Sit someone down and ask them to make a list of Antarctic explorers, and most people would probably start to falter after the big three of Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. Americans might throw in Admiral Robert Byrd, the first man to fly to the South Pole, while Australians will surely add in Sir Douglas Mawson, who until recently was immortalised on their $100 bank note.
But what about Otto Nordenskjöld? He’s hardly a household name, but 120 years ago he was involved in one of the greatest Antarctic survival stories we know – one that even rivals Shackleton’s Endurance. And amazingly, it’s still possible to see some of the traces of that expedition today on some Antarctic cruises. Let us introduce you to the fateful story of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition.
Exploring the Antarctic Peninsula
Otto Nordenskjöld was a key player in the ‘Heroic Era’ of Antarctic exploration. If he’s largely forgotten today, it’s because he concentrated more on science and geography than the race for glory chasing the South Pole. His Swedish Antarctic Expedition set sail in 1901 with the intention of charting the Antarctic Peninsula. At this time, this was still relatively unexplored territory: it wasn’t even known if it was part of the mainland continent or just a long chain of islands.
Nordenskjöld wanted to explore the eastern side of the Peninsula. He was one of the first people to sail through Antarctic Sound, the narrow strait that today allows expedition cruise ships quick access to the Weddell Sea, when it’s not choked with ice (the sound is actually named not for the continent, but for Nordenskjöld’s ship, the Antarctic). From here, he sailed south to land with a party of five other men on Snow Hill island, where they erected a hut to overwinter in and spend the next season making scientific observations and surveying the region by sledge. When the hut was erected, the Antarctic departed with a promise to return in nine months’ time.
That winter proved a particularly brutal one. They were well supplied with food and coal, but storms blew away an outbuilding and a boat, and several of their dogs perished in a blizzard. Despite this, Nordenskjöld and his men made a successful month-long 400 mile (645 km) sledge trip to map the coast, completing it just in time for the expected return of the Antarctic. It never came.
With no radio or other communication with the outside world, the fate of the ship was a mystery. All Nordenskjöld and his companions could do was to settle down for a second winter and hope that relief would follow. In the meantime, they were forced to supplement their dwindling rations for a diet of penguins and seals.
The fate of the Antarctic
What had happened to the Antarctic? When it sailed south to relieve Nordenskjöld, its Norwegian captain Carl Anton Larsen found the sea to be completely clogged with ice. With no immediate hope of reaching Snow Hill, it was decided to deposit a party of three men at Hope Bay on the southern mouth of Antarctic Sound to cross overland to Snow Hill and collect Nordenskjöld and his men to be picked up by the ship – a round trip of 168 miles (270 km).
Unfortunately, everything that could possibly go wrong did.
When the three man party, led by Nordenskjöld’s second in command Gunnar Andersson headed south, they found their route to Snow Hill unexpectedly blocked. Where the Antarctic’s route had been thwarted by ice, they were faced with the opposite problem. The ice they intended to cross had been swept out to sea. Unable to reach their companions, they returned to Hope Bay, only to find the Antarctic had gone as well.
While Andersson sledged south, Larsen had tried to find an alternative route to Snow Hill. In doing so, he had become caught fast in the pack ice. Almost 14 years to the week before Shackleton’s Endurance was caught in the ice, the Weddell Sea did exactly the same thing to the Antarctic. This time however the end was much swifter, barely six weeks after being frozen in, Larsen and his men were forced to abandon their ship. Not long after, the pack loosened and the fatally wounded ship sank without trace.
The disaster had struck 28 miles (45 km) from land. Over two terrifying weeks, the men ferried their supplies through shifting pack, and moving from floe to floe, hoping the currents wouldn’t sweep them out into the ocean. After a final desperate day of rowing in their lifeboats, they landed on Paulet Island on the last day of February 1903. A day later a ferocious storm hit the island, which would have killed them all had they still been on the ice.
