Vega Expedition Through the Northeast Passage (1878–1880)

Preparations

Nordenskiöld had already conducted a series of expeditions in the Arctic, including to Svalbard, West Greenland, the Kara Sea and the Yenisei River.

In 1877, Nordenskiöld began planning the expedition to find the Northeast Passage, and in July he presented a detailed plan to King Oscar II, who accepted the proposal. Additional funds were provided by members of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography and the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg, and private individuals, notably Swedish industrialist and philanthropist Oscar Dickson (1823-1897) and Russian industrialist Alexander Sibiryakov (1849–1933).

The steamship Vega, constructed in 1872 at Bremerhaven as a sealer and whaler, was bought for the expedition, and was converted at the Karlskrona naval shipyards in Blekinge, Sweden, with government funding. Sibiryakov also equipped another steamship, Lena, which would accompany the expedition until the Lena River in Siberia.

Expedition members

Louis Palander (1842–1920) was appointed captain of the expedition. Palander was a Swedish naval officer and an experienced sailor who had already made several trips in the Arctic and had previously participated in other Nordenskiöld expeditions. It also included scientists, officers and a crew of 21 men.

Expedition

The purpose of the expedition was to collect scientific material from the Arctic and to circumnavigate Asia. The expedition had been approved by the Swedish king himself Oscar II in 1877 and was to be led by the Swedish-Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld.

Vega left Karlskrona on 22 June 1878, making a stop in Tromsø from 17 until 21 July. In Tromsø, Vega was joined by the cargo ship Lena, commanded by Edvard Holm Johanssen. The ships reached Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost tip of the Eurasian continent, on 19 August 1878. Lena navigated up the Lena river towards Yakutsk on 27 August, with Vega continuing east along the coast, which had only a narrow ice-free strip a couple of miles wide.

Vega's progress stopped in pack ice on 28 September 1878, about 1.5 kilometers from the coast at the Chukchi Peninsula at Neshkan, only days from the Bering Strait. As the Vega was traveling by the Chukchi peninsula which was inhabited by the local Chukchis, the temperature affected the engines making the ship stop in its tracks.

First contact with the Chukchi people

"I dag på morgonen så kom där till oss 3 båtar med människor, de var vilda, de ville gå ombord men vi måtte ta oss ett gevär och skjuta innan vi kunde styra dän. Deras båtar var av sälhud, de var en 30 stycken människor, ludna, bruna fulingar."

However, the intent of the Chukchis was not malicious, and tensions shortly thereafter de-escalated. The Swedes would accept the Chukchis' offer of hospitality. As the winter progressed, the Swedes spent their time east of the Chukchis town of Pitlekaj in the bay of Koljutjinskaja, thus delaying the expedition by around a year. The relationship between the Swedes and the Chukchis improved, and they would celebrate birthdays and holidays with each other. The discovery of the Chukchis by the Swedes would greatly contribute to the knowledge and awareness about them, one crew member even learned the Chukchi language to such a degree that he managed to make a dictionary from Swedish to Chukchi.

Freed from the ice

The expedition spent the winter there. Vega could be freed from the ice only the next summer, on 18 August 1879, and it reached Bering Strait on 20 August.

Vega stopped in Japan for repairs for almost two months, and returned to Sweden through the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal. It returned to Stockholm on 24 April 1880, prompting festive celebrations with fireworks and almost the whole of Stockholm's inhabitants cheering and welcoming them home. Among the spectators was a then 15-year old Sven Hedin, who at that time decided to be an adventurer himself.