Charles Hall (q.v.), in his first journey (1860–1862), discovered
remains of a stone house which Sir Martin Frobisher built on the
Countess of Warwick Island in 1578. In his second
expedition (1864–1869) Hall reached the line of the
retreat of the Franklin Hall.survivors, at Todd's Island and Peffer
River, on the south coast of King William Island. He heard the
story of the retreat and of the wreck of one of the ships from the
Eskimo, he was told that seven bodies were buried at Todd
Island, and he brought home some bones which are believed to
be those of Lieut. Le Vescomte of the “Erebus.” Finally, in
1871 he took the “Polaris” for 250 m. up the channel which
leads northwards from Smith Sound. The various parts of this
long channel are called Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy
Channel and Robeson Channel. The “Polaris” was beset in
82° 11′ N. on the 30th of August; her winter quarters were in
Thank God Harbour, 81° 38′ N ., and here Hall died.
The Spitsbergen seas were explored during last century by Norwegian fishermen as well as by Swedish and German expeditions and by British yachtsmen. In 1827 the Norwegian geologist Keilhau made an expedition to Bear Island and Spitsbergen Norwegian Explorers.which was the first purely scientific Arctic expedition. The Norwegian Spitsbergen fishery dates from 1820, but it was only in the latter part of the century that Professor Mohn of Christiania carefully collected information from the captains who had taken part in the work when at its height. In 1863 Captain Carlsen circumnavigated the Spitsbergen group for the first time in a brig called the “Jan Mayen.” In 1864 Captain Tobiesen sailed round North-East Land. In 1872 Captains Altmann and Nils Johnsen visited Wiche's Land, which was discovered by Captain Edge in 1617. In that year there were twenty-three sailing vessels from Tromso, twenty-four from Hammerfest, and one from Vardo engaged in the Arctic sealing trade, averaging from 35 to 40 tons, and carrying a dozen men. Exploration went on slowly, in the course of the sealing and fishing voyages, the records of which are not very full. In 1869 Carlsen crossed the Kara Sea and reached the mouth of the Ob. In 1870 there were about sixty Norwegian vessels in the Barents Sea, and Captain Johannesen circumnavigated Novaya Zemlya. In 1873 Captain Tobiesen was unfortunately obliged to winter on the Novaya Zemlya coast, owing to the loss of his schooner, and both he and his young son died in the spring. Two years previously Captain Carlsen had succeeded in reaching the winter quarters of Barents, the first visitor since 1597, an interval of two hundred and seventy-fonr years. He landed on the 9th of September 1871, and found the house still standing and full of interesting relics, which are now in the naval museum at the Hague.
Between 1858 and 1872 the Swedes sent seven expeditions to Spitsbergen and two to Greenland, marking a new scientific era in Arctic exploration, of which Keilhau had been the pioneer. All returned with valuable scientific results. That of 1864 Swedish Expeditions.under A. E. Nordenskiöld and Duner made observations at 80 different places on the Spitsbergen shores, and fixed the heights of numerous mountains. In 1868, in an iron steamer, the “Sophia,” the Swedes attained a latitude of 81° 42′ N. on the meridian of 18° E, during the month of September. In 1872 an expedition, consisting of the “Polhem” steamer and brig “Gladen,” commanded by Professor Nordenskiöld and Lieut. Palander, wintered in Mossel Bay on the northern shore of Spitsbergen. In the spring an important sledging journey of sixty days' duration was made over North-East Land. The expedition was in some distress as regards supplies owing to two vessels, which were to have returned, having been forced to winter. But in the summer of 1873 they were visited by Mr Leigh Smith, in his yacht “Diana,” who supplied them with fresh provisions.
