Dr Pier Paolo Alfei provides an overview of three key episodes in the history of the Italian Navy’s contribution to the study of Svalbard. This is the first in our series of articles from the workshop Polar Perspectives. The Arctic in Human and Social Sciences in Brazil, Italy and Portugal (24 and 25 October 2024) organised by the Latin Group of Polar Sciences (Brazil, Italy and Portugal), in partnership with the Escola Superior de Defesa (Brazil), and supported by Polar Research and Policy Initiative (UK/Portugal) and the Atlantic Centre (Portugal). Views and opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author; they do not necessarily reflect those of the Italian Navy.
In 1867, six years after the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, Cristoforo Negri, later defined by the Duke of Abruzzi ‘the most ardent apostle of polar expeditions’ among the Italians, was appointed president of the Italian Geographical Society.[1]From the first year of his presidency, Negri pleaded the case for Italian participation in polar exploration through the involvement of a Royal Navy officer who could join ‘the Arctic expeditions of Sweden and Germany’.[2]Through the mediation of Negri – then in contact with Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld – came the first results in this direction, eleven years after the Unification of Italy: in 1872, the Minister of the Navy Augusto Riboty, ‘prompted by a lively desire to see crowned by success the attempt to make Italy some part in the daring attempts to discover the Arctic Pole’,[3]authorised the participation of Lieutenant Eugenio Pietro Parent in Nordenskiöld’s fifth polar expedition.[4]
Parent was assigned the task of course officer and assistant to the Swedish explorer in hydrographic surveys and magnetic and geological studies.[5]As we first learn from his correspondence with Negri, Parent, between July 1872 and 1873, operated aboard the Polhem in various areas of the Svalbard archipelago, from Isfjorden to the Hinlopenstretet. Most significant in this regard are the letters of the Italian naval officer concerning the visit to the ‘recently established colony at Icefiorden [sic]’,[6]namely Svenskhuset at Kapp Thordsen,[7]and especially the research conducted in the Hinlopenstretet:[8]‘[We spent] the month of July [1872] dredging soundings to great depths in the northern basin of the Spitzbergen Sea between 50 and 260 braccia [sic]: to 225 braccia [sic] in the Hinlopen Strait opposite the glaciers’.[9]It was therefore during the Polhem expedition that, quoting Parent, ‘the Italian language echoed for the first time in the polar seas’ and that an Italian naval officer contributed to the study of the Svalbard archipelago.[10]
About half a century later, more precisely in 1928, the Italian Navy returned to play a key role in the study of the Svalbard archipelago contextually with the polar expedition of the airship Italia.[11]In fact, ‘to assist the dirigible in its expeditions’,[12]the Italian Navy sent the ship Città di Milano to Ny-Ålesund.[13]In addition to providing logistical and scientific support to the flights of the Italia,[14]the ship Città di Milano was also tasked with ‘carrying out a series of methodical observations of a scientific nature, consisting of magnetic research, radiotelegraphy experiments, hydrographic surveys, gravimetric measurements, astronomical observations and oceanographic surveys. All these tasks required the participation of officers ‘particularly versed in those matters’:[15]these included Lieutenants Ernesto Pellegrini, Iurino Iannucci, and Mario Tenani, who were entrusted with measurements in Blomstrandhalvøya, Kongsfjorden.[16]Like those conducted in previous years by Swedes and Norwegians, this extensive programme of scientific research also had the ‘intention of ascertaining what developments of an industrial nature could be expected’ for the Svalbard archipelago.[17]
Three of the main scientific achievements concerned, in short, hydrographic surveys, marine soundings and gravimetric observations. Regarding the former, Città di Milano continued the work carried out by the Norwegians and Swedes, focusing on the ‘detailed survey of the anchorage where ships moored to trade with the coal mining area’.[18]More precisely, through instruments provided by the Hydrographic Institute of the Royal Navy and the Military Geographical Institute,[19]the two main surveys carried out from the beginning of June, as illustrated by Commander Giuseppe Romagna Manoja, were: ‘that of the Coal Anchorage (“Piano di Ny-Ålesund”) on the South Coast of the Bay’ and ‘that of the South Coast of the Blomstrand Peninsula (“Piano di London”)’.[20]In the same article, Romagna Manoja provided a summary of the soundings conducted by the ship using ‘the Langevin Florisson-type acoustic bottom measurement apparatus’[21]whose importance consisted mainly in: ‘to draw on nautical charts, still incomplete, considerable measured depths which will greatly facilitate navigators during the very frequent fogs in that region’.[22]Finally, particularly relevant were the gravimetric measurements, which were ‘the first made at such high latitudes’.[23]
