Atlas Obscura

Three Swedes Took A Balloon To The Pole And Vanished

In the summer of 1897, Sweden held its breath. Engineer Salomon August Andrée, photographer Nils Strindberg, and student Knut Frænkel had lifted off from Svalbard in a hydrogen balloon named Örnen bound for the North Pole. After that, there was nothing but silence – no signals,…