Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the first arctic expedition?
On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole[10] (although whether he actually reached the Pole is disputed).[1][16] He traveled with the aid of dogsleds and three separate support crews who turned back at successive intervals before reaching the Pole. Many modern explorers, including Olympic skiers using modern equipment, contend that Peary could not have reached the pole on foot in the time he claimed.
The Coppermine expedition was British a overland undertaking to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada, eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. The expedition was organised by the Royal Navy as part of its attempt to discover and map the Northwest Passage. It was the first of three Arctic expeditions to be led by John Franklin and also included George Back and John Richardson, both of whom would become notable Arctic explorers in their own right.
Franklin's lost expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and . A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. After a few early fatalities, the two ships became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic, in what is today the territory of Nunavut. The entire expedition, comprising 129 men including Franklin, was lost.
"Bowdoin" first crossed the Arctic Circle on 23 August 1921. A place unknown to most of the world, the Arctic had had few visitors. Only sixteen years before, the goal of many generations of Arctic explorers had been reached when a northwest passage was traversed — a route which was, practically speaking, unusable, and after the construction of the Panama Canal, no longer necessary. Peary's North Pole expedition was merely a dozen years past. The last few Hudson's Bay and Davis Strait whalers had made their final trip home two years before.
In May 1880 Captain Henry W. Howgate of the U.S. Army Signal Corps was mounting an Army sponsored expedition to explore the North Pole. When Doane learned of this he applied for an assignment with the Howgate expedition which the Army granted. The 1880 Howgate Arctic Expedition was tasked with scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland in preparation for an 1881 International Polar Year expeditionary force and Arctic colonization. However, the Army and Navy decided, in June 1880, to withdraw support of the Howgate Arctic Expedition as the expeditionary vessel, the steamship "Gulnare", was unseaworthy. Howgate, not to be deterred, found private funding. The expedition was to be based at Ellesmere Island off the coast of Greenland in preparation for further explorations of the polar regions.
Schlossbach went on twelve polar expeditions, three to the Arctic and nine to the Antarctic. He was on the Wilkins Trans-Arctic Expedition in 1931 and served as navigator on the USS "Nautilus", the first attempt to take a submarine to the North Pole under the icepack. He commanded Admiral Richard Byrd's ship the "Bear of Oakland" and was a pilot on Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition (1933–35). He was the second in command on the MacGregor Arctic Expedition (1937–38) where he accomplished a number of polar aviation firsts. In 1939, he accompanied Byrd again to the Antarctic on the United States Antarctic Service Expedition.
Farthest North List of polar explorers List of Arctic expeditions List of Arctic exploration vessels List of firsts in the Geographic North Pole Great Northern Expedition List of Antarctic expeditions Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration History of Antarctica History of research ships List of Russian explorers Timeline of European exploration Drifting ice station
The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 was a scientific expedition in the Arctic Circle organized and led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. The expedition was originally to be sponsored by the (US) National Geographic Society and the American Museum of Natural History. Canada took over the sponsorship because of the potential for discovery of new land and Stefansson, who though born in Canada was now an American, re-established his Canadian citizenship. The expedition was divided into a Northern Party led by Stefansson, and a Southern Party led by R M. Anderson.
"The MacGregor Arctic Expedition had some notable achievements. Probably the most notable is its obscurity. Unlike most of its contemporaries, the MacGregor Arctic Expedition is virtually unrecorded in polar history." - Hal Vogel
With only ten members and a scant budget, the MacGregor Arctic Expedition could not rival the major undertakings of Byrd or Scott. But it certainly was comparable in size and purpose to many other polar expeditions of its era. Besides its scientific and aviation accomplishments, the 15-month-long MacGregor Arctic Expedition was a valuable experience for several members who would serve again on polar expeditions. Ike Schlossbach would continue to be on expeditions until he was 70 years old; Paul Furlong would be with Grenfell in 1939; Roy Fitzsimmons would go on the United States Antarctic Service Expedition, 1939–41; Murray Wiener would be with Byrd on several expeditions and serve on Byrd's personal staff.
Scientific expeditions to the Arctic also became more common during the Cold-War decades, sometimes benefiting logistically or financially from the military interest. In 1966 the first deep ice core in Greenland was drilled at Camp Century, providing a glimpse of climate through the last ice age. This record was lengthened in the early 1990s when two deeper cores were taken from near the center of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Beginning in 1979 the Arctic Ocean Buoy Program (the International Arctic Buoy Program since 1991) has been collecting meteorological and ice-drift data across the Arctic Ocean with a network of 20 to 30 buoys.
Following his release, Back served on HMS "Akbar" and as a midshipman before volunteering to serve under John Franklin in his first expedition to the Arctic in 1818. Back also served under Franklin in his two overland expeditions to survey the northern coast of North America, first on the Coppermine Expedition of 1819–1822 – when Back was responsible for all the surveying and chart making – and then a similar expedition by the MacKenzie River in 1824-1826, during which time he was promoted first to lieutenant and then to commander in 1825. Lacking appointment to a ship, Back was unemployed on the half-pay list, from 1827 to 1833.
Poseidon Expeditions was the first to open the most remote Russian Arctic regions to travelers. In 2005 the unique route was worked out for “Pearls of the Russian Arctic” icebreaker expedition. The program included visits to Novaya Zemlya, Oranskie Islands, Vize Island, Severnaya Zemlya, Maud Bay, Birulia Bay, port of Dickson, ruins of Khabarovo GULAG, Vaigach Island.
