Shackleton: la perseverancia en el hielo:
Siento una inexplicable admiración por los pioneros de las expediciones al Polo. Y de entre todos ellos, siento verdadera devoción por Ernest Shackleton y la expedición del Endurance. En 1914, reciente aún la gesta de Amundsen consistente en alcanzar el polo geográfico sur, y con Europa bailando en el filo de la navaja de la Primera Guerra Mundial, a Shackleton no se le ocurre otra cosa que atravesar el continente antártico de una punta a la otra, empresa aún no realizada por entonces. Para ello reclutó a 27 hombres, pero la expedición estaba destinada, como todos los intentos que le precedieron, a fracasar. Apenas el Endurance entró en el peligroso mar de icebergs de Weddell, quedó atrapado en el hielo, para luego ser finalmente aplastado y hundido por la presión de las placas heladas varios meses después. Shackleton se vio obligado a renunciar al objetivo geográfico de la misión, sustituyéndolo por uno improvisado: sobrevivir y procurar la salvaguarda de los hombres que tenía a su cargo. Y así fue: la odisea de regreso emprendida por la tripulación del Endurance, que duró cerca de dos años no tiene parangón en la historia de las expediciones marinas, debido a la dureza y la dificultad extrema de las condiciones. Solo la expedición al Mar del Norte emprendida por el marino holandés Willem Barents a finales del siglo XVI guarda algún paralelismo con la de Shackleton. Pero a diferencia de Barents, de Scott, o de Amundsen, Ernest devolvió vivos a todos y cada uno de sus hombres. Y aunque cause estupor, es preciso añadir otro dato: la mayor parte de los tripulantes se enrolaron en el ejército inglés nada más regresar, en 1916, a su país, dispuestos a morir en la Gran Guerra, cosa que ocurrió a más de uno. Quizás la guerra ya no era gran cosa para ellos, que habían dormido cada noche junto a la muerte. Además de los diarios de Shackleton y algunos otros tripulantes, para conocer y comprender la empresa del Endurance contamos con el extenso y excelente material documental que el fotógrafo Frank Hurley trajo de vuelta (no sin penosidades). Se trata de excelentes fotografías y rollos cinematográficos que nos muestran la belleza desolada del hielo y su luz cegadora, la desesperación nunca del todo confesada de los tripulantes, la lenta destrucción del buque, los sucesivos campamentos en la huida hacia delante… Las imágenes de Hurley provocan un estremecimiento difícil de transmitir a alguien no familiarizado del todo con todas y cada una de las calamidades de la expedición. Mucho después de la bajada de Odiseo a los infiernos; después de los relatos de Verne, en los que ya parecía estar todo (y no, no estaba, aún nos quedaba por sentir el miedo que asomaba palpablemente en cada una de esas imágenes tan reales como cada uno de los dedos y las orejas que fueron amputadas y no regresaron del hielo); después de la pintura, desde donde Géricault o Caspar David Friedrich habían imaginado la muerte, la desesperación y el naufragio; mucho después, mucho más acá, nos quedan las fotografías de Hurley, la huella real, la dentellada del frío, y al verlas sabemos que lo que les movía era la amistad, un tipo de valor que ya no existe, y un ansia inexplicable de conocimiento, pero un conocimiento no solo al servicio de la geografía o la biología, sino un conocimiento del alma humana, colocada allí al extremo de sí misma. Caspar David Friedrich, "El mar de hielo". 1824. (aka "El Naufragio en el Ártico") El Endurance atrapado en el hielo. Fotografía de Frank Hurley Por otro lado, cuando miro las explanadas y las cordilleras blancas en las fotos de Frank Hurley me ocurre que tengo la sensación de estar viendo un paisaje lunar o marciano, y el parecido que esas fotografías guardan con las escenografías de La Mujer en la Luna (Fritz Lang, 1929) es algo que trastorna -para bien- mis sueños... Shackleton fue, probablemente, poco más que un terco extraordinario. Acudió varias veces al Polo y, sí, regresó, pero nunca logró el éxito. Y cuando ya todos pensaban que había tenido bastante con el infierno del Endurance, volvió a la Antártida en 1921, sin un objetivo definido, quizás para morir finalmente en la nieve, víctima de un repetino ataque al corazón, con apenas 48 años de edad. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, el más importante cronista de los viajes al polo, explicó la aportación de Shackleton de un modo sumario: Para un proyecto conjunto de corte científico y geográfico, dadme a Scott. Para una carrera al Polo Norte y nada más, Amundsen. Y si estoy en un maldito agujero y quiero salir de él, dadme a Shackleton. http://www.espacioblog.com/rrose

Vitus Bering:
