Polar research

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After reading Nansen's "Farthest North" it occurred to me that one excellent explanation for Leroux's otherwise mysterious statement that Raoul was given six months' leave before the presumably urgent rescue expedition was due to depart (why leave men stranded for an extra six months in the Arctic..?) would be that they had to wait for the ice to melt before there was any chance of reaching d'Artois and his men, who were presumably encamped on the rocky shore of one of the unexplored Arctic islands like Jackson and his expedition whose relief ship eventually took Nansen back home to Norway. Jackson's ship was expected in June at the earliest (it eventually arrived in mid-July). This would explain why the Requin's mission, however urgent, could not take place over the autumn/winter during which Raoul was sent on leave in Paris.( Read more... )