Taissumani, July 22

This map shows the “open polar sea” that 19th century explorers believed to exist beyond the ice rim of the Arctic Ocean.

Today, climate scientists are predicting an ice-free Northwest Passage and a largely ice-free route from Europe over the North Pole, or at least very near it, and on to Asia.

But what is largely unknown is that, a century and a half ago, many already believed that an ice-free polar ocean existed but had not yet been reached by explorers. This fanciful idea was popularized as the Open Polar Sea.

The genesis of this idea is lost in obscurity. Apparently Dutch mariners claimed to have sailed across the pole in the 17th century. Reports of this feat reached England and were discussed in learned circles, but when proof of the Dutch accomplishments could not be provided, the idea faded from public discussion.

It resurfaced again in 1817 because of reports from veteran whaler William Scoresby who wrote to the Admiralty telling them about his observations of the breakup of the ice off the coast of Greenland that year, apparently an unusually complete breakup.

Scoresby was too accomplished a scientist in his own right to suggest that there was an area of completely open water beyond the ice rim of the Arctic Ocean – he merely suggested that conditions were right for the Admiralty to begin exploring in the Arctic.

John Barrow, influential second secretary of the Admiralty and the man who de facto ran that institution, sent out two expeditions the next year. David Buchan’s ships went north from the Atlantic Ocean, but were stopped by ice north of Svalbard.

John Ross’s went up Davis Strait and into Baffin Bay before they too were stopped by ice. Barrow, analyzing the results of both expeditions, concluded that the ice barrier that had stopped them was merely an impediment, a temporary obstruction, and that open water did indeed lay beyond.

Parry’s expeditions in the 1820s also disappointed Barrow in failing to find a break in the ice leading to the open sea. Barrow was also responsible for sending out John Franklin’s expedition in 1845 and his instructions to Franklin allowed for the possibility of searching for open water to the north.

Barrow died in 1849, believing firmly that his long-cherished Open Polar Sea would yet be discovered.

The idea regained currency as a result of a voyage undertaken in 1853 in search of Franklin, by the American physician and explorer, Elisha Kent Kane. Despite the ship on which he had earlier served as medical officer being unexpectedly frozen in in the High Arctic in the fall of 1850 and the crew enduring a miserable winter largely unprepared, Kane was a believer in the concept of the Open Polar Sea.

He left New York bound for the Arctic a second time, in 1853, this time in command of his own expedition, the Second Grinnell Expedition.

On this expedition, Kane sailed north from Baffin Bay through the channels separating Ellesmere Island from Greenland. Kane Basin, a prominent feature on the map of this area, is named for him. This expedition would winter twice in the High Arctic, farther north than any exploring expedition had ever wintered before. Kane would return to the US in 1855 convinced of the existence of the Open Polar Sea.

(Continued next week.)

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.