In the late nineteenth century, the geologist and explorer Eduard von Toll took part in an expedition to the New Siberian Islands. North of what we now know as Kotelny Island, von Toll believed he saw a strange, isolated land with a legendary air: Sannikov Land. Fourteen years later, von Toll set out on a new expedition, determined to find that island. The frozen fury of the Arctic would keep him forever, but his personal notes led to one of the most unusual "treasure hunts" ever recorded: cabbage soup.
The Doomed Expedition
Eduard von Toll had to work for years to convince the Russian Academy of Sciences to fund his expedition to locate the legendary Sannikov Land. Aboard the brig Zaryá ("Dawn"), von Toll and his crew of brave men headed to one of the most extreme regions of the Arctic. The experience was brutal from the start: navigation problems, lack of coal (the brig moved by sail and steam), scurvy, disputes between von Toll and the captain, a dead doctor, flooding on the ship, starving dogs, and even a furious polar bear set the pace... but the worst was the ice.
Despite everything, von Toll and his men carried out multiple scientific tasks, from mapping to analyzing samples in their laboratories aboard the Zaryá. The expedition's main sustenance relied on dried and canned foods, and a portion was deposited in the permafrost of the Taimyr Peninsula.
Nineteen months passed, and the Academy of Sciences sent new orders to von Toll by telegram: Time to come home. The explorer had only one summer left to find his dreamt-of island, but the Arctic does not always cooperate despite the seasons, and in May 1902, the Zaryá was trapped in the ice. Von Toll took his navigator and two Yakut crew members, and they headed further north to Bennett Island, combining sled and kayak.
https://old.neoteo.com/la-dieta-del-apocalipsis-una-supergalleta-sobrevivir-al-fuego-nuclear/The idea was for Bennett Island to serve as a base of operations to continue the journey north and find Sannikov. Von Toll and his team devoured in three months everything there was to chew on the island, including birds, a small group of reindeer, and three bears. Overly optimistic, they decided not to save anything for the winter, thinking the Zaryá would rescue them, but the brig spent months trapped in the ice.
The calendar marked October 1902. The rescue never came, and von Toll knew that if they didn't leave the island, they would die. They returned to their kayaks, and the team made an attempt to head south, but they were never seen again. Von Toll's death made him as legendary as Sannikov Land, but part of his diaries survived. His widow published them, someone took the trouble to translate their contents in 1959, and a whole new generation of explorers couldn't ignore a detail: The food in the Taimyr permafrost was still there.
48 cans of cabbage soup, a sealed tin box with 6.8 kilograms of rye biscuits, another 6.8 kilograms of oats, almost 2 kg of sugar, 4.5 kg of chocolate, a block of tea, and seven plates. The description of the contents was incredibly precise, but not so the location chosen by von Toll (five meters above sea level, with a wooden cross).
The Discovery
It wasn't until 1973 that a mathematics professor and enthusiastic explorer named Dmitry Shparo found the "treasure". His original plan was to organize the first ski trip across the North Pole, but the Soviet authorities didn't like the idea of seeing their citizens beyond the Iron Curtain. Shparo's solution? "Solve the mysteries of the Taimyr Peninsula," technically within Russian territory. One of the mysteries was von Toll's cache.
Several teams had tried to locate the explorer's food without success. But Shparo and his group arrived by helicopter to the tundra in July 1973, and within hours they discovered a pile of rocks with a piece of rotten wood, and a metal plate that said "Cache Zaryá: 1900". Cabbage soup, rye biscuits, everything was there. And the most impressive thing? Its taste was still intact.
The first samples didn't take long to reach Moscow. Different agencies and teams interested in food preservation studied the tea, oats, chocolate, and even matches. The permafrost had done an extraordinary job. A new expedition removed 34 of the 48 cans of soup. Three were set aside to be opened in 1980, 2000, and 2050 respectively, while 14 will remain buried at the original site, along with modern containers so future generations can study them.
Source: Atlas Obscura
