Salomon August Andrée
What better way to see the Arctic than in a hot air balloon? Well, the Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée (1854-97) certainly couldn’t think of a better method, and so in 1897 he set off to do just that. Incredibly, the mad scheme was warmly received by the Swedish Monarchy, who looked enviously at the advances in polar exploration made by their neighbours, Norway. Over a series of public lectures, Andrée convinced everyone with his calculations, assurances of his prowess as a pilot, and arguments for the ease with which he would use the midnight sun to make observations.
Andrée had his own hydrogen balloon, the Svea, which he tested on a series of short journeys which only served to highlight his poor powers of observation (once mistaking the Baltic Sea and accompanying lighthouse for land and lake) and lack of ability as a balloon pilot. The scheme itself was as crazy as it sounds. Relying almost entirely on the direction of the wind to reach the Arctic meant that the first attempt at lift-off in 1896 failed, and using drag-ropes to steer meant that the balloon was vulnerable to the ropes weighing it down with frost.
At last, on 11th July 1897, the wind was blowing north, and the balloon, named Eagle, was released. Conditions were appalling, and the crew were constantly jettisoning items to keep afloat. After several crashes, the Eagle was finally rendered useless on 14th July. Not to be deterred, despite the whole point of the expedition being to map the Arctic from the air, the men continued on foot, using the meagre safety supplies they had packed for just such an (inevitable) eventuality. Unfortunately, they had thrown away much of their food supplies, and so had to shoot and eat bears.
After spending 3 weeks resting at the Eagle‘s crash site, Andrée and his men packed up, and set out to complete their mission. Unfortunately, the weight of the equipment and provisions broke their sleds and wore them out, and it swiftly became apparent that the trip was now utterly pointless. On 4th August, therefore, they decided to travel back southwest across the ice, but their old enemy, the wind, made progress extremely slow. The ‘home’ they built on an ice floe, hoping it would take them out to sea, broke up, and by September 12 they had all died.