Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for aNortheast passage. He reached as far asNovaya Zemlya and theKara Sea in his first two voyages, but was turned back on both occasions by ice. During a third expedition, the crew discoveredSpitsbergen andBear Island, but subsequently became stranded on Novaya Zemlya for almost a year. Barentsz died on the return voyage in 1597.
TheBarents Sea, among many other places, is named after him.[1]
His career as an explorer was spent searching for aNortheast passage in order to trade with China.[1] He reasoned clear, open water north ofSiberia must exist since thesun shone 24 hours a day melting Arctic sea ice, indeed he thought the farther north one went the less ice there would be.[1][4]
On 5 June 1594, Barentsz left the island ofTexel[2] aboard the small[5] shipMercury,[6] as part of a group of three ships sent out in separate directions to try to enter theKara Sea, with the hopes of finding theNortheast Passage aboveSiberia. Between 23 and 29 June, Barentsz stayed atKildin Island.
On 9 July,[7] the crew encountered apolar bear for the first time. After shooting and wounding it with amusket when it tried to climb aboard the ship, the seamen decided to capture it with the hope of bringing it back to Holland. Once leashed and brought aboard the ship however, the bearrampaged and had to be killed. This occurred in Bear Creek, Williams Island.
Upon discovering the Orange Islands, the crew came across a herd of approximately 200walruses and tried to kill them with hatchets and pikes. Finding the task more difficult than they imagined, cold steel shattering against the tough hides of the animals, they left with only a few ivory tusks.[1][8]
Barentsz reached the west coast ofNovaya Zemlya, and followed it northward before being forced to turn back in the face of large icebergs. Although they did not reach their ultimate goal, the trip was considered a success.[2]
Barentz flagshipGulden Windthunde nearly collided with that of the Vice Admiral on the second voyage 6 August 1595Crew of Willem Barentsz fighting a polar bear
The following year,Prince Maurice of Orange was filled with "the most exaggerated hopes"[9] on hearing of Barentsz' previous voyage, and named him chief pilot and conductor of a new expedition, which was accompanied by six ships loaded with merchant wares that the Dutch hoped to trade with China.[10]
Setting out on 2 June 1595,[9] the voyage went between the Siberian coast andVaygach Island. On 30 August, the party came across approximately 20Samoyed "wild men" with whom they were able to speak, due to a crewmember speaking their language.[8] 4 September saw a small crew sent toStates Island to search for a type ofcrystal that had been noticed earlier. The party was attacked by a polar bear, and two sailors were killed.[11]
Eventually, the expedition turned back upon discovering that unexpected weather had left theKara Sea frozen.[12] This expedition was largely considered to be a failure.[13]
Map of the entire Arctic from Willem Barentsz's third voyageThe tracks of the Dutch navigators (1596–97)
In 1596, disappointed by the failure of previous expeditions, the States-General announced they would no longersubsidize similar voyages – but instead offered a high reward for anybody whosuccessfully navigated the Northeast Passage.[9] The Town Council ofAmsterdam purchased and outfitted two small ships, captained byJan Rijp andJacob van Heemskerk, to search for the elusive channel under the command of Barentsz. They set off on 10 May or 15 May, and on 9 June discoveredBear Island.[8]
They discoveredSpitsbergen on 17 June, sighting its northwest coast. On 20 June they saw the entrance of a large bay, later calledRaudfjorden. On 21 June they anchored between Cloven Cliff and Vogelsang, where they "set up a post with the arms of the Dutch upon it." On 25 June they enteredMagdalenefjorden, which they namedTusk Bay, in light of the walrus tusks they found there. The following day, 26 June, they sailed into the northern entrance ofForlandsundet, but were forced to turn back because of a shoal, which led them to call the fjordKeerwyck ("inlet where one is forced to turn back"). On 28 June they rounded the northern point ofPrins Karls Forland, which they namedVogelhoek, on account of the large number of birds they saw there. They sailed south, passingIsfjorden andBellsund, which were labelled on Barentsz's chart asGrooten Inwyck andInwyck.
