In 1818, HMS Dorothea
formed part of a Naval Expedition to the North Pole, commanded by David Buchan (she was accompanied by HMS Trent, commanded by John Franklin). They failed to penetrate the pack ice north of Svalbard, spending only one summer in the Arctic. Two logs of the voyage are in the ADM55 collection and have provided us with digitised weather observations:
AnalysisThe expedition was stopped by the sea-ice just north of Svalbard, so comparing the route of the expedition with modern sea-ice climatologies, and the observed air temperatures with typical values for the recent past (1961-90 normals) give a picture of the weather in the Norwegian Arctic in 1818 - an area where no observations were previously available.The detailed analysis demonstrates that, around Svalbard, the summer of 1818 not markedly colder than was typical in the late 20th century. The sea-ice coverage was greater than that seen in the last few years, but within the range covered by the years 1961-90. |  Route of the Dorothea, towards the North Pole, in 1818 View observations in Google Earth  Air temperatures experienced by the Dorothea on the voyage: Observed (red dots) and modern equivalent (black line). |
