Keywords Born in 1879 Explorers, Arctic

A prolific writer, his most famous book being The Friendly Arctic (1921), Stefansson had a simple message regarding Canada's NORTH : the Arctic was not a bleak, frozen waste but a habitable region that must be developed. The over-the-pole routes of today's airlines, nuclear submarines surfacing at the North Pole, and the possibility of using gigantic submarine tankers all had their origin in Stefansson's vision of a strategic and commercial polar Mediterranean which, if controlled and exploited by Canada (and the British Empire), could make the Dominion one of the great powers of the 20th century.

To some he was the "prophet of the North"; to others he was an arrogant charlatan. He left Canada under a cloud, partly because he had made enemies during the Canadian Arctic Expedition but also because the projects he later undertook to prove his theories failed. His poorly planned scheme for the domestication of reindeer (imported from Norway) in northern Canada (1921-25) ended in chaos; his unauthorized claiming of WRANGEL Island, north of Siberia, for Canada generated an international incident (1921-24) that upset the USSR and the US and embarrassed Great Britain. The Canadian government was infuriated, seeing his action as high-handed and undercutting Canada's claims to its ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO. Also, all 4 members of the Wrangel Island expedition, including a young Canadian student, died tragically and, some say, unnecessarily. Stefansson, who had not gone on this expedition, was now perceived as a troublemaker whose ideas and presence in Canada were unwelcome. From the mid-1920s on, most of his time was spent in the US, where he was regarded as one of the world's foremost arctic experts.

See also ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Arctic Exploration, Map

Author RICHARD J. DIUBALDO

Suggested Reading
W.R. Hunt, STEF: A Biography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic Explorer (1986).