The McClintock Arctic Expedition of 1857 was a British effort to locate the last remains of the lost Franklin Arctic Expedition. Led by captain Francis Leopold McClintock aboard the steam yacht "Fox", the expedition spent two years in the region and ultimately returned with the only written message from the doomed expedition. McClintock and crew were awarded the Arctic medal in recognition of their achievements.
In 1825 Dease was placed in charge of the commissariat in Sir John Franklin's second expedition to the Arctic, having been personally requested by Franklin, who had met him on his first arctic expedition. Dease provided information about the local natives, and arranged for them to supply the expedition. He also supervised the construction of Fort Franklin at Great Bear Lake.
The Vega Expedition () of 1878–1880, named after the and under the leadership of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, was the first Arctic expedition to navigate through the Northeast Passage, the sea route between Europe and Asia through the Arctic Ocean, and the first voyage to circumnavigate Eurasia. Initially a troubled enterprise, the successful expedition is considered to be among the highest achievements in the history of Swedish science.
Will Steger (born August 27, 1944 in Richfield, Minnesota) is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole (without re-supply) in 1986, the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland - the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history at that time in 1988, the historic 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctic Expedition - the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (1989–90), and the International Arctic Project - the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada during 1995.
Exploration of the Arctic coastal mainland after Franklin's second Arctic expedition had left less than of unexplored Arctic coastline. The British decided to send a well-equipped Arctic expedition to complete the charting of the Northwest Passage. After Sir James Clark Ross declined an offer to command the expedition, an invitation was extended to Franklin, who accepted despite being 59 years old.
Whilst still an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford, Binney organized and was secretary to the 1921 Oxford University Spitsbergen expedition, subsequently leading both the 1923 Merton College Arctic Expedition, and the 1924 Oxford University Arctic Expedition. He was a pioneer in the use of seaplanes for Arctic survey work and wrote up this experience in his 1925 book "With Seaplane and Sledge in the Arctic". 
Knud Rasmussen (1879 - 1933) led several Arctic expeditions. He grew up in Greenland speaking Greenlandic and Danish, and has been called the "father of Eskimology"[14] and was the first Greenlander of Inuit and European descent to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled.[15] Rasmussen and his friend Peter Freuchen participated in seven Thule Expeditions, named after ultima Thule, and wrote numerous books on their Arctic experiences.
Long before the nations of Europe and America became fascinated with polar exploration the native populations of Northern Canada, Greenland, Lapland and Siberia had trained dogs to draw sledges. Attempts by the early polar explorers to adopt these techniques were rarely successful—the handling of “Eskimo” dogs was recognised as a specialized art; This led to the use of manhauling as a simpler alternative, when the Royal Navy began its long association with polar exploration. The first example of manhauling on a naval Arctic expedition was the journey by William Edward Parry across Melville Island in 1820, when he and his party dragged of equipment on a two-wheeled cart. Thereafter man-hauling began to be seen as a natural, even a 'nobler' alternative to the use of dogs. Francis Leopold McClintock earned the title of "Father of Arctic Sledging" for his feats of manhauling travel during one of the many expeditions despatched to search for the missing Franklin expedition. Among McClintock’s admirers on that expedition was a 21-year-old midshipman, Clements Markham
In the spring of 1853, the Royal Navy called the ship into service to transport coal and other supplies to the "North Star", a depot ship. She left the Thames River in 1853, accompanied by HMS "Phoenix" (the first propeller ship in the Arctic), and arrived at a rallying point at Beechey Island later that year. Her new mission would be to carry supplies to Sir Edward Belcher's high Arctic search expedition in the Resolute Bay area (now part of Nunavut). Since 1852, Belcher's expedition had been searching for the Franklin Expedition. The ship and crew had gone missing while searching for a passage through the Arctic seas. Belcher's expedition both the largest, and the last sent by the Royal Navy.
Lewis-Jones' future exhibitions include "Maybe Tomorrow", a photographic journey amongst peoples of the Arctic, and "First Across" – a project that unites the exploration and scientific achievements of the 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, with those of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition of 1968–69, led by Sir Wally Herbert. On this later expedition, a 3,800-mile surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska to Spitsbergen, billed by some as 'the last great journey on Earth', Herbert and his team became, undisputedly, the first men to reach the North Pole by surface travel.
The "Polaris" expedition, commissioned by Secretary of Navy Robeson, was the United States' first serious attempt at arctic exploration to be the first nation to reach the North Pole. On June 29, 1871, at 7 pm, USS "Polaris", sailed from the New York Naval Yard, under the authority of Captain Charles Francis Hall. Sec. of Navy Robeson and Hall, who was on his third arctic expedition, had lobbied Congress successfully to fund the Polaris expedition. Robeson had written specific instructions on the goals of the mission and implemented a hierarchy of command for when Capt. Hall was injured or killed. Robeson directed the course of the expedition, outfitted for two and one half years, giving extensive written instructions. According to Robeson, anything that was found on the expedition would be property of the U.S. Government. He ordered that monuments would be erected on the journey, records and general conditions of the expedition would be kept, and food caches would be established. USS "Polaris" was supplied with every scientific instrument needed for such a dangerous and ambitious expedition.
The members of the expedition, including Watkins and Courtauld, returned to Denmark and then to England, receiving significant acclaim in both nations. Key members of the expedition were awarded the Polar Medal by King George V, the first given for Arctic service in 60 years.