2012 Expedition to King William Island

Go to http://bushpilotexplorer.blogspot.com/

The Arctic Mirage

Mirage in Greenland

While surfing the web for earth curvature mirage information (another story), I just happened to come across an interesting article that speaks of the mirage effect in the polar regions and it brought me back to my post below from last year on November 28, 2011 titled: "The Location of the Ships? Maybe." 

There was a lot of discussion in the comments section of that post on how far one could possibly see across the ice.  Russell Potter first mentioned refraction at the horizon.  We all ended up concluding approximately 15 or 20 miles would be the maximum one could see anything across the ice.  If this article has any merit (click here)  - then  one might be able to see much farther across in the high arctic region. 

Although, in this article they are talking about seeing mountains at 200 miles.  Wow, maybe Mount Everest.

Mountains are much larger than a ship of Franklin's era.  But it does possibly allow for exceeding the 15 to 20 mile mark maybe to see a fuzzy dot apparition of a ship.  I clearly remember seeing these mirages of far out glaciers out on Hudson Bay last spring, and did take pics.  Will have to look for those.  It was remarkable how high they shot up from the horizon, almost reminded me a little of the the northern lights (aurora borealis) that we see once in a while in northern Wisconsin. 

Excerpts:

  

Under arctic mirage conditions, instances of atmospheric visibility extending 320 km (200 miles) have been reported. In 1937 and 1939, W.H. Hobbs documented several occasions during which objects were sighted at distances well in excess of those possible under normal viewing conditions. One significant arctic-mirage sighting occurred on May 24, 1909 when Commander Donald B. MacMillan observed and clearly recognized Capes Joseph Henry and Hekla in Grant Land from his position on Cape Washington on the north Greenland coast 320 km (200 miles) away.

 

 

 

(now we all know this story below, and I believe it's Croker btw, not Crocker ------ well, if you are a Franklinite....)

 

 

 

For example, in 1818, Sir John Ross observed and named the "Crocker Mountains" in the Canadian Arctic, which he estimated to be 50 km (30 miles) away from his position in Lancaster Sound and appeared to block his way to finding the Northwest Passage. No such physical landmark has ever been found to exist. Hobbs hypothesized that Ross had actually seen the snow capped heights of North Somerset Island looming up from their actual position 320 km (200 miles) distant.

Interestingly, in 1913 the aforementioned Captain MacMillan lead an expedition to locate Crocker Land and the Crocker Mountains. As the expedition approached Ross' coordinates for the mountains, MacMillan wrote: "There can be no doubt about it. Great heavens, what a land! Hills, valleys, snow-capped peaks extending through at least 120 degrees of the horizon." They pushed forward across the arctic ice for 50 km (30 miles) inland and found...NOTHING! Crocker Land and the Crocker Mountains had been mirages!

Baymaud (Maud) Update - Looks like "C'est la vie"

News has it that Norway will raise her and bring her all the way back home very soon (if this other blog is true - click here), pursuant to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.  Their ruling this April was to grant the export permit for the Maud, which will be issued by the Canada Border Services Agency at the request of the Norwegian applicants. 

Too bad this could not be in a museum in Cambridge Bay? 

C'est la vie.

The Maud, built in Asker, Norway and named after Norway’s Queen Maud, was sold to Hudson’s Bay Company in 1925 and rechristened the Baymaud. It ended its days as a floating warehouse and the region’s first radio station before sinking at its moorings in 1930.

Maud winters at Cambridge Bay 1929

Maud - sailing the high arctic

Roald Amundsen

Go to this site (click here) to keep current with Baymaud (Maud) recovery efforts.




Here below  is a pic from 2011 when Norwegien divers investigated the condition of the hull.

This how the Maud's hulk looked from underwater last August 2011