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This article was downloaded by: [The University of Manchester Library] On: 15 October 2014, At: 09:53 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Polar Geography Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tpog20 First circumnavigation of the Arctic by tourist vessel Robert K. Headland a & John F. Splettstoesser b a Scott Polar Research Institute , Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1ER, United Kingdom b P.O. Box 88, Spruce Head, Maine, 04859 Published online: 23 Dec 2008. To cite this article: Robert K. Headland & John F. Splettstoesser (1999) First circumnavigation of the Arctic by tourist vessel , Polar Geography, 23:3, 246-249, DOI: 10.1080/10889379909377678 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10889379909377678 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/ page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: First circumnavigation of the Arctic by tourist vessel               1

This article was downloaded by: [The University of Manchester Library]On: 15 October 2014, At: 09:53Publisher: Taylor & FrancisInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Polar GeographyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tpog20

First circumnavigation of the Arcticby tourist vesselRobert K. Headland a & John F. Splettstoesser ba Scott Polar Research Institute , Lensfield Road, Cambridge,CB2 1ER, United Kingdomb P.O. Box 88, Spruce Head, Maine, 04859Published online: 23 Dec 2008.

To cite this article: Robert K. Headland & John F. Splettstoesser (1999) Firstcircumnavigation of the Arctic by tourist vessel , Polar Geography, 23:3, 246-249, DOI:10.1080/10889379909377678

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10889379909377678

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information(the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor& Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warrantieswhatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of theContent. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions andviews of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. Theaccuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independentlyverified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liablefor any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly inconnection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: First circumnavigation of the Arctic by tourist vessel               1

FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE ARCTIC BYTOURIST VESSEL1

Robert K. HeadlandScott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER,

United Kingdom

John F. SplettstoesserP.O. Box 88, Spruce Head, Maine 04859

In a voyage beginning 01 July 1999 in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and ending thereon 31 August 1999, the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn successfully com-pleted an unassisted circumnavigation of the Arctic. The ship was chartered by QuarkExpeditions, Darien, Connecticut, and was marketed for tourists, 24 of whom wereaboard for the entire voyage of 12,860 nautical miles [23,827 km]. Others joined andleft at intermediate ports. The proposed itinerary is shown in Figure 1, although actualshore visits varied depending on weather, ice conditions, and some changes in permitsfor parts of Russia. The attraction of this itinerary was evident, for 11 of those 24were also on the Circumnavigation of Antarctica in November 1996-January 1997(Splettstoesser et al., 1997). Passenger numbers ranged up to 95 for an individual sec-tion of the voyage. The passengers were citizens of as many as 12 countries, predom-inantly the United States.

The itinerary was designed to circumnavigate the Arctic westbound (Fig. 1), andoffered passengers the option of boarding at four different ports, unlike the compara-ble circumnavigation of Antarctica, in which all started at Port Stanley, Falkland Is-lands, and stayed for the entire cruise of 65 days because the ship did not call at anyintermediate ports (Splettstoesser et al., 1997). The four ports were: (1) Longyearbyen(01 July), (2) Sendre Stremfjord, Greenland (15 July), (3) Resolute, Nunavut, Canada(27 July), and (4) Provideniya, Russia (12 August). The last two sections (NorthwestPassage and Northeast Passage) were the most popular. The Northwest Passage wasabout the sixtieth transit since Roald Amundsen first accomplished it in 1906 (Pullenand Swithinbank, 1991). The first transit of the Northwest Passage by a Russian ice-breaker was in 1992 (Splettstoesser and Splettstoesser, 1993), the fifty-third vessel tomake that transit, and annual transits, by the Kapitan Dranitsyn or Kapitan Khlebni-kov, have occurred subsequently. A more famous transit, perhaps, is the attempt bySir John Franklin, who set off with two ships and 128 men to attempt a route throughthe Northwest Passage. Last seen in July 1845, both ships and all men were lost in

1 Appreciation is extended to the staff and crew of the icebreaker, to Quark Expeditions, and to pas-sengers for making this unique voyage possible. Special thanks go to Expedition Leader Werner Stambach,naturalist/lecturers Susan Adie, Norman Lasca, Hans-Joachim Schultz, and Frank S. Todd, and to ViktorBoyarsky for his lectures and expediting shore excursions.

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Polar Geography, 1999, 23, No. 3, pp. 246-249.Copyright © 1999 by V. H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.

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POLAR GEOGRAPHY 247

Fig. 1. Map of Arctic showing original, planned route of circumnavigation. Actual routdiffered in minor ways depending on weather, ice conditions, and some changes in permits forparts of Russia. The figure is reproduced courtesy of Mountain High Maps.® Copyright ©Digital Wisdom Inc.

what became afterward an intensive search for them for at least a decade. Much of theCanadian Arctic became surveyed as a result.

The Kapitan Dranitsyn is one of the vessels of the icebreaker fleet of the Mur-mansk Shipping Company. She was built in Helsinki, Finland, by the Wartsila com-pany and launched in 1980. She has a displacement of 15,000 tons [13,607 metrictons], is powered by three twin DC electric motors that drive three screws, and with22,000 horsepower she can maintain a speed of 20 knots in calm open water. The ice-breaker is 132.3 m long, 26.5 m broad, and has a loaded draught of 8.5 m. A mini-mum of two helicopters were carried during the voyage, but complications of nationalregistration caused Russian, Greenland, Canadian, and U.S. aircraft to be used,

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248 HEADLAND AND SPLETTSTOESSER

depending on the itinerary section. The ship was under the direction of Captain ViktorTerekhov. The expedition leader was Werner Stambach, who has had considerableexperience in the cruise industry in many parts of the world, including polar regions.The Russian crew normally numbers 70, but the helicopter pilots, border guards, andobserver raised the number to 78 for the Northeast Passage. A lecturing staff coveringbiology, geology, geography, glaciology, and history also was aboard.

