A winter iced in, in the Arctic

The New York Times reports that there is to be a deliberate stranding in the Arctic this northern winter.

In the picture above, the German research vessel Polastern is to the right, and a Russian icebreaker vessel to the left, in the harbor at Tromso, Norway. On Friday evening, both ships will set off for the Laptev Sea, where the Polastern will allow itself to be fully frozen into sea ice for about a year to get a better understanding of how climate change is impacting the Arctic region. This self-stranding may seem innovative, but it is certainly not new.  Back in the late nineteenth century, whaling captains deliberately over-wintered in the Arctic -- but not in the cause of studying climate change.  Their motive was brutally materialistic: to have the first chance at attacking the spring whale migration, being there before the rest of the fleet arrived. At the end of autumn, the ships were anchored together in so-called "winter berths," off Herschel Island in the Beaufort Sea. Shelters were built over the decks, and banked up with snow -- forming an igloo village -- and so a strange community evolved.  Local natives built their own igloos near the ships, taking advantage of these new customers and their interesting company.   There was a lot of trading, as the captains -- quite illegally -- sold guns, ammunition, and tobacco for ivory and furs. Arctic foxes hung around the town, too, attracted by the unusual amount of garbage. Obviously, it was a strange, long, dark winter.  What is amazing is that women stood it, too -- because their whaling captain husbands insisted that they come along. One was Viola Cook, wife of Captain John Atkins Cook. Well, looking at her image, one would imagine she was a proud, independent woman.  It is hard to picture her huddled in furs, bored out of her mind in the dark and cold.  So, did she go with her husband of her own free will? It seems unlikely.  When Viola first sailed Arctic-bound on the steam whaler Navarch in 1893, the official story was that she traveled for her health.  It may even have been true -- when she boarded the ship, she weighed 93 pounds, and when she returned, on November 23, 1896, she weighed 130.  But was this due to regained vitality, or simply the result of four months of enforced inactivity? After that, the newspaper reporters liked to believe that she went along "to please her husband, -- cheering abandoning the pleasures of home life to give companionship to her husband and to share and brave all dangers."  The truth, however, was that John Atkins Cook was a tough old customer, who issued orders and expected them to be obeyed. That first winter had not been so bad, as other whaling wives had been stranded in the Arctic, too.  One was 29-year-old Sophie Porter, of the Jesse H. Freeman, who had her five-year-old daughter, Dorothy, with her. Another was Mrs. Albert Sherman, who had a two-year-old son, while others were Mrs. Green and her niece, Lucy, and Mrs. Weeks, on the Thrasher. They managed a surprisingly lively existence.  They went sledding, played whist, and hosted each other to elaborate dinners.  The menu for one ran: "Lobster salad & olives, Oyster Pate with French Peas," followed by "Bartlett Pears, with citron & sponge cake," which is quite a testament to what stewards could do with very limited ingredients.  Mrs. Green staged a grand ball on the Alexander, and Mrs. Sherman had a birthday party of little Bertie on the Beluga.  It was all spoiled somewhat when Captain Week fell into the hold of the Thrasher, and died of his injuries, though it was certainly easy to preserve his body for burial in the Spring.  And on June 8, 1894, Mrs. Sherman cheered them all up by giving birth to a daughter, who was named Helen Hershel Sherman. But, on the following Arctic over-winterings, Viola Cook was the sole female presence.  On the 1905 season (her ninth) her health completely collapsed, probably from scurvy, and when she finally got home to Provincetown, she mutinied . . . with very strange results. You can read about it here.