Farthest North

Farthest North (sometimes known as Furthest North) describes the most northerly latitude reached by explorers before the conquest of the North Pole rendered the expression obsolete. The northern (Arctic) polar regions are much more accessible than those of the south, as continental land masses extend to high latitudes and sea voyages to the regions are relatively short.

A Dutch expedition led by Willem Barentz reached 79°49’ N on 16 June 1596 to register the first recorded Farthest North. In 1607 Henry Hudson probably reached Hakluyt's Headland (a little south of the latitude reached by Barentsz), but could not proceed further as ice lay packed along Spitsbergen's north coast. In 1612 an explorer from Hull, Thomas Marmaduke, claimed to have reached 82°N, while Dutch explorers in 1614 and 1624 claimed to have sailed even further north to 83°N. None of these claims have any basis in fact, with the second claim, made by Joris Carolus, impossible knowing ice conditions that season; although Marmaduke did at least reach Gråhuken (at 79° 48' N). English whalers reached Svalbard's Nordkapp (at 80°32' N) in or before 1622, as shown on the Muscovy Company's Map (1625). The Seven Islands (at 80° 49' N), north of Nordaustlandet, were first marked on a Dutch map of 1663, but were allegedly reached by a ship of Enkhuizen as early as 1618. In 1707 the Dutch whaler Cornelis Cornelisz Giles (or Gieles) rounded the northernmost point of Nordaustlandet in Svalbard, passing 81°N. In 1806 the Resolution of Whitby, under William Scoresby, Sr., was said to have sailed north of the Seven Islands and reached 81° 50' N.

One of the first expeditions with the explicit purpose of reaching the North Pole was that of William Edward Parry in 1827, who reached 82°45′ N, a record that stood for decades. Albert Hastings Markham, a member of the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 was the next one to get closer to the pole 48 years later, when he reached a latitude of 83°20′26″ N by a dog sledge. Adolphus Greely's Lady Franklin Bay Expedition bested Markham by a few miles, reaching 83°24′ in 1882.

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