Sverdrup Islands

The Sverdrup Islands is an archipelago of northern Queen Elizabeth Islands in Nunavut, Canada. The islands lie to the west of Ellesmere Iceland to about 82 ° North and 95 ° West. The main islands of the group are the Axel Heiberg Iceland, Amund Ringnes the Iceland and the Iceland Ellef Ringnes, Cornwall Iceland, Iceland Meighen, King Christian Iceland Iceland and Stor.

Also, a number of smaller islands in the surrounding waters belongs to the group, which is named after the Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup, who explored from 1898 to 1902 with the ship Fram and mapped. Some of the islands were inhabited by Inuit. Today the Axel Heiberg Island is the only one with an at least seasonal research station, the McGill Arctic Research Station with a summer crew of eight to twelve people. From 1948 to 1978 there were on the Ellef - Ringnes Island, the permanent research station Isachsen. Today Isachsen is an automatic weather station.

Main islands

The Arctic expedition on the Fram 1898-1902

In June 1898 left the Fram Norway. Sverdrup's intention was to guide them through the Nares Strait, which separates Greenland from Ellesmere Iceland. His plan was foiled by impenetrable ice, instead he wintered with the boat in a natural harbor on the east coast of Ellesmere Island, which he called Fram Haven. During this winter and spring Sverdrup and his men explored the Bache Peninsula and the central Ellesmere Iceland. A sled team also reached the West Coast.

Next summer, the ice blocked again Sverdrup way north. He was forced to abandon his original plan. He decided to continue his research to focus on the Ellesmere Island and the surrounding waters. He took the Fram to the south and then west into the Jones Sound, where he spent three winters in a row, the first in the Harbour Fiord and the next two in the Goose Fiord.

Of these bases from explored and mapped Sverdrup and his men most of the west coast of Ellesmere Island and discovered the group of islands now known as the Sverdrup Islands. The Arctic historian William Barr calls this " one of the most impressive achievements that were in polar research ever achieved ". Also this is the reason for the large amount of Norwegian name, which can be found in the Canadian Arctic.

The names of the three main islands came to honor the sponsors: Axel Heiberg, Amund Ringnes (1840-1907) and Ellef Ringnes (1842-1929) were the owners of the Norwegian brewery Ringnes.

As Sverdrup 1902 returned to Norway, he informed King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, that he would have taken all the land which he had discovered in Norway for possession. But Norway was not very interested at this time, to take care of the ownership of the Arctic regions, as it is still struggling for the independence of Sweden. Canada initially responded relatively uninterested to the calls to it in the 1920s, eventually envisioned that another nation claimed a large part of what it regarded as its own.

The affiliation of the Sverdrup Islands remained a concern for Canada until the conflict in 1930 settled amicably through negotiations. The key to the agreement were Sverdrup cards. A biographer Sverdrup wrote: " Without them, Ottawa would have remained ignorant, who knows for how long ... If the Sverdrup Islands had not then discovered, as he did, she would have been found and claimed by the researchers of a country with high probability, that would have been much better position than Norway to pursue the matter. " Sverdrup, the Norwegian government for years pushed to advance his claim.

On November 11, 1930 between the Norwegian government, the British government (which had just ceded Norway Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic ), the Canadian government and Sverdrup even closed a trade. As part of this contract Norway gave its territorial claims to the land discovered by Sverdrup formally, while Canada Sverdrup paid a sum of $ 67,000, allegedly for his original maps and records. The real reason of course was that Norway would so not challenge Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic - Canada bought the islands simply returns.

Fifteen days after the conclusion of the contract died Otto Sverdrup.

Sverdrup's diaries still exist today. They were returned Sverdrup's family, and are now in the manuscript department of the University of Oslo. The maps, however, seem to have been lost. Apparently they were one contiguous map set and resembled the 1903 in Sverdrup's book printed Nyt country. However, they were probably more detail.