Northbrook Island

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Location of Northbrook Island in the Franz Josef Archipelago

A coastal view of Northbrook Island

Northbrook Island (Russian: Остров Нортбрук) is an island located at 79.9436111° N 50.9097222° E in the southern edge of the Franz Josef Archipelago, Russia. Its highest point is 344 m.

Northbrook Island is one of the most accessible locations in the island group. Hence it often became the main base for polar expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th century.

This island was named after the Earl of Northbrook, who was President of the Royal Geographical Society between 1890 and 1893.

[edit] History

Cape Flora, located in an unglacierized area in the Southwest of Northbrook Island (79°57′N 50°05′E) camp is historically significant. British yachtsman and explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith was shipwrecked at Cape Flora in 1881. A chance encounter between explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Frederick George Jackson took place here in 1896. Jackson was leading the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, based at Cape Flora, when this meeting occurred, on 17 June 1896.^[1]

A cape to the north of the island, at 80°55'N, was named Cape Bruce, after William Speirs Bruce, the Scottish zoologist and oceanographer who had been a member of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition.^[2]

In 1904 coal was mined about 150 m (500 ft) up the slopes by explorers of the American Ziegler-Fiala expedition wintering over after their ship sank at Rudolf Island.

After a gruesome ordeal, navigator Valerian Albanov and sailor Alexander Konrad, the sole survivors of the ill-fated expedition of the St. Anna, ended up in Cape Flora in 1914. Albanov and Konrad were timely rescued by the Saint Foka, while they were preparing for the winter.

[edit] Adjacent islands

• Ostrov Robertsona (Остров Робертсона), Robertson Island is a small island lying right off Northbrook Island's eastern shore, close to its easternmost point. This island was named after Scottish Anctartic explorer Captain Thomas Robertson of the 1904 the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the South Orkney Islands on ship Scotia.

[edit] References

1. ^ Speak, p. 48
2. ^ Speak, p. 51

[edit] Sources

• Speak, Peter: William Speirs Bruce NMS Publishing, Edinburgh 2003 ISBN 1 901663 71 X
• All locations: [1]
• Valerian Albanov. In the Land of White Death
• Captain Thomas Robertson: [2], [3] [4] & [5]

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