The closing of the 1965 Arctic summer season marked the completion of a landmark scientific survey program by 16 U. S. scientists working on board the USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282). Completing a total of 163 oceanographic survey stations in the Kara and Barents Seas, the Northwind expedition finished the work that began in 1962 and 1963, when the icebreaker’s scientific crew surveyed portions of the Chukchi, East Siberian, and Laptev Seas. Thus the North- wind became the first vessel of a Western nation to survey in detail the major open water areas north of the Eurasian land mass, extending from Bering Strait on the east to Franz Josef Land-Novaya Zemlya axis on the west.
American participation in Arctic exploration dates back to the middle of the 19th century. The quest for knowledge of these virtually unknown regions led in 1878 to the preparation for an American North Polar Expedition and the fitting out of the famous Arctic Steamer Jeannette. In July 1879, the Jeannette, with a naturalist and a meteorologist on board, left San Francisco. After sailing north through the Bering Strait, the Jeannette turned northwestward, becoming the first American scientific vessel to work in Siberian waters. The destruction of the Jeannette by the ice in 1881 terminated the expedition’s scientific aspects, but not before she had done enough to establish firmly for herself a place in the history of Arctic exploration. Until the voyage of the Northwind, no American vessel had penetrated into these icy waters further than the Jeannette.
The Northwind's mission for the 1965 summer season was to continue the scientific exploration of the Eurasian shelf seas begun in 1962 as part of a combined Navy-Coast Guard program. These seas cover a vast area which extends from east to west through 160 degrees of longitude. With the exception of North Cape and Spitsbergen, the coast and island groups are all Russian territory. Long a challenge to exploration, the Siberian coast and the Arctic islands are studded with the names of famous explorers, including Fridtjof Nansen, Chelyuskin, Laptev, Pronchishchev, and George Washington De Long; it was not until Professor Nordenskjold’s voyage in the Vega in 1878-1879, however, that the existence of the long-sought Northeast Passage was proven. Even today there is little open-source literature available on this area. A glance at the Index and at the record of summer Arctic data-gathering in the Oceanographic Atlas of The Polar Seas, commonly called the Ice Atlas, emphasizes the dearth of Western observations in these waters. The track of Nor- denskjold’s Northeast Passage in the Vega appears, as does the track of Nansen’s Fram.
[One of the contributing factors to Nansen’s hypothesis of a westward-flowing current in the Arctic was the discovery in 1884 of flotsam from the Jeannette on the southwest coast of Greenland. The famous drift of the Fram in the polar ice (1894-96) confirmed his theory.]
With the work of the Norwegian vessel Maud in 1918-1924, all notations of Western explorations in this area of the Arctic cease; the American Jeannette is not listed.
From published data a certain amount of information is known about these seasonally open waters, called by the Russians the Northern Sea Route. In 1932, the Soviet icebreaker Sibiryakov became the first ship to complete a passage of the route in a single season. In the same year, the Soviet government established the Northern Sea Route Authority (GLAV-SEVMORPUT) in an effort to develop this as a commercial route. Exact data on subsequent commercial operations is sketchy, but it is clear that since that time the Soviets have been trying hard to develop this forbidding waterway into a paying proposition.
The navigational limitations of the Northern Sea Route are substantial. Ice is the most formidable barrier, but bad weather, limited navigational aids, and shallow water in much of the area also limit ship traffic. In 1960, the Soviets were reported to be using a total of at least ten icebreakers of over 5,000 tons’ displacement to clear the route, and about 20 vessels for ice patrol and survey work. These figures, even if not complete, indicate a great deal of serious effort and considerable capital investment on the part of the Soviet government; unfortunately, it seems unlikely that very much of the scientific data they are accumulating will be released to Western researchers.
The Northwind completed the initial portion of the survey work of the Eurasian shelf seas during the summer of 1963. A report of that summer’s work presents a selection of scientific data collected on 180 serial oceanographic stations. Bathythermograph readings, core and grab samples of the bottom, and water samples were taken at each station during this period, and biological samples, meteorological data, ice observations and depth soundings were taken while underway. Data and samples were collected and processed by the Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit, U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office, the University of Washington, University of Southern California, the National Weather Bureau, and the National Oceanographic Data Center.
After the lapse of a year, the Northwind was detailed to finish the work begun in 1963. The 1965 program, planned to provide extensive scientific coverage of the Kara and the northern Barents Seas, required that the Northwind leave her home port of Seattle prior to the beginning of the Arctic summer in order to be on station as soon as ice conditions were favorable. Accordingly, the Northwind departed Seattle on 2 June for New York via the Panama Canal, arriving in New York on 23 June.
