Willem Barentsz

Map of Willem Barentsz' first voyage

On 5 June 1594, Barentsz left the island of Texel[2] aboard the small[5] ship Mercury,[6] as part of a group of three ships sent out in separate directions to try to enter the Kara Sea, with the hopes of finding the Northeast passage above Siberia. Between 23 and 29 June, Barentsz stayed at Kildin Island.

On 9 July,[7] the crew encountered a polar bear for the first time. After shooting and wounding it with a musket when it tried to climb aboard the ship, the seamen decided to capture it with the hope of bringing it back to Holland. Once leashed and brought aboard the ship however, the bear rampaged and had to be killed. This occurred in Bear Creek, Williams Island.

Upon discovering the Orange Islands, the crew came across a herd of approximately 200 walruses and tried to kill them with hatchets and pikes. Finding the task more difficult than they imagined, cold steel shattering against the tough hides of the animals, they left with only a few ivory tusks.[1][8]

Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and followed it northward before being forced to turn back in the face of large icebergs. Although they did not reach their ultimate goal, the trip was considered a success.[2]

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten was a member of this expedition and the second.

Barentz flagship Gulden Windthunde nearly collided with that of the Vice Admiral on the second voyage 6 August 1595

Crew of Willem Barentsz fighting a polar bear

The following year, Prince Maurice of Orange was filled with "the most exaggerated hopes"[9] on hearing of Barentsz' previous voyage, and named him chief pilot and conductor of a new expedition, which was accompanied by six ships loaded with merchant wares that the Dutch hoped to trade with China.[10]

Setting out on 2 June 1595,[9] the voyage went between the Siberian coast and Vaygach Island. On 30 August, the party came across approximately 20 Samoyed "wild men" with whom they were able to speak, due to a crewmember speaking their language.[8] 4 September saw a small crew sent to States Island to search for a type of crystal that had been noticed earlier. The party was attacked by a polar bear, and two sailors were killed.[11]

Eventually, the expedition turned back upon discovering that unexpected weather had left the Kara Sea frozen.[12] This expedition was largely considered to be a failure.[13]

Map of Willem Barentsz third voyage

The tracks of the Dutch navigators (1596–97)

In 1596, disappointed by the failure of previous expeditions, the States-General announced they would no longer subsidize similar voyages – but instead offered a high reward for anybody who successfully navigated the Northeast Passage.[9] The Town Council of Amsterdam purchased and outfitted two small ships, captained by Jan Rijp and Jacob van Heemskerk, to search for the elusive channel under the command of Barentsz. They set off on 10 May or 15 May, and on 9 June discovered Bear Island.[8]

They discovered Spitsbergen on 17 June, sighting its northwest coast. On 20 June they saw the entrance of a large bay, later called Raudfjorden. On 21 June they anchored between Cloven Cliff and Vogelsang, where they "set up a post with the arms of the Dutch upon it." On 25 June they entered Magdalenefjorden, which they named Tusk Bay, in light of the walrus tusks they found there. The following day, 26 June, they sailed into the northern entrance of Forlandsundet, but were forced to turn back because of a shoal, which led them to call the fjord Keerwyck ("inlet where one is forced to turn back"). On 28 June they rounded the northern point of Prins Karls Forland, which they named Vogelhoek, on account of the large number of birds they saw there. They sailed south, passing Isfjorden and Bellsund, which were labelled on Barentsz's chart as Grooten Inwyck and Inwyck.

Willem Barentsz' ship among the Arctic ice

The ships once again found themselves at Bear Island on 1 July, which led to a disagreement between Barentsz and Van Heemskerk on one side and Rijp on the other. They agreed to part ways, with Barentsz continuing northeast, while Rijp headed due north in an attempt to cross directly over the north pole to reach China.[1][14] Barentsz reached Novaya Zemlya on 17 July. Anxious to avoid becoming entrapped in the surrounding ice, he intended to head for the Vaigatch Strait, but their ship became stuck within the many icebergs and floes.[9] Stranded, the 16-man crew was forced to spend the winter on a barren bluff.[7] After a failed attempt to melt the permafrost, the crew used driftwood and lumber from the ship to build a 7.8×5.5-metre lodge they called Het Behouden Huys (The Saved House).[4]

Het Behouden Huys on Novaya Zemlya

Dealing with extreme cold, the crew realised that their socks would burn before their feet could even feel the warmth of a fire – and took to sleeping with warmed stones and cannonballs. They used the merchant fabrics aboard the ship to make additional blankets and clothing.[8] The ship bore salted beef, butter, cheese, bread, barley, peas, beans, groats, flour, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, beer, wine, brandy, hardtack, smoked bacon, ham and fish. Much of the beer froze, bursting the casks. By 8 November Gerrit de Veer, the ship's carpenter who kept a diary, reported a shortage of beer and bread, with wine being rationed four days later.[8]

In January 1597, the crew became the first to witness and record the atmospheric anomaly now coined the Novaya Zemlya effect, due to this sighting.[15]

The Death of Willem Barentsz (1836) by Christiaan Julius Lodewyck Portman

Proving somewhat successful at hunting, the group caught Arctic foxes in primitive traps.[4] The raw flesh of the Arctic fox contains small amounts of vitamin C, which, unknown to the sailors, reduced the effects of scurvy.[1] The crew were continually attacked by polar bears that infested the area where they camped.[1] The bears turned the stranded and now empty ship into a wintertime abode. Primitive guns usually did not kill the bears on first or even second shot (unless well aimed at the heart) and were difficult to aim, while the cold and brittle metal weapons often shattered or bent.[1]

By June, the ice had still not loosened its grip on the ship, and the remaining desperate scurvy-ridden survivors took two open boats. Barentsz died at sea soon after on 20 June 1597. It is not known whether Barentsz was buried on the northern island of Novaya Zemlya, or at sea.[16] It took seven more weeks for the boats to reach the Kola Peninsula, where they were rescued by a Dutch merchant vessel commanded by former fellow explorer Jan Rijp who by that time had returned to the Netherlands and was on a second voyage, assuming the Barentsz crew to be lost, and found it by accident.[1] By that time, only 12 crewmen remained. They did not reach Amsterdam until 1 November.[17] Sources differ on whether two men died on the ice floe and three in the boats,[4] or three on the ice floe and two in the boats.[9] The young cabin boy had died during the winter months in the shelter.[7]