CHAPTER XXXVI 
THE NORTH EAST PASSAGE— NORDENSKIOLD— 
WIGGINS— DE LONG 
' ',/Nordenskiold is a name which not only recalls much 
and varied Arctic work, but also most valuable researches 
connected with historical geography. Its bearer, the 
late Nils Adolf Erik, Baron Nordenskiold, was born at 
Helsingfors in 1832, of an ancient and distinguished 
Swedish family settled in Finland. His father was a 
well-known man of science, and the young Nordenskiold 
became a trained chemist and mineralogist. He settled 
at Stockholm in 1857 and soon began to turn his attention 
to Arctic exploration. In 1858 he was geologist in 
Torell's Spitsbergen expedition ; in 1861, with Duner, he 
was taking preliminary observations for the Spitsbergen 
measurement of an arc of the meridian; in 1868 he 
reached the highest northern latitude attained by a ship ; 
in 1870 he made his first journey over the inland ice of 
Greenland; and, later, he wintered in Spitsbergen and 
made the inland journey across North-East Island. The 
funds for these expeditions were to a large extent supplied 
by Baron Oscar Dickson, the munificent supporter of 
Swedish Arctic enterprise. 
In 1873 Nordenskiold turned his attention to the 
North East Passage by the Siberian coast, believing that 
it might become a highway for commerce. In that year 
he reached the Yenisei by the Kara Sea, and discovered 
an excellent harbour which he named after his generous 
supporter, Oscar Dickson. In 1875 he again crossed the 
Kara Sea in the Ymer. These were pioneer voyages. 
His great expedition, with the financial support of King 
Oscar, of Oscar Dickson, and of the Russian merchant 
Sibirikoff, was fitted out in 1878. 
A ship named the Vega, built at Bremen m 1872, of 
oak with a skin of greenheart, was purchased. She was 
of 300 tons, 150 ft. long, by 29 ft. beam, and 16 ft. 
