New Land
Four Years in the Arctic Regions

A 1904 account of the expedition of Otto Sverdrup and his crew to the seas and coastlines of the Arctic.

Otto Neumann Sverdrup (Author), Ethel Harriet Hearn (Translated by)

9781108071109, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 April 2014

518 pages, 112 b/w illus. 3 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

This well-illustrated account of polar exploration was originally published in Norway in 1903, and in this two-volume English translation in 1904. It tells the story of the four years spent by Otto Sverdrup (1854–1930) and his crew in surveying and charting the seas and coastlines of the Arctic. Sverdrup had qualified as a ship's master when he first met Fridtjof Nansen, whose Greenland expedition of 1888 he accompanied. He advised on the construction of Nansen's wooden ship, the Fram, and became its master in 1895. Both with Nansen and under his own leadership, he undertook many expeditions. In June 1898, he took the Fram and a crew including several scientists to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, where they overwintered for four years. Volume 1 describes the life and work of the first two years, including extensive trips away from the Fram, both on land and on the ice.

Preface
Translator's note
1. Introduction
2. In the drift-ice across the coast of Greenland
3. In Foulke Fjord
4. Walrus-catching in Rice Strait
5. Our first meeting with the polar ox
6. A deserted country
7. Our life on board
8. Greely's camping-ground
9. An unsuccessful shooting-trip
10. Eskimo visits on board the Fram
11. Across Ellesmere Land
12. Constitution Day on board the Fram
13. Summer journeys
14. Bears and polar oxen
15. Dr Svendsen's fate
16. Summer work
17. Sledge-journeys ashore and afloat
18. In summer waters
19. Walrus-catching
20. The Fram's second winter harbour
21. Boating expeditions in Havnefjord
22. Captivity in Baadsfjord
23. A sad home-coming
24. Arduous journeys
25. An awkward bear-hunt
26. Stormkap
27. Happy hunting grounds
28. Home to the Fram
29. Carrying meat in the polar night
30. The polar dog and its ailments
31. In winter quarters
32. A merry Christmas and a happy new year
33. Björneborg
34. The great expedition
35. Through Hell Gate
36. Store and Lille Björnekap
37. Towards Cape South-West
38. A toilsome journey
39. Easter in Heiberg Land
40. Through drift and scud
41. Bad-weather camp
42. Towards the north!
43. The return journey
44. A journey of peril
45. Back to Björneborg
46. The commandant's hermit life
47. Fire on board the Fram
48. Schie's narrative
49. The returning party's experiences.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]