Vitus Bering was one of the world's famous explorers. In 1728, Bering discovered that Asia and America are two separate continents, and in 1741 he was the first one to map the west coast of Alaska. As Columbus tied together the world to the west, Bering tied it together to the east. Horsens 1677. By Peder Hansen Resen. Vitus Jonassen Bering was born in Horsens in 1681. He went to sea as a young man and began a long career as a seaman. In 1703, Bering enlisted in the Russian navy. He moved to Russia, where he got married and had children. Apart from a single visit to Copenhagen in 1715, Bering never saw Denmark again. The first Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1730) In the early 18th century it was unknown whether America was connected with Asia. Therefore the Russian Zar, Peter the Great (1672-1725), sent out an expedition lead by Vitus Bering to solve the proplem. The expedition travelled through Siberia and reached Kamchatka, where a camp wass set up and ships were built. On the 13th of August 1728, Bering sailed round the north-east corner of Asia, thus proving that there was water between Asia and America. The American coast was hidden in fog, though. Bering returned to Sct. Petersburg with the news but was criticised for not having actually seen the American coast. The second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) The second Kamchatka Expedition, the so-called Great Nordic Expedition, was the largest expedition the world ever saw. It included 10.000 men all in all. Vitus Bering was the leader and besides the overall organisation it was his task to find and map the west coast of America. He reached America on the 15th of July 1741. On the way home his ship stranded on a small bare island. Bering and his crew had to spend the winter on the island, living in driftwood huts that were dug into the sand. It was later given the name Bering Island. Bering is found Although world famous, the exact look of Vitus Bering is unknown. A few portraits exist, but there are doubts about their authenticity. This was the primary reason for establishing a Soviet-Danish research team which was to find and excavate Bering's grave and subsequently recreate his face from the cranium. The research team consisted of Soviet archaeologists and forensic physicians as well as archaeologists from Horsens' Museum. In August 1991, Bering's grave and the graves of five other seamen were discovered. The remains were transported to Moscow where they were investigated by the forensic physicians who succeeded in recreating Bering's appearance. In 1992, Vitus Bering and the other seamen were buried again on the Bering Island. The exhibition in Horsens' Museum shows the exiting expedition in words and pictures and also exhibits the interesting results of forensic medicine in the form of a recreated bust of Vitus Bering, a cast of Bering's craniium and a reconstruction of the grave. | horsensmuseum.dk

RUSSIANS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC:
Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681 - 1741) Aleksey Ilyich Chirikov (1703 - 1748) N. I. Billings (?) Urey Fyodorovich Lisiansky (1773 - 1837) I. G. Voznesenskii (?) Lavrentii Alekseevich Zagoskin (1808 - 1890) While the Europeans were looking for a passage to Asia through the Arctic Ocean or through the interior of the North American continent, the Russians were trying to find out if Siberia was linked to North America. In 1648, the Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev conducted a first expedition which went around the point of Siberia and proved that the two continents were separate. But his report was buried in the archives and, when Tsar Peter the Great commanded Vitus Jonassen Bering and Aleksey Ilyich Chirikov to explore this region to find out if the two continents were linked, it was a new beginning and, consequently, it was called the 'first Kamchatka expedition'. Vitus Jonassen Bering was born in Horsens, Denmark, in 1681. He had already visited India when he became a naval officer at the service of Imperial Russia in 1724. Promoted to first captain, he was charged with conducting the 'first' Kamchatka expedition in 1728. Before reaching Kamchatka, he had to cross more than 7 200 kilometres by land with 33 men, including lieutenant Aleksey Ilyich Chirikov. The voyage took three years. At Kamchatka, Bering built the Saint Gabriel, a ship on which he skirted the coast northwards and discovered a large island, which he named "Saint Lawrence". On August 15, 1728, he had gone far into the polar sea. Knowing the results of previous expeditions in northern Russia, he knew that, at the latitude that he had just reached, the two continents did not join. He returned without having seen the North American continent due to fog and clouds. In Saint Petersburg, many were not convinced that the continents were not linked and demanded more thorough research. In 1732, Russia organized a large expedition that would set out in three directions: the first would skirt the shore of the Arctic Ocean in Siberia; the second would explore the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and of Japan; and the third, under Bering's command, would sail along the shores of America to Mexico. Bering would claim the northwest coast of North America for Russia. This last expedition left Kamchatka in June 1741, with Bering