326 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
sea, and became master of a ship trading to the Mediter- 
ranean when he was twenty-one. From 1868 to 1874 he 
was examiner in navigation at Sunderland, and in the 
latter year his mind became full of ideas about opening a 
Russian trade by the north. He was a practical and very 
persevering man, with whom thought was soon followed 
by action. On June 3rd, 1874, he sailed in the Diana of 
103 tons, successfully crossed the ice-bound Kara Sea to 
the river Obi, and returned. In 1875 he went to Archangel 
in a Yarmouth ship, called the William. In 1876, with help 
from the Russian merchant Sibirikoff and Mr Gardiner, 
he sailed in the Thames of 120 tons, and reached the 
Yenisei river. Leaving her there with the crew on board, 
he returned overland by way of Petrograd. He went out 
again to his ship, accompanied by Mr Seebohm, the 
distinguished ornithologist, who had long desired to 
investigate the bird-life of this region. They arrived at 
the town of Yeniseisk on April 5 th, 1877, and reached the 
Thames at the Kureika, lower down the river Yenisei, 
on the 23rd. The crew were in good health, but the ship 
had to be cut out of the ice. No sooner was the Thames 
free than she ran on a sand-bank on her way down the 
river and was finally abandoned. The Ibis, a little vessel 
belonging to Seebohm, was uninjured, but all the crew of 
the Thames except three refused to go home in her. Mr 
Seebohm, who made a valuable ornithological collection, 
calculated that 50,000 acres of ice passed down the river 
in the spring, at the rate of ten to twenty miles an hour, 
and his description of the break-up of the ice on these 
great Siberian rivers is of extraordinary interest. He 
returned home overland, as did Wiggins and the rest of 
the crew of the Thames. 
The next venture of Wiggins was very successful. 
In concert with Mr Oswald Cattley, who chartered the 
Warkworth of 650 tons for a voyage to the Obi, he sailed 
from Liverpool on August 1st, 1878, reached the Obi, 
and was back in the Thames by October 2nd with a 
cargo of wheat. In 1879 speculators rushed in and 
spoiled the business. Nine large steamers, all quite unfit 
for ice navigation, were chartered for the Obi, where 
5000 tons of Siberian goods were ready for them. But 
the masters of the steamers were frightened of the ice 
