Poseidon Arctic Voyages - North Pole - History of Discoveries - The Ultimate Expeditions to Arctic: Northpole, Franz-Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya. Ice and White Bears. Riding Zodiacs. Travelling Abroad "Yamal" and "Kapitan Dranitsyn" Icebreakers

to get closer to the North Pole. Despite audacious efforts, the pace of the mankind advancing higher and higher up the globe has been almost as slow as the civilization itself has been progressing through the ages of time. Finally, by the end of the XIX century the expeditions capable of conquering the North Pole started to materialize.

Roald Amundsen
at work

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First known attempts to find a way to the North Pole originated from the Greenland Sea. Then the efforts continued mostly from the region of the Smith Gulf and Kennedy Strait between Elsmere Island and Greenland. During the British Arctic Expedition of 1875 - 1876 George Nares managed to lead the vessels "Discovery" and "Alert" to the very edge of hard pack ice. During the expedition abord the “Fram” (1893) Fridtjof Nansen and his mate Johansen managed to get as far as 86°14' N on foot.

It is still not quite clear who exactly was the first person to reach the North Pole. Frederick Cook, a doctor from the U.S. , claimed he had reached the North Pole in 1908. While the U.S. admiral Robert Peary stated that he had reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909... Small wonder, Peary was disappointed and furious, when on returning to the United States, after many months dedicated to the conquest of the Pole, he learnt that the glory of being path-breaker to the North Pole was being claimed by Frederick Cook, who presumably had reached it one year earlier than Peary, on April 21, 1908.

This controversy has not been solved yet. Among other speculations there is one claiming that both Cook and Peary have actually failed to reach the North Pole.

With the start of the aviation era, an aerial assault on the North Pole began. The first attempt by Roald Amundsen in 1925 nearly ended in a tragedy. Taking off from Spitsbergen Island on May 21, 1925 the planes had to shoot a crash-landing at 88° N in less than 24 hours' flight. After several weeks of back-breaking work, the explorers managed to build an ice airfield. On June 15, aboard the only undamaged plane, they took off again and returned to the continent. One year later, finally, a successful flight to the North Pole was completed by Richard Byrd.

Cook&Peary
picture from
old magazine

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Just two days after the return of Richard Byrd to the King's Bay airfield, the dirigible ' Norway ' with a crew of 16 men took off from the same airfield. The expedition was headed by the same energetic explorer, Roald Amundsen. The dirigible reached the North Pole after 16 hours' flight and, having made two circles around the pole, headed to the Alaska coasts. On May 13, 1926, after 70 hours' flight their long journey came to an end at Teller, Alaska .

The Soviet icebreaker "Arktika" was the first vessel to reach the North Pole on August 17, 1977.

Some sources say that a little over 12 000 people in total have reached the North Pole since the time the Pole was conquered. Hundreds of people have succeeded in making their way to this challenging site by different means: on foot, with dogsleds, by dirigible and helicopter, by air, across the ice fields and even below the ice... The North Pole attracts people as ever. Every year, as spring sets in, intrepid travelers set off across endless ice fields heading to the North Pole.


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