The Arctic explorers 1859-1909

Arctic Explorers 1859–1909 is based primarily on primary sources such as the Arctic explorers' own accounts in more than 50 ship's logs, 20 diaries, a large number of sea reports after shipwrecks, correspondence between the Arctic explorers and polar explorers such as Adolf Nordenskiöld, newspapers from 1859 to 1909, and accounting books belonging to Arctic shipping companies.

1859 was the natural starting year for the documentation, because there are very few sources before the newspapers began mentioning the fishing trips in 1859. The closing year was chosen because of the motorization of the fleet that had started then and which gave a completely different fishing culture and a completely different fishing routine than in the time of sailing ships. It was a natural separation. What happened after this is a completely different story.

Here are rich overviews of catch results, skippers and harpooners who worked on the various ships, the scientific expeditions, shipwrecks, growth in the fleet, winterings, technical development, mapping of new areas in the Arctic and how the fishing grounds were expanded from Greenland in the west to Novaya Zemlya and Franz Joseph Land in the east – there is even room for stories about mutiny in the Arctic Ocean.