North pole. The top of the world. Many explorers started expeditions on the route and many of them failed. But these expeditions led so many important achievements aswell.
Georgy Sedov
Lets take a look at Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov and his ship Svyatoy Muchenik Foka’s story. Sedov was born in 1877 as a child of a fisherman. He helped his father when he was a little boy. He finished naval school in 1898 and then he continued to naval college. He graduated there with lieutenant rank.
sledge dogs
He joined a hydrographic expedition in Arctic between 1902-1903 . During Russian – Japanese war she was in charge of a torpedo boat. In 1909 he he led another expedition on Kolyma River and the next year Krestovaya Bay.
In 1912, he decided to go for a North Pole expedition with sleight dogs. Tsarist government did not want to finance the expedition, so he started this expedition with independent sources. And on 14th of August he set sail with the ship Svyatoy Muchenik Foka . During the winter the crew stayed in Arkhangelsk because of the thick ice. They reached to Franz Joseph Land in August 1913 but they had to star in Tikhaya Bay for another winter.
On February 2nd 1914 Sedov and his seamen set off towards North Pole with their sledge dogs. He already had scurvy which was a common illness among sailors at those days. Before reaching Rudolf island, Georgy Sedov passed away at sea. He was buried at Cape Auk.
On the way back, the ship Svyatoy Muchenik Foka saved two survivors of Brusilov expedition from Franz Joseph Land. Several landmarks carry Sedov’s name. And steam icebreaker Beothic was named Sedov, after him.
The icebreaker which was named Sedov