and Chirikov each on his own ship. On July 16, Bering saw Mount Saint Elias, in Alaska, and landed on Kayak Island. Chirikov also reached the coast of Alaska, only further south. Bering explored Kodiak Island, surveyed the Kenai peninsula and the Aleutian Islands and took possession of the coast in Russia's name. On the way back, in November, almost at Kamchatka, his ship foundered on one of the Commander Islands. Bering and 18 members of his crew died of scurvy during the winter. The others managed to build a bark and to survive. As for Chirikov, in 1743, he returned to Saint Petersburg with precise information on the strait that separates Siberia from North America -- since named Bering Strait. He also brought back furs, which drew the attention of Russian merchants and brought them to North American shores. The places along which Bering and his lieutenants had moored their ships were later established as the boundary of present-day Alaska. From 1785 to 1794, N. I. Billings and G. A. Sarychev travelled a route through northeast Asia, Bering Strait, the northwest coast of America and the Aleutian Islands. They brought back many artifacts produced by the peoples of these regions. But, at the beginning of the next century, Catherine of Russia commanded a voyage of exploration around the world to see whether or not it would be appropriate to supply Alaska entirely by sea rather than by the land route used by Billings and Sarychev, which crossed Russia all the way to the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka. To this end, in 1803, a lieutenant of the Russian navy, Urey Fyodorovich Lisiansky, accompanied commander Adam Ivan Ritter von Krusenstern. The two men left the Baltic Sea and rounded Cape Horn sailing all the way to Hawaii. From there, in 1804, Krusenstern headed for the coast of Siberia and Japan whereas Lisiansky sailed towards the establishments of the Russian-American Company in the Gulf of Alaska. At Sitka, he helped to re-establish the trading post destroyed by the Tlingit two years earlier. He then continued his voyage to the west and returned to Russia in 1806. The voyage's objective had been met -- the Alaskan trading posts could be re-supplied more easily by sea than through Siberia. This also improved Russia's position in the competition for the fur trade with China. "Though this part of the coast of America has been known to us since the period of Captain Cheericoff's voyage, in the year 1741, we still were not sure whether it formed part of the continent or belonged to an island, till captain Vancouver's expedition, when Chatham's Strait was discovered, [...] By our survey it appears, that amongst the group of islands, which in my chart I have denominated the Sitca Islands, from the inhabitants, who call themselves Sitca-hans, [...]" (Lisiansky 1814, 235) For his crew's health: "[...] I laid in, while at New Archangel, a large stock of sorrel, two casks of which were prepared in the manner of sour crout, as well as an ample supply both of the juice of the hurtle-berry, and of the berry itself, which being put into small casks, and the casks filled with water, will keep a long time. There had hitherto been no appearance of scurvy on board, and with these antiscorbutics I had little fear of the disease." (Lisiansky 1814, 246) In Russia as elsewhere, the growing interest in natural history and ethnology brought about new research expeditions into the lands that had been explored in the previous century. Thus, in 1839, the Academy of Sciences of Russia sent ethnologist I. G. Voznesenskii to study the "primitive" populations of Alaska and to collect artifacts. This researcher, considered as the most important scientist in Russia, spent almost ten years in America and the results of his research surpassed all hopes. He brought back more than one thousand articles from the Inuit and from Native peoples from Alaska to California. His rigorous work methods and the notes that accompanied this collection made this an incomparable source of information for those who studied the ethnology of the west coast of North America. From 1842 to 1844, Lavrentii Alekseevich Zagoskin, a lieutenant in the Russian navy, led an expedition to Alaska for the Russian American Company. He explored the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers to find sites that would be favourable for building trading posts. Influenced by Voznesenskii, Zagoskin also brought back precious artifacts and descriptions of the Inuit and Athabasca populations. The publication of the account of his voyage, in 1847, led to his being considered the most important ethnographer of his time. After its defeat in the Crimean War, Russia did not want to cede its Alaskan territories to Great Britain and so transferred them to the United States in 1867. This marked the end of Russian presence in North America. Russian explorers contributed to making known the west coast and its people, from Alaska to California, including present-day British Columbia. | nlc-bnc.ca