Survival and relief
The expedition was now split into three stranded groups. There were the six men of Nordenskjöld’s party on Snow Hill. Their supplies were running out but they at least had at the shelter of a proper hut. At Hope Bay, Andersson’s party of three constructed a rude shelter from boulders, tarpaulin and whatever wood they had, erecting their tend inside and insulating the floor with penguin skins. On Paulet Island meanwhile, Larsen and his 13 men were able to make a rocky hut of their own, roofing it with a wooden frame covered with sailcloth and seal skins. For all three parties, penguins served as both their main food and fuel through a long, dark and very isolated Antarctic winter.
The approach of the Antarctic spring finally brought relief. On October 12 1903, Nordenskjöld was out sledging with one of his men when he spotted three distant figures. At first he thought they were penguins, but slowly they revealed themselves as men. It was Andersson and the Hope Bay party, but they were so ragged and covered with soot from burning penguin blubber that even when they excitedly shook hands, Nordenskjöld didn’t recognise who they were.
Two weeks later, relief finally arrived in a manner so implausible that Hollywood would have rejected it. Before leaving South America for Snow Hill in the Antarctic, Larsen had left detailed instructions with the Argentinian navy, and when he failed to return, they had launched the corvette Uruguay to search for him. Miraculously, the ice that season had been much less than the year before, and the Uruguay was able to reach Snow Hill. But just as the naval officers were asking Nordenskjöld if he had seen the crew of the Antarctic, Larsen suddenly arrived at the hut as if from nowhere. He had spent a difficult winter at Paulet Island, where one of his men had died from heart failure. Resolved to at least find Andersson and his companions, he had taken a small party of men in one of their whaleboats and spent five days rowing to Hope Bay. Finding the camp abandoned, they were able to make a sail from tarpaulin and set out for Snow Hill. The reunion was as incredible as it was joyful.
After collecting the remainder of the party on Paulet Island, the Uruguay finally arrived back in Buenos Aires on 11 November 1903, where the expedition received a hero’s welcome. Despite the monumental challenges and the loss of their ship, the expedition had largely succeeded in its scientific goals, collecting an enormous amount of valuable data on the geography, geology, climate, and wildlife of the Antarctic Peninsula. Before the Antarctic was sunk, Larsen carried out a new survey of South Georgia and found its waters full of whales. With his newfound fame he persuaded the city’s businessmen to fund a whaling station in Grytviken, the first such operation in polar waters.
Visiting the Nordenskjöld sites today
Several locations associated with the Swedish Antarctic Expedition can still be seen today. Of course, today’s Antarctic weather remains just as unpredictable as it was in Nordenskjöld’s day, so itineraries and visits to specific sites can never be guaranteed, but the following locations all remain accessible to expedition cruise ships visiting the Weddell Sea – especially those on the remotest itineraries.
Snow Hill is today better known as the northernmost emperor penguin colony that it’s possible to visit, but should cruise ships visit the opposite side of the island then its possible to land at Nordenskjold’s hut and even see inside (subject to strict visitor guidelines). Paulet Island is also known for its penguins, this time an enormous rookery of Adelie penguins. The remains of the stone hut built Larsen and his men can still be seen as well as the cairn built to honour their crew mate, Ole Wennersgard, who died here. The density of Adelie penguins here is such that only 20 people are allowed to land at any one time to avoid disturbing them.
When sailing through Antarctic Sound, expedition ships all pass Hope Bay, which is now home to the bright red buildings of Argentina’s Esperanza Base. Since Covid, it hasn’t been possible to visit the base in person.
Finally, when transiting through Buenos Aires as part of an Antarctic trip, make time if you can to visit the Uruguay, which is permanently moored in the dock area of Puerto Madera. Now a museum, it has many exhibits dedicated to the role it played in the relief of Nordenskjöld’s expedition (all signage is in Spanish so going with a pre-booked English-speaking guide can be sensible). As one of the last remaining ships from the ‘Heroic Era’ of Antarctic exploration, the Uruguay is well with a visit – especially if your time in Buenos Aires is bookending an Antarctic trip of your own.
*
