A lot was said about this expedition at one time. And of course, the main topic of conversation was one thing - why, given such a seemingly tolerable situation, the aeronauts could not save themselves?
Many assumptions and guesses have been put forward, sometimes the most ridiculous and fantastic. It was argued that the three researchers could have become victims of the “polar disease” - unbearable psychological conditions that arise in people unprepared for staying in the Arctic, and committed suicide.
In the book “Unsolved Mysteries of the Arctic” V. Stefansson will analyze in detail all the put forward versions.
How did Strindberg die? According to Pallin, author of the book Mysteries of the Arctic, he may have drowned while chasing a bear across the ice. “Certainly,” notes Stefansson, “it was the most dangerous time of the year, when it was easy to fall under water. A thick blanket of new snow hid the young ice covering the openings, making them indistinguishable from the rest of the ice.” But still he does not agree with Pallin. According to his conclusion, the death of Andre and Frenkel was a result of poisoning by carbon monoxide released during the operation of the primus. If combustion is incomplete, carbon monoxide is formed. In conditions of poor ventilation or limited space, this can be fatal. The danger is compounded by the fact that carbon monoxide is odorless. Signs of poisoning appear suddenly, and to avoid dangerous complications or death, it is necessary to act very quickly. And in the Arctic, even a brief loss of consciousness can lead to freezing.
There is enough indirect evidence to support this hypothesis. The Primus was found with the air valve closed. In addition, he often refused jobs. The tent was made from 61 ball shell materials and had little ventilation. Some of the painful symptoms noted in Andre's diary, such as weakness and pain in the calf muscles, are characteristic of chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. All these facts, as well as the location of the corpses of Andre and Frenkel, according to Stefansson, suggest that carbon monoxide could have formed in lethal doses.
This point of view is shared by the head of the forensic chemistry department of the Research Institute of Forensic Medicine A.F. Rubtsov, to whom we asked to analyze this version. None of the polar explorers are immune from such poisoning. Stefansson cites a similar case from his experience. R. Amundsen barely escaped death when he worked in a tent heated by a primus stove, and for a long time could not recover from the consequences of poisoning. Cases of chronic carbon monoxide poisoning were also noted by W. Herbert, the leader of the British trans-Arctic expedition of 1968. However, only a direct blood test for the content of carbon monoxide in hemoglobin would completely refute or confirm Stefansson's hypothesis...
The cold could lead to the death of people who were sick and therefore very weak. Although the aeronauts were above the Arctic Circle, they were not immune from those diseases that await humans in the “civilized” world. For example, from common food poisoning. In 1952, the Danish doctor E. Tride published the book “They Died on the White Island,” in which he argued that the death of the aeronauts was a result of the disease trichinosis. Having carefully studied Andre's diary, he compared the notes on the well-being of travelers with the clinical signs of trichinosis and discovered a striking coincidence. This made Tride go to Andre's museum. Among the exhibits, he managed to find the bones of a polar bear with the remains of meat. During a microbiological study, E. Tride discovered the causative agents of trichinosis.
Scientists began studying trichinosis in the Arctic only after the Second World War. The disease has been found to occur sporadically among marine mammals, Eskimo dogs and polar bears. A large epidemic of trichinosis broke out in 1947 in West Greenland. She was the first identified in the Arctic. Approximately 300 Greenlanders became infected and 33 died.
The causative agents of this disease are small larvae, which can be seen with a trained eye. They can be transmitted to humans through meat they eat. The larvae multiply, are carried by the bloodstream throughout the body, invade the muscles, eat away at the walls of the heart and, in severe cases, lead to sudden heart attacks. It is known that aeronauts consumed the meat of thirty bears. At least half of them, Tride believes, were infected.
At our request, Doctor of Medical Sciences, researcher at the Institute of Medical Parasitology and Tropical Medicine N.N. Ozeretskovskaya analyzed the “medical history” of the aeronauts based on Andre’s diary. Yes, they really suffered from trichinosis. But whether this could have led to their simultaneous death cannot be said with certainty.possible. Practice shows that different people can tolerate this disease in different ways.
The consequence of trichinosis is often severe weakness, even complete loss of mobility. If this really happened, then the aeronauts could have died from the cold. That's how Tride tries to describe their final days. Strindberg suddenly fell and died from a ruptured heart, which was eaten away by maggots. This probably happened after October 7th. Before this, the aeronauts were doing hard work, moving to the island, Andre and Frenkel were so weak that they could not dig a grave. The body was placed in a crevice, covered with stones and not marked with anything. No name, no date. Strindberg's death left a heavy impression on them. They did not know why this happened, they could not understand why they themselves were sick and why their strength was leaving them. They did not even have the strength to unload the boat and sleigh. They lay in a tent and waited to die. Andre, sensing her approach, wrapped up the diary and hid it under his jacket. And when Frenkel died, he no longer had the strength to carry his corpse out of the tent...
Can we consider that E. Tride finally established the cause of death of Andre and his companions? Does his version explain the totality of the available facts? Apparently not. A major epidemic of trichinosis among the polar bears of this region of the Arctic would undoubtedly have been noticed by other polar expeditions. There were several of them: Jackson, who wintered on Franz Josef Land in 1894-1897, Nansen, the American W. Selman - in 1899, and the Duke of Abruzzo. The participants of these expeditions actively consumed bear meat, but they did not experience anything similar to trichinosis. On White Island, among the expedition equipment, a box with geological samples was discovered. It is unlikely that seriously ill people would engage in scientific research...
There was another version. The sudden death of Andre and Frenkel was explained by an avalanche from a glacier.
But when the expedition camp was discovered, the glacial edge was a kilometer away from it. And if we assume that Andre pitched his tent in the immediate vicinity of the glacier, which then retreated, then the aeronauts could actually be buried in an avalanche of the “falling down” type - the tearing of a cornice of avalanche snow that had accumulated like a visor on the edge of a low barrier of an ice dome. But this assumption is not confirmed by the data available to specialists. After all, the warming of the Arctic, observed since the beginning of this century, and the associated widespread retreat of glaciers on Franz Josef Land, Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, barely touched Bely Island! In other places, the degradation of glaciers is measured in kilometers, and on the White Island, the edge of the ice dome has retreated by some 40-50 meters in thirty-three years!
True, the avalanche could have come down from the slopes of the glacier. We turned to a well-known specialist in this field, Professor of Moscow State University G.K. Tushinsky and asked him to give an avalanche forecast for White Island. Well, calculations have shown that for the White Island glacier with its low dome and smooth gentle slopes, an avalanche over a distance of about a kilometer is impossible...
The question of the reasons for the death of Andre’s expedition remains open. As of today, it is still impossible to give a definitive preference to any of the hypotheses considered. Aeronauts could have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, as V. Stefansson believes, from trichinosis, as E. Tride thinks, from cold - or from all three reasons at the same time. It’s a pity that we don’t have the end of S. Andre’s second diary - that would clear up the matter. Or maybe he didn’t want to tell the world his doubts and despair when he realized that his passionate dream of reaching the North Pole had not come true. There are many more questions that could be asked, but they may all die unanswered in the white desert of the Arctic. ...
DIMITRY ALEKSEEV