A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HISTORY
At the turn of the century (1800-1900) man had not yet explored the whole planet. Many people joined in, trying to reach prestigious goals, among them flying over the North Pole in different flying constructions. We shall concentrate upon expeditions made by airships from Svalbard.
Arctic exploration by airship
Walter Wellman tried to fly over the North Pole in the Airship “America” in 1907 and 1909, without success.
Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile followed in 1926 with the Airship “Norge”, and flew, without any incidents, from Ny Ålesund, Svalbard, to Teller, Alaska, and were thus the first people to fly over the North Pole. This is the same route used today when flying between Europe/Asia and North America.
In addition it was established that there was no land in the Polar Basin, like there is on the South Pole.
In 1928 Nobile did new expeditions with the Airship “Italia”.
This time the expeditions also had pronounced scientific purposes. A total
of 3 flights were executed, all departing from Ny Ålesund, Svalbard.
The two first flights mapped the northern coast of Greenland, Nikolai II
Land and Nordaustlandet, and collected various scientific data.
The third flight headed for the North Pole, but on the return flight from
the Pole, the airship crashed on the drifting pack ice.
6 people disappeared with the airship, 10 people were stranded on the drifting pack ice. The rescue operations that followed lasted for weeks and were characterized by international participation and effort.
The scientific material collected before and after the crash on the ice is still today considered as valuable scientific material.
Further, these events contributed considerably to the mapping of this part of the world.
The rescue operations Nordaustlandet - 1928
Spring 1928: Umberto Nobile crashed with the airship “Italia” against the pack ice north-east of Nordaustlandet. The tragedy led to the most extensive rescue operation ever in the Arctic area. Several countries participated with aero planes and ships. Others were skiing with dogs along the coast line.
During the 48 days that passed after “Italia” crashed on the ice until the survivors were rescued, among other parts, the eastern part of the north coast of Nordaustlandet was explored.
Italian alpine hunters
In the beginning, no one knew where on the northern part of Svalbard the accident had taken place. “Almost” immediately an Italian alpine rescue team, guided by trapper Kraemer, started the search at the north west corner of Spitsbergen. In a small boat they moved through pack ice, and visited several inhabited cabins trying to get information about the missing crew of “Italia”. Not much later, another Italian alpine rescue team started in the New Friesland area, from Mosselbukta to Sorgfjord. Also this one without any success.
When the world finally got to know the location of the missing people, several rescue teams started on Nordaustlandet. Also these went by skis and were accompanied by dogs. The boat and aero plane rescue operations moved eastward as well.
Mapping
Many place names have their origin from people involved in the “Italia” episode. When looking at modern maps, east of Kapp Platen and Duvefjord and further eastward on Nordaustlandet, one find names like “Finn Malmgrenfjorden”, “Alpinioya”, “Albertinibukta”, “Behounekodden”, “Sora-Viglieriberget”, “Cuchnovskijodden”, “Tandbergoya”, “Van Dongenbukta”, Kapp Laura” and “Italiaodden”.
Mariano, Zappi & Malmgren
The main reason for the rescue operations to move on land on Nordaustlandet
was that three of the survivors from the crash of the airship “Italia” left
the site of the accident (The Red Tent), trying to cross the ice towards
land to get help. These three were Malmgren, Mariano and Zappi. They never reached land because of the strong movements in the drifting
ice. The main reason for the decision to leave and try to get help was
that for several days there had been no response to Biagi`s, the
radiotelegraph, SOS messages that were transmitted from the site of the accident
every 55 minutes: “….SOS Italia..…”
Today we can ask ourselves why the missing Italians on Nordaustlandet could
hear italian football results via Radio Vaticano, while the Italian military
vessel “Città di Milano”, situated in Kongsfjorden,
had no chance-or time..?- to listen for transmissions from the people on
the ice.
General conditions for the rescue operations
In 1928 the maps over Nordaustlandet were poor and imprecise. The knowledge we enjoy today is a result of these adventurous people travels, by dogsled, into the unknown territory of Svalbard's second largest island, on poor ice and without the security of a safe return. They had no communication equipment, poor and incorrect maps and no means of getting help from others. Except from the brave Swedish pilots, who had their main base on the island they called “Ryssoy” in the Murchinsonfjord, who to a large extent contributed to the rescue operation to be more or less successful.
Hilmar Nois & Tandberg
Trapper Nois and Tandberg (SNSK) was engaged by the Norwegian government and were transported with the M/S Hobby to the Wahlenbergfjord. By dogsled they continued the search over “Helvetesflya”, until they reached the inner part of Rijpfjord. After having explored this part of the fjord, they continued to Nordkapp.
Captain Sora and Albertini
Meanwhile, the M/S Braganza had set ashore two rescue teams at Nordkapp:
Sora (captain of the Italian alpine rescue team), Varming (Longyearbyen)
and Van Dongen (Barentsburg) by dogsled, and Albertini, Matteoda, Bich
and Pellisier on skis.
The Albertini rescue team explored the west side of Rijpfjord. Like Nois
and Tandberg, they left depots of food, messages and signals. The Sora-team
rapidly traveled east trying to get to the site of the accident with medicines
and food to the survivors.
The search on land
Kapp Rubin, close to Nordkapp at the Laponia peninsula, was used as main base for these rescue operations. As base camp they used the Sivertsenhytta, still there after the unfortunate over wintering expedition in 1909, where all the four members of the expedition died.
After having explored the Rijpfjord, Albertini, Matteoda, Nois and Tandberg
set off by dogsled to look for Malmgren, Mariano and Zappi. Presumably the
three were headed west, alongside the north coast of the island.
In addition to the search, the main task was leaving depots of food and
equipment. They were also to build cairns containing messages and make
signal points. These were intended to be useful for Malmgren, Mariano and
Zappi.
The cairns and the signal points were to be built at geographically strategic
points between Kapp Leigh Smith in the east and Kapp Rubin/Nordkapp in
the west, visible from the ice and along the “logical route” they
assumed the missing people would follow.
Sora and Van Dongen (Varming stayed at Kapp Platen) managed, after hard
work in poor ice-conditions, to reach Brochoya and thereafter Foynoya.
They were in fact only a few kilometers away from the Red Tent. In order
to survive, they had to eat some dogs and hunt for birds. The ice conditions
were so poor, that they were rescued by a seaplane that transported them
back to Spitsbergen. During this remarkable journey Sora discovered a small
island that was not yet marked on any maps. He named it “Alpinioya”.
Albertini, Nois, Tandberg and Matteoda arrived at the easternmost piece
of land known to exist, today known as Raschoya. At that time this
piece of land was an unnamed island west of Kapp Leigh Smith, but was called
Kapp Leigh Smith by seafarers. They returned to Kapp Rubin and noted many
corrections on the map they had brought along on their 1000 kilometers
long ski trip.
Dissemination and translation
In Norway and in many other countries it has not been written too much about these expeditions. We have found only one leaflet mentioning them. In Italian, they are widely spoken of in the books of both Sora and Albertini. According to them, there were built signal points and cairns, and depots and messages were left at over 65 different locations. In addition to this, a large amount of equipment (dogsleds, rucksacks, carbines, pistols, watch, binoculars, camping stove, clothes, tent etc) was left behind as they went. This was because of too much weight and poor ice conditions.
Of these historical artifacts, records were never made nor were they documented. As far as we know, no one has even ever followed the same routes as they did. Lack of information, distant sources in foreign languages, large amounts of ice along the coast almost every summer and maybe a small wish to forget about the whole tragedy of “Italia” has been contributing to this.
