Nordenskjold, Nils Adolf Erik, << NOOR duhn `shoold,` nihls AH dawlf AY rihk >> (1832-1901), Baron Nordenskjold, was a Swedish polar explorer, mineralogist, and map authority. In 1878 and 1879, he became the first person to sail through the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He sailed along the northern coast of Europe and Asia. He tells of this journey in his book, Voyage of the Vega (1881).
Nordenskjold was born in Helsinki, Finland. He moved to Sweden in 1857, and became a Swedish citizen. He led two expeditions in an attempt to reach the North Pole. On the first one in 1868, he took his ship, the Sofia, to within about 575 miles (925 kilometers) of the Pole. Nordenskjold studied the geology of Greenland in 1870. He returned to Greenland in 1883 and penetrated the ice barrier off the east coast. He determined that ice covered the island’s interior.
