Explorers Who Redefined The Map

Antarctic explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard once said that "Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." Going off some expedition statistics, Cherry-Garrard was right to think so! Polar exploration is grueling, so much so that half the explorers known for it are known for their failures.

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1. John Franklin

John Franklin led three Arctic expeditions and, while the first two weren't resounding successes (the first ending with him losing half his party and eating his own boots), they pale in comparison to the third. Franklin had two Royal Navy ships and 128 men under his command. Even though we can't blame Franklin for the weather, the ships became icebound for more than a year. and the crews disappeared.

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2. Robert F. Scott

Robert Falcon Scott was already a famed explorer when he challenged the Norwegians to a race to the South Pole. Scott sought to claim the Pole for England, and was valorized as a martyr after his tragic passing. However, poor planning around clothing, animals, and diet led to Scott's team losing not only the prestige, but their life.

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3. S. A. Andrée

Salomon Andrée's balloon expedition is one of the weirdest moments in the history of exploration. Andrée's plan to fly a hot air balloon over the North Pole were doomed from the start: he ignored early signs of danger, did not test the balloon before flying, and had difficulty steering. The balloon crashed after a few days, leaving the explorers unequipped to deal with the perils of the Arctic.

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4. Eduard Von Toll

Eduard von Toll's 1900 expedition in search of Sannikov Land was doomed from the start, for Sannikov Land was nothing more than a myth. Literally chasing after his dreams, Toll was forced to spend two grueling winters in some of the most remote parts of Siberia. Rather than caching food, Toll and his men abandoned the remains of their meals and vanished into the snow.

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5. Henry Hudson

The namesake of Canada's Hudson Bay, Henry Hudson was an early seeker of the fabled Northeast and Northwest Passages. Hudson made several successful voyages under English and Dutch before his his fatal voyage in 1610. When Hudson wanted to press deeper into the Bay, his crew mutinied, abandoning Hudson, his teenage son, and several loyal and/or sick crewmen.

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6. Vladimir Rusanov

Vladimir Rusanov was not trained as an explorer; while doing time in prison, he became inspired by the writing of another explorer whom we will meet later. Rusanov butted heads with the government at every opportunity, disobeying direct orders and straying from recommended routes. Rusanov and his team disappeared in 1912.

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7. Adolphus Greely

Unlike many of the other expeditions on this list, Adolphus Greely's expedition wasn't about geographic firsts or rescue missions, but rather collecting scientific data. While the expedition achieved a new Farthest North Of the 25 men, no supply parties were able to reach their ship before it was iced in. Only 7 men, including Greely returned; one man was executed for stealing rations, and accusations of cannibalism followed the survivors to their graves.

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8. George W. De Long

George Washington De Long and his crew fell victim to myth in their search for the North Pole. De Long operated under the belief that an Open Polar Sea—warm and free of water—surrounded the Pole. Unfortunately for De Long, his ship was crushed by the ice and the stranded crew were forced to walk almost 500 miles to civilization.

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9. Frederick Cook

Frederick Cook could have been a great explorer, if only he'd kept his mouth shut. Cook successfully served on American and Belgian expeditions, but his thirst for glory overpowered his sense of adventure. Cook falsely claimed to have been the first to summit Denali and reach the North Pole, both claims were soon disproved. Unrelated, but Cook also served 7 years in prison for fraud.

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10. Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall played an imperative role in collecting testimony surrounding Franklin's disappearance; however, like Franklin, his third expedition was to be his last. While Hall was an experienced explorer, he was an ineffective leader, and his expedition was dogged down by resentment and incompetence before they even left the harbor. Forensic evidence revealed that Hall ingested large amounts of arsenic, possibly pointing towards poisoning.

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Now that we've discussed some explorers who are better known for their blunders, let's talk about a few who wrote history with their footsteps.

1. Roald Amundsen

It isn't an exaggeration to say that Roald Amundsen was one of the greatest explorers to have ever lived. Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole, sailed through the Northwest Passage, and flew over the North Pole. Not only was Amundsen a savvy explorer, but he took advice from people who knew what they were doing: previous explorers and Indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic.

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2. Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Nansen's exploratory career may actually be the least interesting thing about him. Nansen crossed Greenland on skis, invented multiple pieces of exploratory equipment, worked tirelessly to help refugees, and helped found modern neurology. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

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3. Matthew Henson

Matthew Henson rose from the cabin boy son of sharecropper parents to the first person to stand on top of the world. Henson accompanied Robert Peary on seven expeditions to the Arctic, eventually planting an American flag at the North Pole. Henson grew close to the local Inuit, learning their language and being one of few non-Inuit capable of driving dog sleds their way.

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4. John Rae

One of the most capable explorers of all time, John Rae was integral in finding evidence of Franklin's lost expedition, using artifacts and Inuit testimony to piece together a story of starvation and cannibalism. Even though Rae was ultimately correct, the British public refused to believe him and was reluctant to reward him any prize money for finding evidence of Franklin's expedition. Rae also (allegedly) found the final link in the Northwest Passage.

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5. Ada Blackjack

On the cusp of destitution, with no survival skills but her on determination, single mother Ada Blackjack joined an all-male Arctic expedition in order to provide for her ailing son. After her crew was shipwrecked in Siberia, Blackjack was the expedition's only survivor (minus the cat), surviving 8 months of solitude in the bitter cold.

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6. James Clark Ross

Born into a maritime family, James Clark Ross joined the navy at age 12, just in time for the Napoleonic Wars. Throughout his career, Ross discovered the magnetic North Pole, made significant geographic and biological discoveries around Antarctica, and basically laid the groundwork for all explorers after him. Ross was also called the handsomest man in the Navy, if that counts for anything.

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7. Douglas Mawson

Like we saw with Ada Blackjack, sometimes history isn't something you necessarily want to be making. In 1911, Douglas Mawson set off for Antarctica with the hope of contributing to science; what he actually contributed was one of the greatest survival stories ever told. Mawson lost his companions along with most of his supplies, and walked 30 days across Antarctica while his body was literally falling apart, only to see his relief ship leaving. And yet, he survived.

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8. Edward Parry

Next to Amundsen, Edward Parry probably did the most work to find the fabled Northwest Passage. Parry held the record for farthest north for 49 years and made one of the single most productive voyages in the history of polar exploration, proving that overwintering with sufficient provisions was possible. He also pioneered the use of canned food on Arctic voyages, even if the technology wasn't always reliable

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9. Valerian Albanov

Valerian Albanov served as second-in-command on an ill-planned and ill-executed voyage to trace the Northeast Passage. After his ship was frozen in and many of the crew had succumbed to scurvy, Albanov requested to be relieved from his duty to go search for help. Using incomplete maps and home-made kayaks, Albanov and another crew member survived 90-day overland journey while the rest of the expedition perished.

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10. Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton's legacy is too great to sum up in a few sentences. After his ship was crushed by the Antarctic ice, Shackleton and his men set up a floating camp for five months. When the situation was at its most dire, Shackleton and a few trusted companion sailed 800 miles of the roughest seas on Earth, in an open boat, to call for help. Miraculously, every man returned safely home.

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