It was in New York that the first of the scientists came aboard: Dr. Ned Ostenso,* of the Geophysical and Polar Research Center of the University of Wisconsin with his group of three scientists and research fellows to carry out geomagnetic, seismic, hydro-acoustic and gravity observations; Mr. Robert Bowman, representing the U. S. Weather Bureau, to supervise meteorological observations. Mr. Donald Milligan, senior scientist on board, and a group of ten researchers from the U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office came on board later; their research involved water, ocean bottom, and air sampling, and the recording of ocean bottom profiles.
After crossing the Atlantic, the Northwind made a last port-stop in Copenhagen before heading north. Moving from Copenhagen directly to the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, the Northwind entered the Kara Sea on 23 July, becoming the first American survey vessel ever to operate there. First ice was encountered later the same day, and the North- wind rigged her heeling tanks for icebreaking operations.
For one accustomed to operating a ship in the open sea, the deliberate crashing of a vessel against something as unyielding as ice takes some getting used to. A ship engaged in icebreaking behaves much the same way as a ship aground—bumping, smashing, and finally, in some cases, stopping completely; occasionally one may even hear the stainless steel propellers chewing a chunk of ice. Watching the icebreaker proceed, one gets a lasting impression of the tremendous forces involved; 10,000 h.p. are moving the 6,000-ton ship against the seemingly immovable mass of ice. If the ice is light, or rotten and disintegrating, the ship will plow its way through it, breaking it up and pushing it aside in disarray. In heavier ice, however, the struggle becomes more intense: the ice is more resisting, and the ship may have to ride up on its inclined bow to bring its weight down on the ice before it will crack and break. Repeated charges against the ice may be necessary before a path is broken through. Polar ice is a formidable opponent; it is no wonder that the Jeannette succumbed to the crushing forces of the polar pack in motion. Only an icebreaker can carry out survey work in this area.
On 25 July, the first oceanographic station was reached in the southwestern section of the Kara Sea. The oceanographic winch, aft on the starboard quarter, had long since been rigged for operations, and the equipment in the oceanographic laboratory, 20 feet away, had been prepared. Now began the pattern that was soon to become a familiar part of the ship’s everyday life: stop on station, being careful not to disturb the surface water layer; attach the Nansen bottles with their thermometers at standard intervals to the sounding cable, and lower away; recover the bottles, log readings, and stow contents for later analysis; rig the bottom sampler for lowering (either grab sampler, gravity corer, or both); recover sample and process for stowage and later analysis (cores are refrigerated to prevent deterioration). If seismic or hydro-acoustic blasting is on the schedule, this is done separately at about the same time. Once all samples are taken and all gear retrieved, the ship gets underway for the next station and a repeat performance, towing the magnetometer and taking depth soundings en route. Time on each station, depending on the ice conditions and the sampling to be done, ranges from 20 minutes to three hours. Surveying was done in conformity with the Convention which became effective in June 1964. This treaty imposes limitation on research conducted on the Continental Shelf.
Precision of shipboard observations and sampling is one of the most critical facets of oceanographic research. The thermometers with which the water temperatures are taken must be rugged to withstand heavy handling and the pressure of great depths; at the same time they must be carefully calibrated and must read with an accuracy of 0.02°C. Seismic and hydro-acoustic data must be taken with a time accuracy of ±5 milliseconds. For magnetometry, the measurements of the earth’s magnetic field are taken with a towed device that measures magnetic fluctuations of as little as +5X10~5 oersteds, or 1/10,000 of the average ambient magnetic field of the earth at these latitudes. These minute fluctuations, transmitted to the ship through 800 feet of special coaxial cable, are introduced into an electronic data printer that simultaneously prints out time and magnetic fluctuations, for correlation later with the ship’s position. Accurate navigational positions, in ordinary latitudes a fairly simple determination, in the Arctic region become extraordinarily difficult to establish. There are neither LORAN nor reliable radio-beacons, and skies clear enough for even simple sun lines are rare. Even radar fixes from charted land may be inaccurate, due to inadequate and inaccurate charting. Charted soundings are unreliable, and dead reckoning, normally fairly reliable for modest accuracy in navigation, becomes a highly estimative business in an ice-covered water area with unrecorded currents. Despite these restrictions and handicaps, the Northwind’s survey work was successfully completed and the data is considered to be of first quality.
Apart from an enforced break in operations occasioned by ice damage to the starboard shaft, the Northwind operated continuously in the Kara and Barents Seas from 23 July to 2 October to complete the survey work.
