Luitenant ter zee L. A. H. Lamie’s account of the ice-drift and sinking of the Varna of the Dutch expedition of the First International Polar Year 1882–83 in the Kara Sea

But there is one further arctic ice-drift which has largely escaped the notice of arctic historians, namely that of the Varna, the expedition vessel of the Dutch expedition of the First International Polar Year, in the company of Andreas Peter Hovgaard’s Dijmphna in the Kara Sea in the winter of 1882–83. [...] Towards the end of the afternoon there was no more ice in sight to the south and we were able to steer northeast following the edge of the ice on the north. [...] The result did not meet our expectations, however, and we were almost discouraged by the gleam of the ice on the horizon to the east, which presaged nothing good with regard to the state of the Kara Sea. [...] At the stern a hole was chopped in the ice to protect the screw and the rudder; a second hole was made at the site of the sea-cock55, and both openings were kept clear of the new ice each time it formed. [...] During the summer we had always found water in abundance on the ice; the pools formed from the melting of the snow and of the upper layer of the ice always provided us with an abundant supply of this indispensable liquid, and even continued to do so for a good part of the autumn.