Andrée, Salomon August, << ahn DRAY, SAH loo mawn OW guhst >> (1854-1897), was a Swedish engineer and explorer. He led the first expedition to attempt to reach the North Pole by air.
On July 11, 1897, Andrée and two companions, Knut Fraenkel and Nils Strindberg, took off in a hydrogen balloon called the Örnen (Eagle). The Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel and King Oscar II of Sweden sponsored the expedition, which generated much patriotic enthusiasm and media attention. Andrée, Fraenkel, and Strindberg departed from Danes Island, part of Svalbard, an archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Andrée intended to fly over the North Pole and land in Alaska or Russia. However, the men disappeared, and for the next 33 years, nobody knew what had happened to them.
In 1930, the crews of a Norwegian ship, the Bratvaag, discovered the remains of Andrée’s expedition on White Island, another island of Svalbard. The remains included diaries and film that revealed the fate of Andrée and his companions. After about 65 hours in the air, the explorers had been forced to land on the sea ice 300 miles (480 kilometers) northeast of Danes Island because of problems with the balloon. They set off across the ice on sledges and a small boat. In October 1897, they reached White Island, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of where their balloon had gone down.
Diary entries suggest that the men probably died shortly after reaching White Island. It is uncertain what caused their deaths, because food and fuel remained at their campsite. They might have died from eating contaminated polar bear or seal meat.
Andrée’s expedition is important because it began an age of polar exploration by air. However, some historians believe that Andrée needlessly endangered himself and his crew by attempting his journey before certain technical problems with the balloon had been resolved. Andrée was born at Gränna, Sweden, on Oct. 18, 1854.