After leaving Longyearbyen, followed by another stop in Spitsbergen, K.Dranitsyn called at Jan Mayen, and continued to Greenland for several landings insouthern and southwest Greenland, including Sondre Stremfjord, and farther north insection 2 in Nares Strait. The Northwest Passage was marked by a normal density ofsea ice, which provided no significant obstacle for the vessel. Heavier ice, includingstretches of multi-year ice, was encountered in the Northeast Passage, especially thevicinity of Severnaya Zemlya, as expected. The easternmost point of the Asian main-land, Cape Dezhnev, was visited at Bering Strait, as was the northernmost point of theAsian mainland at Cape Chelyuskin (Fig. 1). Several stops were made at locationsnever before visited by tourists. The point farthest north for the entire circumnavi-gation was achieved off Cape Arkticheskiy—Sl'^'N, 95°26'E—on KomsomoletsIsland, the northernmost island in Severnaya Zemlya. Wildlife highlights includedsightings of more than 30 polar bears (Ursus maritimus), walrus haulouts (all threespecies of Odobenus rosmarus—Atlantic, Pacific, and Laptev), and a breeding colonyof Ross's gulls (Rhodostethia rosed) on Ostrova Schmidt, Severnaya Zemlya, whichmight be a new discovery of this little-seen gull species. Permits for stops in Russiawere procured in advance, and impromptu locations were approved further by on-board guards and an observer in order to ensure protection of the environment andwildlife areas.

A major advantage of cruises of this nature is that the itineraries often includeareas that other ships never, or seldom, visit, and the opportunities for observations ofice conditions, wildlife, and plants provides additional data for investigators whomaintain species lists for remote parts of the Arctic. In the Northwest Passage, for ex-ample, ice conditions are normally reasonably well known because of satellite infor-mation and ice charts, or from cruises by Canadian icebreakers, which annually makean established route through the Passage. Tourism icebreakers, however, often at-tempt different parts of the Passage that are not traversed by other vessels, thus add-ing to the detailed ice information.

Ice conditions along the passage vary annually, and Franklin had the misfortune ofattempting the passage in a severe ice year in 1845-1846. Current studies of sea ice inthe Arctic suggest that ice is retreating and thinning, with as much as a 40% decreasein thickness occurring over the past two to four decades (Rothrock et al., 1999).Short-term studies as part of the project known as SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget ofthe Arctic Ocean) showed considerable open water in the 1998 summer in the Beau-fort and Chukchi seas, the greatest of the past two decades (Perovich et al., 1999).

Because of numerous shore visits by tourist icebreakers, in the 1999 transit of theNorthwest Passage there were 60 plant species described, 18 mammal species, and 45bird species. Comparable figures were logged during the Northeast Passage, whichalso included possible new breeding areas for bird species. Professional biologists, or-nithologists, and other technical staff/lecturers provided the expertise to make thor-ough and accurate lists, and unusual sightings were documented and published for the

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POLAR GEOGRAPHY 249

benefit of the scientific community. For example, with the advent of tourist vessel-icebreakers visiting the Geographic North Pole, beginning in 1990 and continuing an-nually, sightings of animals at the North Pole are of interest because of the unusualhabitat (a nearly continuous ice cover) in which some of the animals were seen with-out benefit of an apparent food source (Todd et al., 1992). Unpublished sightings ofspecies by tour-vessel naturalists also are forwarded to investigators who were, andare, active in the International Northern Sea Route Programme (Brude et al., 1998) asa means of improving knowledge of the distribution of species in the Northeast Pas-sage (Northern Sea Route).

Information on the motion of ocean currents is often observed by noting the oc-currence of logs frozen into the sea ice. The logs originate from the rivers that exit thenorthern coast of Asia and empty into the Arctic Ocean. One of the present authors(JFS) presently is involved in a study of the pebbles implanted in the outer parts of thelogs in order to determine the geologic source,2 thus identifying the river of origin andthe route that the log subsequently took after reaching the Arctic Ocean ice. In thisand a number of other research areas, it is hoped that future voyages of tourist ice-breakers will continue to yield useful information on the Earth's polar seas.

LITERATURE

Brude, O. W., K. A. Moe, V. Bakken, R. Hansson, L. H. Larsen, S. M. Løvås, J.Thomassen, and Ø. Wiig. Northern Sea Route Dynamic Environmental Atlas.Lysaker, Norway: INSROP Working Paper No. 99-1998, Norsk PolarinstituttMeddelelse No. 147, 1998, 58 p.

Perovich, D. K. and 22 others. "Year on ice gives climate insights," Transactions ofthe American Geophysical Union (EOS), Vol. 80, No. 41, 1999, pp. 481, 485-486.

Pullen, T. C. and C. Swithinbank. "Transits of the Northwest Passage, 1906-990,"Polar Record, Vol. 27, No. 163, 1991, pp. 365-367.

Rothrock, D.A., Y. Yu, and G. A. Maykut. "Thinning of the Arctic sea-ice cover,"Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 26, 1999, pp. 3469-3472.

Splettstoesser, J. and B. Splettstoesser. "The first transit of the Northwest Passage,"Polar Record, Vol. 29, No. 169, 1993, p. 148.

Splettstoesser, J. F., R. K. Headland, and F. Todd. "First circumnavigation of Ant-arctica by tourist ship," Polar Record, Vol. 33, No. 186, 1997, p. 244-245.

Todd, F. S., R. K. Headland, and N. Lasca. "Animals at the North Pole," PolarRecord, Vol. 28, No. 167, 1992, p. 321-322.

2The pebbles presumably became pressed into the log as it rolled along part of the shallows of theriver of origin.

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