What You'll Learn:
In the late 1500s, the era of European exploration continued at full tilt. The Dutch wondered if there was a passage to the north beyond the North Pole that could connect the Netherlands and China. Otherwise, they would have to sail west around Europe and loop around the southern tip of Africa to Asia, which was arduous and dangerous. Whether the passage into the deep north led to China or some other unknown land, it was a gamble the Dutch navigator William Barents considered worth taking. These explorations (1594, 1595, and 1596) would lead to mutiny, shipwreck, standoffs with polar bears, and using beams of the ship to build a makeshift home to defend against the Arctic tundra. Icebound is the story of those ventures into uncharted waters that the world remembers four centuries later.
Key Insights:
- Barents would likely have died a capable but obscure navigator if he hadn’t led the voyages into the deep north.
- For millennia, philosophers and explorers believed there were open seas and a mild climate north of the Arctic.
- One the first voyage, they encountered polar bears and walruses, but not a route to China.
- The second voyage was largely considered a failure, but Barents remained undeterred.
- The third voyage of William Barents ended with a shipwreck on the northside of Nova Zembla.
- In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, the castaways survived an Arctic winter and found their way home in rowboats.
- William Barents never left the Arctic, but his story has spread throughout the world.
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