Expedition

Third expedition to the Arctic, led by Barentsz and Heemskerck

1596 - 1597

The expedition of Willem Barentsz and Jacob van Heemskerck was the third serious Dutch attempt to reach Asia, more particularly China, through a northern route. After the rather calamitous second attempt of the previous year, interest and investments in the attempts had plummeted, and only enough money could be raised to equip two small ships.

Expedition and wintering

In May 1596, the two ships set sail from Amsterdam. The expedition first set a course due north, on the assumption that it was possible to sail straight over the North Pole during the summer months. When, near Spitsbergen, the ships were faced with huge amounts of ice, a difference of opinion between Jan Cornelisz’ Rijp on the one hand, and Barentsz and Heemskerck on the other, came out in the the open. Whereas Rijp wanted to follow the instructions and look for a route over the north pole by sailing along Greenland’s coast, Heemskerck and Barentsz wanted to give sailing past the Russian coast to the east, which had proven unsuccessful during the previous expedition, another try. On the 1st of July, the ships went their separate ways. Rijp unsuccessfully tried to find a route through the ice and then also turned east, in pursuit of Barentsz and Heemskerck. The latter had done so immediately, passed by the north of the island of Nova Zembla in Mid-August, but were then locked in by the ice, and driven into a bay on Nova Zembla’s northeast coast, which they dubbed IJshaven (ice harbour). As it became increasingly clear that the ship would remain stuck, the men started building a house on the shore out of driftwood and planks from the ship, in which they spent the harrowing subsequent winter.

Return voyage

Only in mid-June of the next year, some 10 months after they had gotten stuck did circumstances allow to attempt a return voyage in two open boats. The men succeeded at reaching the Russian port town of Kola at the end of August, and to their great surprise found Jacob Cornelisz. de Rijp there, who had been unable to make it past the ice and had spent the winter on the Russian coast. By the end of October, the remaining ship returned the combined crews to the Netherlands. Of the crew of Barentsz and Heemskerck, 5 out of the original 17 crew members had not survived the expedition, including Barentsz himself, who had died during the return voyage on the open boats.

04 June 1596 - 04 June 1596

North Atlantic, 4 June 1596

71°10' N 4°39' E

The journal of Gerrit de Veer describes how on 4 June 1596, on 71 degrees northern latitude, a ‘wondrous celestial sign’ was observed. The drawing and descriptions make clear that they saw a parhelium (also known as ‘sun dogs’), a optical phenomenon caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[83-84]

09 June 1596 - 01 July 1596

Bear Island, 9-13 June and 1 July 1596

74°43' N 18°91' E

The expedition passed this island twice. From 9 to 13 June, on its way up north, the two ships called at the island. A fight with a polar bear taking place here led the men to call the island Bereneiland (Bear Island; the present-day Norwegian name, Bjørnøya, has the same meaning). After the expedition had encountered impassable amounts of ice, both ships returned to the island on 1 July. Here, it was decided that the two ships would go their separate ways.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[85-90]

15 August 1596 - 15 August 1596

Orange Islands, 15 August 1596

77°01' N 67°94' E

The name Oranje-eilanden (Orange islands, after the Prince of Orange), was given to a number of small islets on the north side of Nova Zembla. Here, the expedition ship of Barentsz and Heemskerck came in to big trouble due to the large amounts of drifting ice.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[95]

21 August 1596 - 13 June 1597

Ice Harbour, Novaya Zemlya, 21 August 1596 - 13 June 1597

76°27' N 68°22' E

In late August 1597, the ship commanded by Barentsz and Heemskerck was driven into a bay on the northeast side of Novaya Zemlya. They named the bay Ice Harbour. The ship was closed in and increasingly crushed by the pack ice, and the men started building a house out of driftwood and planks from the ship, in which they would spend the winter. Only late in the spring of the following year would preparations be made to attempt the return journey in small open boats.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[97-156]

16 June 1597 - 21 June 1597

IJshoek, 16-21 June 1597

76°93' N 67°07' E

IJshoek (Ice Cape), on Novaya Zemlya’s northwest coast, had been passed on the outward journey on the 15th of August 1596. On the return journey in the open boats, the crew got in trouble here on the 16th of June 1597, due to the large amount of drifting ice. This ultimately forced them to pull the boats onto the ice sheet and stay a couple of days. Reparations to the boats were meanwhile made. Willem Barentsz and Claes Andriesz, who had been ill, both died here on the 20th of June. On the 21st, the ice retreated somewhat, allowing the resumption of the voyage.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[157-162]

27 June 1597 - 09 July 1597

Kaap Nassau, 27 June - 9 July 1597

76°25' N 61°33' E

On 27 June, the boats passed a point which earlier Dutch expeditions had christened Cape Nassau, on the northwest of Novaya Zemlya.Early the next morning, however, they were forced to hoist their ships out of the water and onto the ice sheet, due to the large amount of drifting ice. The drifting ice kept the expedition members stuck there for subsequent days. Then, on the 1st of July the part of the ice sheet where the crew had sought refuge collapsed, so that supplies were lost and one of the boats was badly damaged by the drifting ice. The repairs that this necessitated subsequently forced the crew to remain there until the 9th of July.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[164-169]

19 July 1597 - 19 July 1597

Kruiseiland (Cross Island), 19 July 1597

76°13' N 60°17' E

As the ice made it impossible to sail past this island, but open sea was spotted on its far side, the boats, like on several earlier occasions, were hoisted onto land and across the island.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[173]

28 July 1597 - 28 July 1597

Schanshoek, 28 July 1597

71°16' N 52°79' E

Schanshoek was the name that earlier Dutch expeditions had given to a small cape at the southwest side of Novaya Zemlya. Here, the expedition members met other people for the first time in thirteen months: two lodjas, small Russian sailing vessels, were anchored there. The Russians gave the Dutch some food. The location shown here is approximate.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[176-179]

16 August 1597 - 17 August 1597

Barents Sea, 16-17 August 1597

68°21' N 47°33' E

In mid-August, at sea to the east of Cape Kanin Noss (rendered as ‘Kaap Candinaes’ in the Dutch sources), the expedition encountered several small Russian sailing ships. They bought or received food from the crews, and obtained advice about the route to the Russian city of Kola. During this part of the journey, the two boats temporarily lost sight of one another. The location is approximate.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[185-187]

25 August 1597 - 06 October 1597

Kola, August-October 1597

68°88' N 33°01' E

The two boats of the expedition reached the river Tuloma on the 25th of August, stopping at the mouth of the river and staying at a Sami settlement, intending to contact the Dutch ships reported to be in Kola overland. To their surprise, however, they got a letter from Jan Cornelisz Nay, the master of the other expedition ship with which they had lost contact thirteen months earlier. The ship turned out to have spent the winter on the Russian coast. On Nay’s ship, the expedition members would ultimately depart from the Russian coast on the 6th of October, arriving in the Netherlands on the 29th.

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)[192-198]

Other images

Sources and literature

Veer, Gerrit de, Om de Noord: de tochten van Willem Barentsz en Jacob van Heemskerck en de overwintering op Nova Zembla, zoals opgetekend door Gerrit de Veer (1598)