MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS Correspondent Yulia Bochkareva/. The journey of eight brave people to the Bennett Island in the East Siberian Sea resembles plots by Jules Verne or Jack London: the icy Arctic sea, brave men facing the nature, and thousands of kilometers to the goal. We have discussed with the expedition's leader, Russia's well-known polar explorer Nikolay Nakhodkin, how the Russian Geographical Society's expedition on inflatable catamarans had reached one of the northernmost points in Yakutia.
A mysterious island
The Bennett Island is among less studied and hard to reach islands. It is a part of the De Long Islands in the East Siberian Sea. Due to a lack of studies, these places are wrapped in beautiful legends and mysteries. They have always attracted researchers. Some of the researchers have never returned, and this fact adds to the mystery.
The island was named after James Gordon Bennett Jr., a sponsor of the polar expedition led by American navigator George W. De Long. In 1881, the sailor left the Jeannette ship, crushed in ice. When the crew was trying to get to the mainland, the sailor discovered the island. Three months later, De Long died in the Lena River area.
The Bennett Island repeated the Land of Sannikov story - an "oasis" among the ice, a "ghost island" in the Arctic Ocean, which some researchers as-if saw to the north of the New Siberian Islands. The mythical island was named after Russian merchant and explorer Yakov Sannikov, who in 1810 was the first to announce a new continent with good climate, to where birds migrate in the spring, and from where they return with offspring in the autumn.
Baron Eduard von Toll did not doubt the Acrtida existed. It was the name of the northern polar continent. Toll's expedition, which disappeared on the way to the Bennett Island, was the plot of Vladimir Obruchev's novel - Sannikov Land.
Bennett Island
In 1903, a rescue expedition to search for Toll's group was led by Lieutenant Alexander Kolchak, a future admiral and a leader of the White Movement. Kolchak reached the island, found the last station, the expedition documents, collections, geodetic instruments and notes. No doubt, Toll and his team were dead. Kolchak named one of the capes on the Bennett Island's southeastern part after his fiancee Sofia Omirova.
The island was discovered a century and a half ago, but it has been studied only little. A group of scientists, led by Nikolay Nakhodkin, a member of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), decided several years ago that it was necessary to study the island and adjacent waters.
The expedition took place in 2021. "In recent years, after studying space images, the island has attracted our attention because smoke is coming from there from time to time. The smoke or gas plume is so big that sometimes it reaches Canada and Alaska. We suppose, there may be a volcano on the island. Our goal was to begin systematic research of that island," the scientist said.
The route itself was also very interesting: traveling in Kolchak's footsteps could show what climate changes had occurred in the Arctic over more than 100 years. Noteworthy, Kolchak described the trip very thoroughly in his scientific reports.
Trip to Earth's North
The initiative was supported by RGO as well as by the Russian Union of Rescuers and Yakutia's authorities. The region's industrial and transport companies said they would sponsor the expedition. The team's most participants work for Yakutia's rescue service - rescuers, experienced hunters and fishermen.
Many expeditions are known for using weird transport means: Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki raft, and Fyodor Konyukhov made the first ever circumnavigation trip on a rowing boat. This year's expedition has chosen an inflatable catamaran and a PVC trimaran.
"We've assembled them with ropes and logs. Inflatable vessels were not the purpose, we had to transport building materials to build on the island a Yakut 'balagan' (a wooden structure, where the Yakuts live in winter) to be used as a scientific station, as well as a 'serge' (a pole for tying horses). The Yakuts say that a 'serge' demonstrates that this land has an owner: it was symbolic to erect it in the year of Yakutia's 100th anniversary," Nikolay Nakhodkin said. "We had to bring in everything to the last nail, since there are no trees on the island. We lined the deck with building materials."
The team also wanted to note the climate changes in the Arctic - areas of many kilometers from the coast are free of ice. Kolchak used to write a lot about the ice. Nowadays, travelers could cross those areas on an inflatable catamaran. "We could see ice only in one area in the Blagoveshchensk Strait. The remaining hundreds of kilometers were free of ice," the traveler said.
Sea dogs
The expedition began in 2020. In late July, its participants started from Yakutsk along the Lena River. That year, they traveled from Yakutsk to the Tiksi town, and then crossed the Laptev Sea and reached the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island of the Novosibirsk Archipelago, which is at the junction of the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea.
The expedition had to wait for permissions to begin the sea traveling part - the team's route crossed the state border several times, and every crossing required certain formalities. When sailing across the Etherican Strait, which runs between the Maly Lyakhovsky and the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Islands, the expedition faced strong oncoming storms with snow. For three times the polar explorers attempted crossing the strait, but the waves kept throwing them back.
The decision was to leave the brought building materials at the Kigiliah weather station on the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island and to continue the project the following year. Once again they crossed the Laptev Sea and reached the village of Nizhneyansk in Yakutia's Ust-Yansky District. Over 2020, the expedition managed to cover about 2,400 kilometers.
The voyage continued only two years later. In August 2022, the travelers left Nevyansk. "We crossed the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Dmitry Laptev Strait, the Etherican, the Sannikov and Blagoveshchensk Straits. We were the first in the world to reach on inflatable vessels the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky, the Maly Lyakhovsky Islands and the Anjou Islands (the Bunge Land, the Fadeevsky Island, the New Siberia - TASS)," the expedition leader said proudly.
In the open sea, the crew could rely only on themselves and on the vessels stability, since the route lay far from shipping lanes. "We could not see the shore for days. The waves were high. We did not manage to avoid all storms. We couldn't rely on any help, but everyone stood firm," he added.
Base for sciences
On August 22, the expedition members landed on the cherished Bennett Island. They managed to do everything they had planned: they built a Yakut 'balagan' and erected a 'serge'. In memory of the Arctic pioneers, they installed an Orthodox Cross of Worship.
The support base on the island may be used for scientific research or as a shelter from bad weather or from predators, the traveler said. "Now, scientists may go there: biologists, volcanologists and seismologists. We have laid the foundation for studies. The island is far away, and the only option to get there quickly is by a helicopter. Thus, bringing a lot of equipment is impossible," he added.
The team also conducted ecological studies on the island. They for the first time collected plant samples, took hydro-biological samples of water from reservoirs and a glacier near the island. "Since the time of Eduard von Toll, there have been no reindeer on the island, and we have found traces of reindeer and tuguts (calves up to one year old) there. The island seems to have come out of a fairy tale: the water is transparent, and the virgin nature. On the route, we saw countless shoals of fish. The animals were not afraid of us at all," he continued. "One day, a polar bear swims to the island, gets ashore. We didn't notice it until it snorted." Fortunately, everything went well - we did not have to scare off the beast, and it did threaten the researchers.
During the expedition, the scientists proved it important to study seismic activities in the Arctic Ocean and to have a tsunami warning system: there are huge expanses of open water and high seismic activity in the Arctic.
The expedition tested catamarans and other rescue technologies. "We have tested a swimming suit. According to statistics, in Yakutia in the cold months, about 50 people die every year from hypothermia in the water. The suit that we have tested can save the life of its owner for a couple of hours if, for example, a person slips off the deck or falls into icy water. In such a suit, the person will remain on the surface and thus will have a chance to survive in icy water. Through the collar and sleeves, water, of course, will get inside. It's unpleasant, though not fatal. Such a suit may be useful for rescuers and for people living in the North," he said.
A documentary film will be devoted to the expedition. There are enough materials for it, the scientist said. During the expedition, the participants made hours of video. The team hopes the film will be ready by the middle of winter.