Vega (ship)

S/S Vega was a Swedish steamship built in Bremerhaven 1872. A barque, she had a wooden hull measuring 150ft in length, a capacity of 357 DWT, and a 70 hp auxiliary steam engine.

Constructed as a whaler, the vessel was acquired and rebuilt for Arctic exploration by Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld with financial assistance from King Oscar II of Sweden and others. On 22 June 1878 the ship set out from Sweden through the Northeast Passage around the north coast of Eurasia. Blocked by ice on 28 September of that year only 120 miles (200 km) short of the Bering Strait marking the eastern end of Asia, the ship was not freed until 18 July 1879. Two days later East Cape was passed, and Vega became the first ship to complete a voyage through the Northeast Passage. Returning by way of the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Suez Canal, Vega also became the first vessel to circumnavigate the Eurasian continent.

After the expedition Vega returned to her original trades of whaling and seal hunting. The ship was reported sunk in Melville Bay west of Greenland in 1903, sailing under the Scottish owner Ferguson.

• Vega monument Stockholm 2005-10-14.jpg

  Vega monument in Stockholm

• Return of the Vega to Stockholm 24. April 1880.jpg

  Return of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld with the Vega to Stockholm on April 24th 1880

• Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld målad av Georg von Rosen 1886.jpg

  Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld with the Vega, by Georg von Rosen

• Nordenskjold.jpg

  Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld

References

• Webpage about the journey
• Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa by A.E. Nordenskiöld 1880, slightly abbreviated version edited by Göran Schildt 1960.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld

• Gjøa, the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage.
• Oscar Frithiof Nordquist, Finnish member of the expedition