In this overview devoted to a history of the Italian Navy’s contribution to the study of the Svalbard archipelago, it is possible to identify a third key moment – in the eight High North geophysical campaigns conducted in the Arctic every year since 2017. As Italy obtained Observer status in the Arctic Council in 2013, the Navy and its Hydrographic Institute became interested again in the Arctic theatre (and consequently also in the Svalbard area). One of the first major results of this renewed interest is a 2015-study on ‘Arctic ice cover dynamics and shipping lanes’.[24]It was then, two years later, in 2017, that the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy launched the High North research program, aiming to ‘study the Arctic marine sector of Svalbard’.[25]
More specifically, such research includes ‘bottom mapping activities, water mass characterisation and ice-water-atmosphere and ice-water-bottom interaction (with the acquisition of data on the seabed – nature and morphology, the water column and meteorological features – wind intensity, wave motion, current, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, temperature and air humidity) for the refinement of meteorological forecast models and the development of a tool to support polar navigation’.[26]Continuing the legacy of Città di Milano, almost a century later, is the Alliance, a polyvalent vessel launched in 1986 by Fincantieri shipyards[27]and delivered in 2016 to the Italian Navy ‘following an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and STO/CMRE [NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation], under which the Armed Forces provides its military personnel to equip the ship, while NATO shares its use with the Navy’.[28]
The first High North campaign (9-29 July 2017) focused on the area west of Bear Island,[29]with ‘the principal objective of investigating the marine geophysical and geological conditions (hydrographic, oceanographic and biogeochemical) in 5 different sites South of Spitsbergen Archipelago’.[30]The second mission (7-26 July 2018) went north of the Svalbard archipelago (up to 81° 50.27’ N latitude) and conducted research in INBIS Channel, Sørkapp, Storfjorden, Kongsfjorden and Yermak Plateau: as has been pointed out, ‘in this area the “exploration” factor has been a driving force, being areas never previously investigated where hydrography represents a solid starting point and indispensable tool for the multidisciplinary and integrated study and knowledge of the “One Ocean”’.[31]The following year, the third High North campaign (27 October – 7 November 2019) focused on the western sector of the archipelago, ‘with satellite to sub-surface testing of new technologies with multi-platform systems’.[32]
During the fourth High North campaign (8-28 July 2020), the Alliance travelled the waters of the Fram Strait and those north of Svalbard (up to 81°16.093’ N), exploring a total of ‘3894 km2’ and acquiring ‘new data for mapping the seabed useful for ocean knowledge’.[33]The following year, during High North21 (11 June – 19 July 19 2021) the Alliance crew mapped north of Svalbard ‘8510 km2 in the deepest sector of the Arctic Ocean, in the Fram Strait and at the edge of the Arctic ice shelf’.[34]The sixth High North campaign (2-21 July 2022) then led to the exploration of a further ‘1,500 km2 of new seabed’ between Svalbard, Fram Strait and the Yermak Plateau, and got notable results from ‘marine mammal monitoring, marine litter, microplastics and water sampling at different depths, for the analysis of the chemical/physical/biological characteristics of polar waters’.[35]These ‘monitoring and mapping activities’[36] continued in High North 23 (17 July – 8 August 2023).
The eighth and most recent High North geophysical campaign took place a few months ago (16 July – 8 August 2024) in an area between the Fram Strait and the Yermak Plateau in north-western Svalbard. In continuity with the seven previous missions, the Italian team carried on ‘mapping the seabed, sampling the chemical and physical parameters of the water table and seabed, perfecting meteorological forecasting models and […] the technological development of state-of-the-art systems to be used for the safety of navigation in polar waters’.[37]
Ultimately, the Italian Navy’s contribution to the study of the Svalbard archipelago (and the Arctic region in general) spans the 19th and 21st centuries and includes three key episodes of which we have tried to provide a historical overview: Parent’s surveys in 1872-1873 on board the Polhem commanded by Nordenskiöld, the scientific mission of Città di Milano in 1928, and the High North geophysical campaigns conducted with Alliance since 2017.
[1]L. A. Savoia, La spedizione italiana nel mare artico sulla “Stella Polare” (Società Geografica Italiana, 1901), 11.
[2]Discorso del Comm. Negri Cristoforo presidente della Società Geografica Italiana all’adunanza generale dei membri della medesima il 15 Dicembre 1867 (Civelli, 1868), 41-42.
[3]Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS), Cristoforo Negri (NEG), b.5, f.321, Riboty to Negri, June 13, 1872 (transl.).
[4]A. E. Nordenskiöld’s plan was to establish a base on Parryøya, north-east of Nordaustlandet, and from there undertake the last leg to the North Pole.
[5]G. Fioravanzi, La Marina militare nel suo primo secolo di vita (1861-1961) (Tipografia Regionale, 1961), 151.
[6]ACS, NEG, b.4, f.298, Parent to Negri, July 17, 1872 (transl.).
