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And the mystery of how northern Canada and Northern Pole had a common shore. Now rethink the amount of ice that has melted.

mortehu 12y ago
> northern Canada and Northern Pole had a common shore What do you mean by this? Doesn't it every year? Here's this winter's maximum: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/seaice_max_2015_feb_25_overheadviewnoave_print.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/sea...
semi-extrinsic 12y ago
Yeah, because Northern Canada and the North Pole was very well explored in 1746... Not. Amundsen discovered the Northwest Passage in 1906.
duskwuff 12y ago
That region was barely explored at the time -- the coastline in that area was probably based on observations from only a few voyages. (Given the harsh conditions up there, it's also likely that the observations were subject to more error than usual.) I wouldn't put too much stock into it.
chockablock 12y ago
The article is about 14th c. navigation in the Mediterranean, and has nothing to do with Canada, either of the Poles, or ice. (Or: Please don't feed the trolls)
Varcht 12y ago
There was also that "Little Ice Age" thing.
phaemon 12y ago
As others have pointed out, not much was known of that area at that time (1746). In James Boswell's "THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON", which occurred in 1773, he writes: "Talking of Phipps's voyage to the North Pole, Dr Johnson observed, that it 'was conjectured that our former navigators have kept too near land, and so have found the sea frozen far north, because the land hinders the free motion of the tide; but, in the wide ocean, where the waves tumble at their full convenience, it is imagined that the frost does not take effect'." So there was certainly speculation about the Arctic at this time by educated people, but clearly they didn't know a great deal about it.
- jordanb 12y ago
  Yeah the facts that 1) the arctic ocean is covered in ice even in open water and 2) The north pole is in the arctic ocean (rather than on some potentially undiscovered land) weren't conclusively proven until the Fram expedition by Fridtjof Nansen in 1896. There was enormous speculation in the papers and in the scientific communities about what would come of Nansen and what he would find in the lead up to during his expedition so practically speaking the extremely high northern latitudes remained a "blank spot" until the turn of the 20th century.

mortehu 12y ago

> northern Canada and Northern Pole had a common shore What do you mean by this? Doesn't it every year? Here's this winter's maximum: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/seaice_max_2015_feb_25_overheadviewnoave_print.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/sea...

semi-extrinsic 12y ago

Yeah, because Northern Canada and the North Pole was very well explored in 1746... Not. Amundsen discovered the Northwest Passage in 1906.

duskwuff 12y ago

That region was barely explored at the time -- the coastline in that area was probably based on observations from only a few voyages. (Given the harsh conditions up there, it's also likely that the observations were subject to more error than usual.) I wouldn't put too much stock into it.

chockablock 12y ago

The article is about 14th c. navigation in the Mediterranean, and has nothing to do with Canada, either of the Poles, or ice. (Or: Please don't feed the trolls)

Varcht 12y ago

There was also that "Little Ice Age" thing.

phaemon 12y ago

As others have pointed out, not much was known of that area at that time (1746). In James Boswell's "THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON", which occurred in 1773, he writes: "Talking of Phipps's voyage to the North Pole, Dr Johnson observed, that it 'was conjectured that our former navigators have kept too near land, and so have found the sea frozen far north, because the land hinders the free motion of the tide; but, in the wide ocean, where the waves tumble at their full convenience, it is imagined that the frost does not take effect'." So there was certainly speculation about the Arctic at this time by educated people, but clearly they didn't know a great deal about it.

jordanb 12y ago
Yeah the facts that 1) the arctic ocean is covered in ice even in open water and 2) The north pole is in the arctic ocean (rather than on some potentially undiscovered land) weren't conclusively proven until the Fram expedition by Fridtjof Nansen in 1896. There was enormous speculation in the papers and in the scientific communities about what would come of Nansen and what he would find in the lead up to during his expedition so practically speaking the extremely high northern latitudes remained a "blank spot" until the turn of the 20th century.