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Salomon August Andrée (1854 – 1897) was a Swedish engineer and aeronaut who perished during a failed attempt to reach the Geographic North Pole by hydrogen balloon. The ill-fated expedition was launched on July 11, 1897 from a small island north of the arctic circle and included engineer Knut Fraenkel, photographer Nils Strindberg, and a great store of provisions and scientific instruments. After several optimistic messages sent by carrier pigeon, all contact with Andrée and his companions was lost for over thirty years. In August 1930, Norwegian whalers discovered the remains of Andrée and his expedition on White Island. Film and journals recovered from the site indicate that the balloon crashed into pack ice just three days after launch and that the expedition managed to survive until October before perishing.
In April 1909, Robert Edwin Peary became the first to reach the North Pole.
Andrée was born in Gränna, Sweden in 1854 and attended the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He became interested in ballooning while attending the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in the United States. Andrée and his colleagues were buried with honors. He is interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.
In Andrée's native Gränna is a museum dedicated to the expedition (external link: Andréemuseet (http://andree.grm.se/)).
External links
- Kvitøya (http://www.svalbard-images.com/spitsbergen/kvitoya-e.php) - White Island Mapda:Salomon Andree