Room 1

Room I

Journey to the North Pole

Room I welcomes the visitor with the fascinating reconstruction (diorama) of an arctic encampment and the system of boxes and objects that constituted the equipment with which Silvio Zavatti faced his journeys to the Poles.

Room I

Journey to the North Pole

The fascinating reconstruction (diorama) of an Arctic camp and the system of boxes and objects that constituted the Silvio Zavatti equipment in his expeditions to the Poles of Room I welcome the visitors to Polar Museum. Boxes are carefully arranged on a wooden sleigh (it is a duplicate of that used by the Duke of Abruzzi in the early 1900s). The boxes were used in the last Zavatti expeditions to the Canadian Arctic, in 1976 and in 1969. You can see the sleeping bag of Silvio Zavatti, his boots, his field stove and some dishes. A “modern explorer” drive the sleigh. He wears a leather jacket and a seal leather whip, which is long 11 m and is used for sleigh dogs. Close to Zavatti materials, the diorama of a Duke of Abruzzi’s crew camp is presented. In particular, you can admire the tent and the sleeping bed used by Cavalli Morelli, the doctor of the expedition. In the showcase in front of the diorama, some objects discovered in the area where the Duke of Abruzzi’s crew passed the arctic winter. These objects were donated in 1994 by the Associazione Grande Nord (www.associazionerandenord.it) in Turin. The scale model of the ship “Polar Star” that Duke of Abruzzi used to reach the North Pole is present in Room II Finally, a couple of party boots and a whalebone mask, representing the Moon Spirit, completed the Room I set-up.

Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duca degli Abruzzi

Luigi Amedeo Mario Fernando Francesco of Savoia Aosta, Duke of the Abruzzi (1873 -1930) and cousin of the Italy’s king Umberto I, organized an expedition to the North Pole in the early ‘900.

The expedition was minutely organized, in terms of crew and strategy. He acquired the Jason (the ship of the Norwegian explorer Nansen), that was renamed Polar Star, after maintenance and amelioration works [activities].

The Polar Star weighed anchor in June 12th, 1899 from Oslo and it reached the Teplitz bay, in the Franz Josef Land, in August.

The Duke’s strategy was to leave the polar ices imprisoned the ship. Thus, it would work as a base camp for the explorers. When the pack ice melted, the Polar Star would sail out. However, the situation was not good for the Italian expedition: first, the ship could not be used as a winter refuge, due to the ship inclination, that did not allow living on board. Therefore, all the material was unloaded. The Duke’s crew arranged a camp on the pack-ice and, for the next two month, they fixed the ship, seriously damaged by the ices. The real expedition was arranged in a pyramidal way: three teams would carry provisions to three ahead camps, sited in different latitudes, in order to be stocked up for any possible landing. Nevertheless, the situation was unbearable, due to the bad weather, the frostbites that afflicted the crew (two phalanxes of the left hand were amputated to the Duke himself), the delays and, finally to wrong calculations. At the latitude 86°34′ Umberto Cagni with two guides were forced to return to the ship, having consumed all the supplies and after the sacrifice of all the sled dogs. Overall, they beat the Nancen record of 86°14' latitude North (based on “Storia delle esplorazioni polari” of Cesare Censi, Europa Edizioni, 2016).

 

Even if the Duke of Abruzzi did not reach the North Pole, this expedition reconfirmed his prestige and fame previously acquired. His return in Rome in September 1900 coincided with the funeral of King Umberto I, killed by the anarchic Gaetano Bresci, and the concurrent coronation of the new king, Vittorio Emanuele II.

 

For details see:  http://www.crlv.org/astrolabe/septembre-2006/vita-di-un-esploratore-gentiluomo-il-duca-degli-abruzzi

Info Duca degli Abruzzi

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