Dr A. Petermann of Gotha urged his countrymen to take their share in the work of polar discovery, and at his own risk he fitted out a small vessel called the “Germania,” which sailed from Bergen in May 1868, under the command of Captain Koldewey. Koldewey.His cruise extended to Hinlopen Strait in Spitsbergen, but was merely tentative; and in 1870 Baron von Heuglin with Count Zeil explored the Stor Fjord in a Norwegian schooner, and also examined Walter Thymen Strait. After the return of the “Germania” in 1868 a regular expedition was organized under the command of Captain Koldewey, provisioned for two years. It consisted of the “Germania,” a screw steamer of 140 tons, and the brig “Hansa,” by Captain Hegemann. Lieut. Julius Payer, the commanded
future explorer of Franz Josef Land, gained his first Arctic experience on board the “Germania.” The expedition sailed from Bremen on the 15th of June 1869, its destination being the east coast of Greenland. But in latitude 70° 46′ N. the “Hansa ” got separated from her consort and crushed in the ice. The crew built a house of patent fuel on the floe, and in this strange abode they passed their Christmas. In two months the current carried them 400 m. to the south. By May they had drifted 1100 m. on their ice-raft, and finally, on the 14th of June 1870, they arrived safely at the Moravian mission station of Friedriksthal, to the west of Cape Farewell. Fairer fortune attended the “Germania.” She sailed up the east coast of Greenland as far as 75° 30′ N., and eventually wintered at the Pendulum Islands of Clavering in 74° 30′ N. In March 1870 a travelling party set out under Koldewey and Payer, and reached a distance of 100 m. from the ship to the northward, when want of provisions compelled them to return. A grim cape, named after Prince Bismarck, marked the northern limit of their discoveries. As soon as the vessel was free, a deep branching fjord, named Franz Josef Fjord, was discovered in 73° 15′ N . stretching for a long distance into the interior of Greenland. The expedition returned to Bremen on the 11th of September 1870.
Lieut. Payer was resolved to continue in the path of polar discovery. He and the naval officer Weyprecht chartered a Norwegian schooner called the “Isbjorn,” and examined the edge of the ice between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, in the Payer and Weyprecht.summer of 1871. Their observations led them to select the route by the north end of Novaya Zemlya with a view to making the north-east passage. It was to be an Austro-Hungarian expedition, and the idea was seized with enthusiasm by the whole monarchy. Weyprecht was to command the ship, while Julius Payer conducted the sledge parties. The steamer “Tegethoff,” of 300 tons, was fitted out in the Elbe, and left Tromso on the 14th of July 1872. The season was severe, and the vessel was closely beset near Cape Nassau, at the northern end of Novaya Zemlya, in the end of August. The summer of 1873 found her still a close prisoner drifting, not with a current, but chiefly in the direction of the prevailing wind. At length, on the 31st of August, a mountainous country was sighted about 14 m. to the north. In October the vessel was drifted within 3 m. of an island lying off the main mass of land. Payer landed on it, and found the latitude to be 79° 54′ N. It was named after Count Wilczek, one of the warmest friends of the expedition. Here the second winter was passed. Bears were numerous and sixty-seven were killed, their meat proving to be an efficient preventive of scurvy. In March 1874 Payer made a preliminary sledge journey in intense cold (thermometer at −58° F.). On the 24th of March he started for a more prolonged journey of thirty days. Payer believed that the newly discovered country equalled Spitsbergen in extent, and described it as consisting of two or more large masses—Wilczek Land to the east, Zichy Land to the west, intersected by numerous fjords and skirted by a large number of islands. A wine channel, named Austria Sound, was supposed to separate the two main masses of land, and extend to 82° N. The whole country was named Franz Josef Land. Payer's large land-masses have by later discoveries been broken up into groups of islands and much of the land he thought he saw towards the east was found by Nansen not to exist. Payer returned to the “Tegethoff” on the 24th of April; and a third journey was undertaken to explore a large island named after M‘Clintock. It then became necessary to abandon the ship and attempt a retreat in boats. This perilous voyage was commenced on the 20th of May. Three boats stored with provisions were placed on sledges. It was not until the 14th of August that they reached