Willem Barentsz's ship amidst the Arctic ice
The ships once again found themselves at Bear Island on 1 July, which led to a disagreement between Barentsz and Van Heemskerk on one side and Rijp on the other. They agreed to part ways, with Barentsz continuing northeast, while Rijp headed due north in an attempt to cross directly over the north pole to reach China.[1][14] Barentsz reached Novaya Zemlya on 17 July. Anxious to avoid becoming entrapped in the surrounding ice, he intended to head for theVaigatch Strait, but their ship became stuck within the many icebergs and floes.[9] Stranded, the 16-man crew was forced to spend the winter on a barren bluff.[7] After a failed attempt to melt thepermafrost, the crew used driftwood and lumber from the ship to build a 7.8×5.5-metre lodge they calledHet Behouden Huys (The Saved House).[4]
Dealing with extreme cold, the crew realised that their socks would burn before their feet could even feel the warmth of a fire – and took to sleeping with warmed stones and cannonballs. They used the merchant fabrics aboard the ship to make additional blankets and clothing.[8] The ship bore salted beef, butter, cheese, bread,barley, peas, beans,groats, flour, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, beer, wine, brandy,hardtack, smoked bacon, ham and fish. Much of the beer froze, bursting thecasks. By 8 NovemberGerrit de Veer, the ship's carpenter who kept a diary, reported a shortage of beer and bread, with wine being rationed four days later.[8]
In January 1597, the crew became the first to witness and record the atmospheric anomaly of a polar mirage, now coined theNovaya Zemlya effect due to this sighting.[15]
The Death of Willem Barentsz (1836) by Christiaan Julius Lodewyck Portman
Proving somewhat successful at hunting, the group caughtArctic foxes in primitive traps.[4] The raw flesh of the Arctic fox contains small amounts of vitamin C, which, unknown to the sailors, reduced the effects of scurvy.[1] The crew were continually attacked by polar bears that infested the area where they camped.[1] The bears turned the stranded and now empty ship into a wintertime abode. Primitive guns usually did not kill the bears on first or even second shot (unless well aimed at the heart) and were difficult to aim, while the cold and brittle metal weapons often shattered or bent.[1]
By June, the ice had still not loosened its grip on the ship, and the remaining desperatescurvy-ridden survivors took two open boats. Barentsz died at sea soon after on 20 June 1597. It is not known whether Barentsz was buried onthe northern island of Novaya Zemlya, or at sea.[16] It took seven more weeks for the boats to reach theKola Peninsula, where they were rescued by a Dutch merchant vessel commanded by former fellow explorer Jan Rijp who by that time had returned to the Netherlands and was on a second voyage, assuming the Barentsz crew to be lost, and found it by accident.[1] By that time, only 12 crewmen remained. They did not reach Amsterdam until 1 November.[17] Sources differ on whether two men died on the ice floe and three in the boats,[4] or three on the ice floe and two in the boats.[9] The young cabin boy had died during the winter months in the shelter.[7]
The remains of the wooden lodge of Willem Barentsz on Novaya Zemlya, sketched by Elling Carlsen in 1871
The wooden lodge where Barentsz' crew sheltered was found undisturbed by Norwegianseal hunterElling Carlsen in 1871. Making a sketch of the lodge's construction, Carlsen recorded finding two copper cooking pots, a barrel, a tool chest, clock, crowbar, flute, clothing, two empty chests, a cooking tripod and a number of pictures.[18] Captain Gunderson landed at the site on 17 August 1875 and collected a grappling iron, two maps and a handwritten translation ofArthur Pet and Charles Jackman's voyages. The following year, Charles L.W. Gardiner also visited the site on 29 July where he collected 112 more objects, including the message by Barentsz and Heemskerck describing their settlement to future visitors. All of these objects eventually ended up in theRijksmuseum Amsterdam,[14][19] after some had initially been held inThe Hague.[20]
Objects found inHet Behouden Huys
The amateur archaeologist Miloradovich's 1933 finds are held in theArctic and Antarctic Museum in St. Petersburg. Dmitriy Kravchenko visited the site in 1977, 1979 and 1980 – and sentdivers into the sea hoping to find the wreck of the large ship. He returned with a number of objects, which went to the Arkhangelsk Regional Museum of Local Lore (Russia). Another small collection exists at the Polar Museum inTromsø (Norway).[14]
In 1992, an expedition of three scientists, a journalist and two photographers commissioned by theArctic Centre at theUniversity of Groningen, coupled with two scientists, a cook and a doctor sent by theArctic and Antarctic Research Institute inSt. Petersburg, returned to the site,[14] and erected a commemorative marker at the site of the cabin.[21]
The location of Barentsz' wintering on the ice floes has become a tourist destination foricebreaker cruiseships operating fromMurmansk.[4][22]
Two of Barentsz' crewmembers later published their journals,Jan Huyghen van Linschoten who had accompanied him on the first two voyages, and Gerrit de Veer who had acted as the ship's carpenter on the last two voyages.
In 1878, the Netherlandschristened theWillem Barentsz Arctic exploration ship.[26]
In 1931, Nijgh & Van Ditmar published a play written byAlbert Helman about Barentsz' third voyage, although it was never performed.
In 1946, thewhaling shipPan Gothia was re-christened theWillem Barentsz. In 1953, the secondWillem Barentsz whaling ship was produced.[27]
Aprotein in the molecular structure of thefruit fly was namedBarentsz, in honour of the explorer.[28]
Dutch filmmakerReinout Oerlemans released a film calledNova Zembla in November 2011. It is the first Dutch 3D feature film.
In 2011, a team of volunteers started building a replica of Barentsz' ship in the Dutch town ofHarlingen. The plan was to have the ship ready by 2018, when theTall Ships' Races was scheduled to visit Harlingen.[29]
^Mirsky, Jeannette (1997).To the Arctic!: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times (2nd updated ed.). University of Chicago Press.ISBN0-226-53179-1.
^De Jonge, J.K.J."Nova Zembla: De voorwerpen door de Nederlandsche Zeevaarders na hunne overwintering aldaar in 1597 achtergelaten en in 1871 door Kapitein Carlsen teruggevonden, beschreven en toegelicht.", 1872.
^Bruijne, Antonius de; Balje, Bastiaan Gerardus (1985).De eerste tocht van de Willem Barentsz naar de Noordelijke IJszee 1878.
^Boot, W.J.J. (1987).De Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor de Walvischvaart. Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw.ISBN978-90-6707-129-1.
^Van Eeden, F.J.M.; Palacios, I.M.; Petronczki, M.; Weston, M.J.D.; St. Johnston, D. (2001).Barentsz is essential for the posterior localization of oskar mRNA and colocalizes with it to the posterior pole.
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