3-052-404 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Dutch Arctic Expedition: schooner Willem Barents sighting Franz Joseph Land, Sept. 7, 1870, (1880). '...a small vessel without steam-power, fitted out by private enterprise, and named after the ancient Dutch explorer [Willem Barents]...The objects of the expedition were...to examine the state and position of the ice in the Barents and Kara Seas, to take deep-sea soundings with serial temperatures, and thus to supply another important contribution to our knowledge of that interesting region. Magnetic and meteorological observations were also to be taken, and natural history collections to be diligently made at every opportunity...the Dutch explorers, at six p.m. on Sept. 7, sighted Franz Joseph Land...Thus, a small sailing-schooner succeeded in reaching those hitherto inaccessible shores, and in returning safely during the navigable season: an important achievement, which gives hope of future greater and more extensive achievements...Both the Dutch Arctic Expeditions, that of 1878 and that of 1879,...have produced valuable scientific results. They have added to our knowledge of the Arctic seas, and their success will no doubt encourage the countrymen of Barents to make further efforts in the glorious field of Arctic research'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.