She was not alone during this period. As reported by The New York Times on 19 August 1965: “The icebreaker was under almost constant surveillance by Russian aircraft and naval vessels and had to contend with extremely heavy ice floes to accomplish her scientific mission. For several days a Russian destroyer maintained a position a few hundred yards off the Northwind’s starboard quarter, and Russian twin-jet Badger bombers made repeated mast-top passes daily.
But the Russians did nothing to hamper the scientific work, and the signals passed were notable for their cordiality. Before the North- wind entered the ice pack off the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, for example, a Soviet destroyer that had been escorting the Northwind blinked a message of farewell. “I wish you a pleasant voyage, Yanks. You are good guys.”
On 21 September the farthest north and eastward point was reached: 81o30' N, and 97°30' E, to the north of the Severnaya Zemlya island group. To the south the survey track had led from the southern Kara Sea to the western approaches to Vilkitskiy Strait. To the north the survey ran along the 81 °30/ N degree of latitude between Severnaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land; and to the west, the survey line ran south from Franz Josef Land to the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya. Thus the Northwind covered in substantial detail the last major body of water north of Russia that remained unprobed by Western scientists.
As has been mentioned, the Russians have not made a point of publishing the results of their Arctic research. This disinclination of the Russians to publish their scientific data is deep-seated. The Russian Arctic explorer Chelyuskin, for example, reached the northernmost point on the Eurasian Land mass in 1742, but almost 110 years transpired before his journals were published in (1851). Further, it was not until the Swedish explorer Nordenskjold confirmed Chelyuskin’s finding (1879) that Cape Chelyuskin received its name. Thus, the scientific results of the 1965 Northwind scientific cruise represent a quantum jump in Western knowledge of the Eurasian Arctic Seas. All of the information derived from this cruise will, of course, be published. Some of the more interesting results already clear at the conclusion of the cruise include the following:
(1) A very pronounced infusion of fresh water from the Ob and Yenisei Rivers covers the Kara Sea in a great fan-shaped pattern that extends at least 300 miles from the river mouths. In this area there is very little mixing of the layers; the surface (fresh) water is almost pure enough to drink, floating because of its lesser density on top of the salty, colder lower layers. The flow of these two great rivers is clearly discernible to the naked eye, as the silty river effluent is a pronounced brownish-light green color. The southwestern corner of the Kara Sea is almost free from this influence, showing that the river waters flow almost straight north into the Arctic Basin.
(2) A familiar geological phenomenon known as the “arcuate trench” appeared on the depth-sounding traces along the eastern side of Novaya Zemlya. This occurrence of a trench adjacent to island arcs is not completely understood, but is thought to be a result of downwarping of the earth’s crust. There are several well-known examples of this arcuate trench, including the Aleutian, Marianas, and Puerto Rican Trenches. The gravity data obtained on this survey suggests that despite the superficial similarity of the East Novaya Zemlya Trench to the classic ocean deeps, this trench differs in origin and deep structure. In contrast to the classic examples, the East Novaya Zemlya Trench does not have a structural “root” extending deep into the earth’s crust and mantle. Rather, it appears to be a surficial scar probably scoured by the last continental glaciers which overrode all of the shelf seas of the Eurasian Arctic 10,000 years ago.
(3) Geomagnetic data collected tends to confirm a geological connection between Novaya Zemlya and the northern Taimyr Peninsula. This connection has long been suspected but is difficult to prove, as there is no submerged ridge line on the ocean floor between the two. However, just as the once- great Keweenaw Mountains of Michigan or the Laurentian Mountains of Canada are now scarcely recognizable as mountains, geomagnetic data shows the existence of still- recognizable geologic roots. It is this data on which this new confirmation is based.
(4) North of Severnaya Zemlya, at latitude 81°30' North, where heavy ice was predicted, there was open water. The significance of this is not clear, as it contradicts the Ice Atlas. 1965 may have been an unusually warm year, or this may simply be a normal condition, not advertised by the Russians. Unfortunately, the Northwind did not get around to the eastern side of the island group, and could not observe related conditions over there.
The 1965 program and the completion of the survey in the waters of the Eurasian Arctic will establish for the Northwind a place in the history of Arctic scientific research. The irony of this achievement is that it points out how much remains to be done. Dr. Ostenso, who last summer completed 11 years of Arctic and Antarctic scientific research, remarked that it would take two icebreakers of the Wind class ten years to survey adequately the borders of the Arctic Basin. The Northwind’s work is not an end: it is just a beginning.
* See N. A. Ostenso, “The Arctic Ocean,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1964, p. 136.