[7]At the time of Parent’s visit (under the leadership of Nordenskiöld) in Isfjorden, the relationship between science and geopolitics on Svalbard was becoming ever closer. See: G. H. Liljequist, High Latitudes. A History of Swedish Polar Travels and Research (Polarforskningssekretariatet, 1993), 75.
[8]The crew of the Polhem, during the winter of 1872-1873, built a house at Mosselbukta and equipped it with ‘two astronomical observatories, one magnet house and one aurora borealis observatory’. A.G. Nathorst, Swedish explorations in Spitzbergen,1758-1908 (Centraltryckeriet, 1909), 16.
[9]ACS, NEG, b.4, f.298, Parent to Negri, August 9, 1873. ‘Braccia’ is the plural form of ‘braccio’, an Italian old unit of measurement. For a more detailed examination of the research conducted by Parent, see: E. Parent, ‘Breve rapporto sui procedimenti della spedizione polare artica svedese dall’agosto 1872’, Rivista Marittima, 6, 7 (1873), 217-264. See also: F. Surdich, ‘Eugenio Pietro Parent’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 81, 2014.
[10]ACS, NEG, b.4, f.298, Parent to Negri, July 17, 1872 (transl.).
[11]For an overview of what has been written on the subject to date, refer to the chapter entitled ‘Per un approccio storiografico alla spedizione del dirigibile Italia’ in the following book: C., Sicolo, Umberto Nobile e l’Italia al Polo Nord (Aracne, 2020), 123-140.
[12]Archivio dell’Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare (AUSMM), fondo Raccolta di Base (RB), b.2441, f.19, R. Mancini, ‘Promemoria sul programma di osservazioni e di ricerche affidate alla “Città di Milano” durante la sua permanenza allo Spitzbergen’, 1928, 2 (transl.).
[13]Città di Milano left La Spezia on March 19, 1928, and arrived in Ny-Ålesund on May 2, 1928. For a ‘close-up’ look on the voyage see: A. Coviello, 1928: dalla Spezia al Polo Nord. A bordo della nave appoggio Città di Milano sulla traccia di un diario inedito della spedizione Nobile(Giacché, 2008).
[14]It should be noted that ‘Città di Milano with its powerful radiotelegraphic station […] was the central hub of the network of connections linking the airship, the station in Rome San Paolo and the rest of the world’. C. Sicolo, Il dirigibile “Italia”: la sfida della radio al Polo Nord(Pagine, 2018), 151 (transl.).
[15]AUSMM, RB, b.2442, ‘L’attività scientifica della R.N. “Città di Milano”’, 1928 (transl.).
[16]On the issue, see: I. Iannucci, E. Pellegrini, Determinazioni astronomiche delle coordinate geografiche di London (Spitsbergen) (Istituto Idrografico della Regia Marina, 1929); M. Tenani, ‘Ricerche mareografiche a London (Spitsbergen)’, Annali Idrografici, 12 (1939), 171-185.
[17]AUSMM, RB, b.2441, f.19, R. Mancini, ‘Promemoria sul programma di osservazioni e di ricerche affidate alla “Città di Milano” durante la sua permanenza allo Spitzbergen’, 2 (transl.).
[20]G. Romagna Manoja, ‘La Marina italiana nella spedizione artica’, Rivista Marittima (June 1929), 252 (transl.).
[21]AUSMM, RB, b.2441, f.19, R. Mancini, ‘Promemoria sul programma di osservazioni e di ricerche affidate alla “Città di Milano” durante la sua permanenza allo Spitzbergen’, 7-8; G. Romagna Manoja, ‘La Marina italiana nella spedizione artica’, Rivista Marittima (June 1929), 250 (transl.).
[22]AUSMM, RB, b.2442, ‘L’attività scientifica della R.N. “Città di Milano”’, 1-2 (transl., mine emphasis).
[24]L. Dialti, M. Guideri, R. Ivaldi, L. Papa, Dinamiche della copertura glaciale artica e rotte di navigazione. Studio sulla regione artica (Istituto Idrografico della Marina, 2015). The information was obtained from: R. Ivaldi, M. Demarte, ‘High North: la missione in Artico della Marina Militare’, Rivista Marittima, July-August 2018, 61.
[25]Istituto Idrografico della Marina, La Marina Militare in Artico: Programma High North (Istituto Idrografico della Marina, 2020), 8 (transl.). The project, financed by the Italian Navy, is coordinated by Prof. Roberta Ivaldi and CF Maurizio Demarte (Italian Hydrographic Institute). National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), ‘OGS in the Arctic’, May 19, 2019. For an overview of national and international research institutions cooperating with High North, see: A. Cosentino, ‘Destinazione Artico’, Notiziario della Marina online, June 22, 2020, 23.
[26]Istituto Idrografico della Marina, Arctic memories. Catalogo mostra (Istituto Idrografico della Marina Militare, 2022), (transl.).
