23 December 2022

#AntarcticLog: Adrift at the North Pole 

Posted by Shane Hanlon

#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here.

At this time of year, some of us are focused on what’s coming from the North Pole. This #AntarcticLog’s about how to get TO the North Pole — and beyond! 

It’s been a while that I’ve been following — and writing about — WHOI’s Carin Ashjian, who first appeared in my 2000 book Antarctic Investigation in a story about the 1997 SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic) mission, in which she worked aboard a ship frozen — on purpose — into the ice. To a degree, SHEBA copied Fridtjof Nansen, who let his ship, Fram, get frozen into Arctic ice over the winter, to prove his idea about the drift of the ice. 

Here’s Carin again, with a cool educational tool for learning about the drift of Arctic Ice — once again sending boats adrift! 

The next comic is about Nansen, who I learned about with the story of how he let his ship, Fram, get frozen into Arctic Ice over the winter, to prove his idea about the drift of the ice. 

Nansen wasn’t the first to know about the ice’s movement, of course.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy introduced me to to Benny Hopson, a native interpreter. 

On that same trip, I stood on my first polar ice, and saw my first polar diatoms. 

I hope you’ll pass the word about floatboat.org to an educator you know! 

And happy holidays. Peace to all from pole to pole. 

Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.