tolya to take this step? Or maybe the baron saw the mysterious Sannikov Land and went to meet it? Now no one will know the answer … Further traces of these four people have not yet been found.
Kolchak, returning home, sent the found documents of Toll to St. Petersburg, and he left for Vladivostok: the Russo-Japanese war began. After the end of the war, he was awarded the Great Konstantinovskaya Gold Medal for the search for Toll's missing expedition.
In a message from the Imperial Geographical Society it was said:
And, even after the October Revolution, when Kolchak, the Supreme ruler of the East of Russia, was captured by Soviet power, during interrogations the eminent prisoner was asked not only about his struggle with the Bolsheviks, but also about polar studies.
Kolchak, as you know, was shot - as an enemy of the working people. And Sannikov put an end to the epic with the Land in the 1930s. Soviet navigator Valentin Akkuratov, who, at the request of Academician Obruchev, flew over that mysterious place several times, but did not find anything.
In general, everyone decided that Sannikov Land was a phantom, although the Zarya campaign made an invaluable contribution to the history of the development of the Far North and literature (generations grew up on the novel Sannikov Land, and the film adaptation once became a cult film).
Was Sannikov's Land Found?
But in subsequent years, the mysterious island haunted many scientists, researchers, sailors and polar pilots. After numerous Soviet expeditions and campaigns in the Arctic, there are simply no unexplored places left. Then where was Sannikov Land hiding? And what did Yakov Sannikov and Eduard Tol see? An accumulation of hummocks? Ice island or iceberg? Or maybe just fog over the hole?
But in 1948, V. N. Stepanov, an employee of the Arctic Institute, expressed the idea that Sannikov Land actually existed and disappeared only recently, melting like the Snow Maiden, since it was made up of fossil ice. This idea seemed so obvious that it’s amazing how it didn’t come to mind before. Indeed, quite recently - not in the geological, but in the human sense of the word - to the north of Fr. There were indeed islands in Anjou that travelers could see. The following remains a mystery: Toll first saw the land in 1886, 1.5 decades before the voyage of the "Dawn".
Could Sannikov Land have disappeared in such a short time? Semenovsky Island, for example, 14 years before his death had dimensions of only 2 by 0.5 km. It looks like the island Toll saw was about the same size and had to be very close to be seen? True, the distances and sizes of objects estimated in the Arctic by eye are always very deceptive …
Admiral S. O. Makarov wrote: "All polar expeditions … in the sense of achieving the goal, were unsuccessful, but if we know anything about the Arctic Ocean, it is thanks to these unsuccessful expeditions."
As you know, the heroes of the novel "Sannikov's Land" nevertheless found an unknown country that they dreamed of. And Baron Toll his land, as a specific geographical object, is not. However, his research helped to get closer to solving this mystery of nature.
For the first time, the possibility of the existence of the mythical Sannikov Land was officially recognized only at the 7th International Congress of the History of Oceanography, which was held in 2003 in the city of Kaliningrad (Russia).
In any case, scientists there responsibly declared: the island could have been at least until 1935. As evidence, a map was presented with the signature: "The land discovered by Sannikov" - found in the military-historical archive quite by accident: on a parchment square the size 10x10 cm was depicted a part of the land with a river and a chain of mountains. But many scientists believe that this map is not the main proof of the existence of Sannikov Land. Other researchers have seen it as well. And the fact that it was, but then disappeared, is documented by the reports of the North Polar Squadron in 1935. One of the pilots during the flight noticed a huge land outside the plane, not marked on the polar map. He fixed the coordinates and on his return to the base reported: "He opened the ground." True, the planes that took off in search of a few days laterthey never found her because of the thick fog.
By the way, the coordinates indicated by the pilot coincided with the location of the alleged Sannikov Land. Guided by these coordinates, scientists carried out numerous studies there, the analysis of which clearly showed that only recently there was really land on this place. Most likely, it was her that was seen by past expeditions of the 19th century. And this land really could exist for a very long time unnoticed. It was not in vain that Baron Toll wrote in his diaries: "There are such fogs around that one can pass by Sannikov Land a thousand times and not notice." And the fogs, in the opinion of many scientists, are nothing more than a sign of an active volcano: the heat released by it into the atmosphere mixed with the cold air of the Laptev Sea. This version is quite convincing, because fogs in those places have not been observed for more than 60 years, just from the momentwhen they stopped seeing Sannikov Land.
And the reason for such an unexpected disappearance of fogs can only be the eruption of a volcano, which went under the water along with the island. By the way, many Arctic islands do not consist of rocks, but of permafrost, on top of which a fairly high layer of soil has been applied to them for many millennia. But over time, sea water, undermining the coast, gradually "eats" the entire island. And it literally dissolves in water.
In the summer of 2005, on Zhokhov Island, archaeologists discovered the remains of ancient human settlements, which are 8-9 thousand years old. Similar remains were found in 1956 by the sailors of the ship "Indigirka", moored to about. Bennett. It was these islands that surrounded Sannikov Land and were considered its counterpart, only without a volcano. The ancient sites on these islands are very similar to each other and are well preserved. And it seems that people with them at one time left somewhere. Most likely, closer to the warmth.
By the way, it is very easy to test the hypothesis that Sannikov Land sank under water at one time. It is only necessary to lower the bathyscaphe into the sea at a point with known coordinates. The University of Oceanology and Oceanography of San Francisco (USA) is already seriously interested in this. And who knows, maybe in the near future a human foot will set foot on such an elusive and so alluring Sannikov Land. Even under water …
M. Patlay
"Discoveries and Hypotheses" No. 6 2012