[27]As was noted, ‘Fincantieri and Leonardo are two key Italian players in the Arctic’. A. Pigoli, M. Dordoni, G. Di Capua, ‘The Italian perspective’, in A. Pigoli et al., Arctic connections. Arctic and Mediterranean: New Assets for Energy Security and Strategic Balances (Editoriale Scientifica, 2024), 97-98.
[28]L. Parigi, ‘High North20, alla scoperta della nave Alliance’, Osservatorio Artico, June 29, 2020 (transl.). Among the approximately fifty-six articles and updates related to High North missions published in the online newspaper, see the interviews (granted on December 9, 2019, December 20, 2021, April 6, 2023, and August 7, 2024) with some key personalities of the Italian geophysical campaigns such as Rear Admiral Luigi Sinapi, Rear Admiral Massimiliano Nannini, Professor Roberta Vivaldi, Frigate Captain Maurizio Demarte and Gian Enzo Duci.
[29]Istituto Idrografico della Marina, La Marina Militare in Artico: Programma High North (Istituto Idrografico della Marina, 2020), 14 (transl.).
[30]R. Ivaldi, M. Demarte, and High North 17 Team, Arctic Marine Geophysical Campaign, 2017, 7. See also: M. Demarte et al., ‘3d Mapping of Water Column and Seabed Features in the Kveithola Trough (South Svalbard)’, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 20 (2018).
[31]Istituto Idrografico della Marina, La Marina Militare in Artico: Programma High North (Istituto Idrografico della Marina, 2020), 21 (transl.). On the scientific results see: R. Ivaldi, M. Demarte, and High North 18 Team, High North 18 Cruise Report – Arctic Marine Geophysical Campaign (Genova 2018); A. Caterino, ‘Le Carte Nautiche: dalla carta ai BIT’, Geomedia, 22, 6 (2018), 11; M. Demarte, R. Ivaldi, M. Rebesco, L. Sinapi, ‘New Arctic geophysical data from the Yermak Plateau (northern Svalbard margin), Geophysical Research Abstracts, 21 (2019).
[32]Istituto Idrografico della Marina, La Marina Militare in Artico: Programma High North (Istituto Idrografico della Marina, 2020), 26 (transl.). On the scientific results see: R. Ivaldi, M. Demarte, and High North 19 Team, High North 19 Cruise Report – Arctic Marine Geophysical Campaign, 2019. At the end of the first three-year period 2017-2019, the High North campaigns yielded: ‘189 measurement stations; 21 sediment sampling sites; 234 water mass characterization samples; 120 radar and visible satellite images; 12 autonomous airborne and 10 underwater missions; finally, 6427 km2 of seabed explored’. ‘ “High North” (2017-2019): presentazione e sviluppi futuri del programma di ricerca pluriennale in artico della MM’, Difesa online, January 29, 2020 (transl.).
[33]‘Conclusa la prima spedizione artica del programma scientifico italiano High North 2020’, Innovitalia, August 25, 2020 (transl.). On the scientific results, see: L. Labella, ‘Telerilevamento dei ghiacci polari nella regione Artica: Codifica del limite dei ghiacci e relative mappe integrate in ambito del programma di ricerca High North della Marina Militare’, MA thesis, University of Genova, 2020; R. Ivaldi et al., ‘High resolution mapping of the Arctic Ocean deepest area: Molloy Hole’, Egu General Assembly, 2021.
[34]Press Office of the Italian Navy, ‘Nave Alliance a Tromsø, termina High North21’, July 10, 2021 (transl.). See also: ‘Marina Militare: al via la campagna in artico High North21’, Difesaonline, June 11, 2021 (transl.).
[35]‘La missione artica High North 22 verso le zone più remote del pianeta’, Notiziario della Marina online, July 11, 2022 (transl.).
[36]More specifically, ‘bathymetric surveys with 3D satellite mapping; acquisition of bottom, water mass and ice data with “multibeam’” acoustic systems; direct probes and samples, […] sampling of microplastics and observation of marine mammals’. Press Office of the Italian Navy, ‘Nave Alliance conclude la campagna di ricerca in Artico High North23’, August 25, 2023 (transl.). For an overview of the scientific activity see also: G. Prior, ‘High North 23, il primo giorno’, Osservatorio Artico, July 14, 2023.
[37]‘High North 24: Al via la campagna di nave Alliance’, Notiziario della Marina online, July 22, 2024 (transl.).
[38]Riksarkivet i Arninge, Einar Lundborg, ‘Swedish Spetsberg Expedition’, 4 (1928).
Dr Pier Paolo Alfei holds a PhD in Institutions and Politics from the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, and postgraduate and undergraduate degrees in History from the University of Macerata, Italy. His research focus is polar history.
