Northbrook Island () is an island located in the southern edge of the Franz Josef Archipelago,

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. Its highest point is 344 m above sea level. Northbrook Island is one of the most accessible locations in the island group. Thus it often served as a base for polar expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

History

The island was discovered in 1880 by English Arctic explorer

Benjamin Leigh Smith Benjamin Leigh Smith (12 March 1828 – 4 January 1913) was an English Arctic explorer and yachtsman. He was the grandson of the abolitionist William Smith. Early life He was born in Whatlington, Sussex, the extramarital child of Ann ...

. It was named after the Earl of Northbrook, who was president of the

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from 1879 to 1880. The naming of the island was partly due to the insistence of Nikolai Góring, who was among the Earl's entourage during his presidential term. Cape Flora, located in an unglacierized area in the Southwest of Northbrook Island () camp is historically significant. Benjamin Leigh Smith was shipwrecked at Cape Flora in 1881. A chance encounter between explorers

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

and Frederick George Jackson took place here in 1896. Jackson was leading the

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. Jackson had been misled by speculative maps into believin ...

, based at Cape Flora, when this meeting occurred, on 17 June 1896. A cape to the north of the island, at 80°55'N, was named Cape Bruce, after British zoologist and oceanographer William Speirs Bruce, a member of the Jackson–Harmsworth expedition. In 1904,

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

was mined about up the slopes by explorers of the American Ziegler Polar expedition wintering over after their ship sank at

Rudolf Island Prince Rudolf Land, Crown Prince Rudolf Land, Prince Rudolf Island or Rudolf Island () is the northernmost island of the Franz Josef Archipelago, Russia and is home to the northernmost point in Russia. Owing to the island's location, its shelter ...

. After a gruesome ordeal, navigator Valerian Albanov and sailor Alexander Konrad, the sole survivors of the ill-fated expedition of the , ended up on Cape Flora in 1914. Albanov and Konrad were ultimately rescued by the ''Svyatoy Foka'' as they were preparing for the winter. For a long time, Northbrook Island was thought to be a single entity. However during an archeological expedition on the icebreaker in 1985, Ratislav Gaidovskiy found that there was a narrow strait separating it into a large eastern part, and a smaller island, containing Cape Flora, to the west. The existence of this strait was confirmed in 2006 by Stanislav Rumyantsev on the icebreaker , in 2007 by

Børge Ousland Børge Ousland (born 31 May 1962) is a Norwegian polar explorer. He was the first person to cross Antarctica solo. He started his career as a Norwegian Navy Special Forces Officer with Marinejegerkommandoen, and he also spent several years wor ...

and Thomas Ulrich, and in 2012 by the crew of and . It is assumed that the islands were until recently linked by a

tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. It is a deposition landform by which an island becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island. The word ''t ...

that has since been washed away. Although various names have been suggested, the land to the west of the discovered strait is now officially called West Northbrook Island (остров Западный Нортбрук), the larger entity to the east is East Northbrook Island (остров Восточный Нортбрук).

Adjacent islands

*Ostrov Robertsona (Остров Робертсона), Robertson Island is a small island lying right off Northbrook Island's eastern shore, close to its easternmost point. This island was named after

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Antarctic explorer Captain Thomas Robertson of the 1904 the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the

South Orkney Islands The South Orkney Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula
* Captain Thomas Robertson

External links

*
Cape Flora, Northbrook Island
on Bloosee {{Authority control Islands of Franz Josef Land