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5 Photographs That Shouldn’t Exist But Somehow Do
#1. Film from the Andrée Balloon Expedition
Over the summer of 1930, Norwegian walrus hunters, camped on Kvitøya (Svalbard’s easternmost island), found metal protruding from snow drifts. It was a part of boat. Upon further investigation, they found skeletal remains, clothing, a flag, and a boathook.
The boathook was engraved with “Andrée’s Polar Expedition 1896”. The camp also contained five rolls of film that had been undeveloped from last 33 years.
1. Film from the Andrée Balloon Expedition
On july 11, 1897, Swedish explorer launched an attempt to reach the North Pole by way of a hydrogen balloon. It was piloted by Salomon August Andrée, with Knut Frænkel and Nils Strindberg, was forced to land after sixty-five hours.
After becoming entangled in ice floes and drifting farther from their supply, the expedition was forced to survive on a diet of polar bears and seals. In October, the Andrée party abandoned their attempt to cross the ice and set up a base camp on Kvitøya for the upcoming arctic winter.
