Jackson–Harmsworth expedition

The Jackson–Harmsworth expedition of 1894–1897 to Franz Josef Land was led by British Arctic explorer Frederick George Jackson and financed by newspaper proprietor Alfred Harmsworth.

[4] On 10 March 1985 Jackson, Armitage, and Blomkvist made a journey north to Peter Head with two ponies and four sledges, establishing a series of depôts.

They traced the previous route to Peter Head and continued to Dundee Point to the northeast, and from there north to the west coast of Jackson Island, setting up further depôts along the way.

[11] On 11 July, Jackson, Armitage, Fisher, Child, Blomkvist, and Koettlitz set out in the whaleboat Mary Harmsworth to chart the area to the northwest.

From the observations made of the vast Queen Victoria Sea stretching immediately to the north and the dark water-sky, Jackson finally concluded what he had suspected the previous year, that Franz Josef Land didn't extend far northwards and that there was an expanse of open water not traversable by sledges.

[15] Having come to the conclusion that further exploration northward was pointless, the party returned via Allen Young Sound, sighting and naming Nansen, Wilton, Bromwhich, Jeaffreson, Royal Society, and Scott-Keltie Island.

[16] On 17 June 1896, Jackson was startled by the sudden appearance of "a tall man, wearing a soft felt hat, loosely made, voluminous clothes, and long shaggy hair and beard".

[17] This proved to be Fridtjof Nansen, who with his sole companion Hjalmar Johansen had been living on the ice since leaving the beset expedition ship Fram on 14 March 1895.

They travelled on the northern glacierized shore of Alexandra Land to Cape Mary Harmsworth in the very west, where they headed back to Elmwood.