The eastern most island in Svalbard is Kvitøya, or the White Island. There has never been a settlement there and the island is generally left to the polar bears and annoying tourists these days, but the island does play a key part in a notable historical event that began in the late 19th century in Sweden.

In the late 1800s, adventurism and exploring the remaining unconquered areas of the world was all the rage and Sweden wanted in on it. There was an engineer in Sweden named Salomon August Andrée who wanted to go to the North Pole and had a rather unconventional idea to get there. He knew the Arctic Ocean was impassable by ship due to the sea ice. And one couldn’t simply travel across the ice by foot or carriage because it isn’t a smooth sheet of ice, but rather flows of broken ice shifting around with tall, steep ridges to overcome. Andrée’s revolutionary idea was to fly to the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. A balloon that would basically be at the mercy of the wind, floating over an ocean with uncharted weather patterns. But Andrée claimed to have a method of steering a balloon with a drag rope and sails and claimed that he could navigate to the North Pole. He planned to launch this ballon from Svalbard, fly north across the Arctic, cross over the North Pole and end up in Alaska or Russia. The image below shows what the Arctic Ocean generally looks like north of Svalbard; floating sea ice and plenty of fog.

Now, why exactly Andrée was so passionate about getting to the North Pole is not entirely known. One theory is that he believed there to be a massive toy factory there and he wanted to establish exclusive distribution rights for all of Europe. Other’s say he was just a crazy adventurist. Whatever the case, he presented his ideas to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and every one was thrilled with his idea, including King Oscar II, and Andrée was provided funds to form a team and build a balloon.

In the 1890s, the place to go to have a balloon built was France and off to France he went and had a hydrogen balloon built with a basket that could accommodate three people for the months long journey across the Arctic. The balloon was packed up and shipped to Svalbard and in 1896 Andrée and two people he recruited for his expedition went to make an attempt. His two companions were Nils Gustaf Ekholm, an experienced Arctic meteorological researcher, and Nils Strindberg, a student of physics and chemistry. But when they got to Svalbard, they found a steady and relentless wind from the north and they also found that their balloon was leaking hydrogen at an unacceptable rate. They eventually packed up and headed back home and Andrée had to make plans for the next year.

At this point Nils Gustaf Ekholm realized that this was a crazy expedition and there was little chance of success, so he bailed out. But Andrée was undeterred by this set back, went and had the balloon fixed up and recruited an engineer named Knut Frænkel to replace Ekholm. And in 1897 the three explorers once again attempted to launch their balloon.

On July 11 1897 they found a favorable wind, got out their balloon and took to the skies. A small group of people watched them takeoff and immediately encounter trouble as their drag ropes began pulling them down. They cast off most of their drag ropes and dumped most of their ballast which allowed them to begin ascending into the sky, albeit at the mercy of the wind without their main steering mechanism. Onlookers watched them fly out over the Arctic Ocean and disappear into the distance.

Later that day, Andrée dropped a communication buoy that was later found that indicated that they were sailing along at 250m. Two days later he released a carrier pigeon that was later captured that said he was at 82 deg. N lattitude and drifting eastward, and that was last message received. Months went by, then years elapsed and nobody had heard from the intrepid explorers. It seemed that the expedition had vanished to never be seen again.

The fate of the expedition remained a mystery for 33 years, until 1930 when a hunting vessel was sailing near Kvitøya. Usually this island could not be approached, but on this warm year the sea ice had retreated and the hunters were able to land on the island. And it was there that they discovered what had happened to Andrée’s expedition when they found his makeshift boat half buried in snow. This boat contained what remained of their supplies, and nearby were two of their bodies, and most importantly – their journals and undeveloped film.

According the their journals, on July 14 1897 the balloon, which had been leaking hydrogen, could fly no more and landed on the ice in the Arctic Ocean. The three voyagers, who were not well equipped for the polar weather, built sleds and loaded them up with their supplies and decided to travel across the ice to Cape Flora in the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land as they thought this was the quickest route back to civilization. But they had miscalculated their position and instead wandered the shifting sea ice for nearly 3 months.

Trekking across the shifting ice was not easy; especially with their heavy sled. There can be ridges taller than houses to overcome and freezing water to cross between the drifting icebergs. They were able to make a boat using the balloon’s fabric to help them on their journey and they hunted seals, walruses, and polar bears to supplement their food supply. By September 12, they abandoned their trek and decided that they would attempt to winter on one of the larger icebergs. But by October 2, the ice had drifted close to Kvitoya and began to break up causing them to flee to the small island.

You might think that finally reaching land might be some sort of salvation for our explorers, but Kvitøya is not a very hospitable island for people. Most of the island is covered with a massive ice dome year round and only narrow areas along the shore have land exposed. During this time, the island was nearly perpetually surrounded by ice and few people had ever actually been there, so the chance of finding help on Kvitoya was nearly zero. The island is also a favorite hang out of polar bears, one of the most dangerous animals on earth.

Apparently by October 7, the men had built a shelter on the island and intended to make it through the long, dark winter. Andrée’s last diary entry is on October 8 and he didn’t report anything particularly bad happening. Nobody knows exactly how the men died as their bodies were cremated and no thorough autopsy was performed.

Apparently Strindberg died first as he was found wedged under a cliff and covered (buried) by rocks. It is thought that he died of a polar bear attack as his burial clothes bore the signs of attack. Nils Strindberg also wrote messages in his diary to his beloved fiancée Anna, who had morned his disappearance for years. Frænkel seems to have died next and was found laying in the tent with no mittens or shoes. Perhaps he was also injured in the bear attack. And lastly, our expedition leader Salomon August Andrée died. Andrée’s body was found sitting outside with a rifle by his side and his diary carefully wrapped with a sweater. Several empty bottles of morphine were also found, so it is speculated that he killed himself after the other two died.

Andrée and his team never made it to the North Pole. From their records they made it to just shy of the 83rd parallel when they had to set their balloon down on the ice. But, Andrée did achieve notoriety and a lasting legacy. And poor Nils Strindberg and Anna, who apparently loved each other very much, never got to be married.

A better way of getting to Kvitøya was in a modern ship with radios and GPS on a clear day. And in these warmer times, the seas around Kvitøya are mostly clear of ice in August. There was never any real chance that they were going to let us land on this bear infested island, but we did get to cruise around on the zodiacs and see the bears. It was also somewhat sunny and when the sun comes out, the ISO goes down so we all rejoiced at that. The bit of exposed coast line we cruised was on the west end of the island and there were at least four polar bears along the shore.

This day I set the record for the most photos taken as there were so many wildlife shots to be had. My Lightroom catalogue counts 1128 images for August 18. When the two bears met on the beach as seen in one of the images above, I remember just holding the shutter down on high speed continuous until the buffer filled up as I didn’t want to miss the excitement. I guess I am lucky that I don’t have a faster camera. I also saw sea monsters bobbing in the water just off shore.

I hope you enjoyed my photos from the white island and reading of the adventure of Salomon August Andrée and his quest to reach the North Pole. After this, we headed North to find the sea ice and to see if we could get closer to the pole than Andrée. That will be in my next blog, so check back in a few days.