Franz Josef Land
Today those aboard National Geographic Explorer took part in making history. Their landing at Franz Josef Land marked the first time a non-Russian expedition vessel called here since 1928! Much gratitude goes out to our Russian colleagues — without their extraordinary work making the necessary connections and gaining the required permissions, this historic voyage would not have been possible.
In stark contrast to the 1596 official discovery by Willem Barents of the Svalbard Archipelago, Franz Josef Land lay in wait for discovery for almost three more centuries. While there may have been some Norwegian hunters to the islands slightly earlier, the official discovery of Franz Josef Land on August 30, 1873 is credited to the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Julius Payer and Carl Weyprecht on the Admiral Tegetthoff. During the expedition the ship was finally locked in the ice, abandoned, and the crew was forced to drag their boats over the frozen sea to open water and eventually to rescue by Russian ships at Novaya Zemlya.
For the next half century Franz Josef Land was the site of many pioneering expeditions both to explore the area and as a launching place to try and reach the North Pole. Expeditions from Austria, Holland, Great Britain, USA, Italy, Russia, and Norway all came to this remote island archipelago, many of them utilizing the very landing at Cape Flora on Northbrook Island that we used today.
On April 15, 1926 Russia issued a decree claiming all lands north of the Russian mainland to the North Pole to be Soviet territory. By the early 1930’s Franz Josef Land was shut off from most of the outside world and, other than a brief occupation by a German weather station during World War II, the entire archipelago has been shrouded in obscurity throughout the Cold War.
Starting in 1990, The Norwegian Polar Institute joined with Russian researchers in several joint summer projects in Franz Josef Land. Russian authorities began to open up access to more foreign scientists and eventually historians and other visitors were allowed access to this seldom-visited area.
Russian agent Sergey Frolov expressed excitement at being “the first foreign-flagged non-scientific vessel in Franz Josef Land since 1928.” Russian Biologist and official representative of National Park Russian Arctic Maria Gavrilo echoed the excitement of visiting this Arctic refuge, but added that great care would have to be taken to preserve and protect this fragile ecosystem. Change is in the wind here in Franz Josef Land, and those of us aboard National Geographic Explorer find ourselves helping to write this exciting new chapter in history.
By the way, did I mention that we saw 8 bowhead whales (there are only slightly over 100 individuals in the entire Franz Josef Land Archipelago) as we approached Northbrook Island?
