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Through the Northeast Passage on a walrus hunter. Although Sir John Franklin is credited with traversing the Northwest Passage in 1845, it wasn't until some 30 years later that Adolf Nordenskjsld pene- trated the Northeast Passage. And he did it in an old walrus-hunting ship, the Vega. It was in late June of 1878 that Nor- denskjold set sail from Sweden, the Vega loaded with enough supplies to last thirty men for two years. On the 16th of July they crossed the Polar Circle and on the 20th of August lay at anchor off Chelyuskin, the north- ernmost cape of the Old World. Then as they traveled on, the ice be- gan forming and on September 28th the little Vega was hopelessly locked in. The explorers settled down for a long, long winter and celebrated Christmas with the Chukchi natives who served the traditional rice por- ridge with an occasional polar bear joining in the celebration. It was not until July 1879 that the ice broke. On August 14th Nordenskjold made it through the Bering Strait and anchored near Bering Island. The Northeast Passage had been navigated. The Vega, after visiting Japan, ar- rived in Stockholm harbor on the 24th of April, 1880 and Sweden's King Os- car honored Nordenskjold by making him a baron. • fW This advertisement, prepared by Gulf Oil, a leading supplier of quality ma- rine fuels and lubricants, is one of a series paying tribute to the great ex- plorers of the sea. It is published in the interest of the shipping industry and those associated with it. GULF OIL TRADING COMPANY, NEW YORK, N.Y. U.S.A.
