It had long been thought that Mys Flora [Cape Flora], with all its historical associations, was located on Ostrov Nortbruk [Northbrook Island] named by Frederick Jackson after the Earl of Northbrook, President of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890–1893. Fairly recently, however it has been established that it lies on a much smaller island off the western end of Ostrov Northbruka, and separated from it by a narrow strait (Fig. 1).
Map of Ostrov Kuchieva, as it appeared prior to breaching of the tombolo, to which the name ‘Ostrov Kuchieva’ has been added in a different type-face from all the other names shown. Note that the coastlines north of the tombolo are all shown as dotted lines, that is, as approximations.
The existence of this strait was first established in 1985 by Ratislav Gaidovskiy, a member of an archeological expedition on board the icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn (Polyanskiy Reference Polyanskiy2013). The expedition members proposed naming the strait after Gaidovskiy, and the islands which it separated Ostrov Zapadniy Nortbruk [West Northbrook Island] and Ostrov Vostochniy Nortbruk [East Northbrook Island]. A report was submitted to the Russian Geographical Society about the discovery of the strait, but no reply was received.
In 2006 the existence of the strait separating the two islands was again reported by Captain Stanislav Rumyantsev, captain of the nuclear icebreaker Yamal during an early season cruise. In the following year Norwegian Børge Ousland, accompanied by the Swiss adventurer Thomas Ulrich, also spotted the strait while re-enacting Fridtjof Nansen's journey of 1895–1896 by sledge and kayak (Miller Reference Miller2009). Subsequently Ousland wrote to the Russian Ambassador in Oslo reporting the existence of the strait and proposing that the island west of it be named after Nansen's companion, Hjalmar Johansen.
In 2008 during the operation ‘Arktika 2008’ on board the research vessel Akademik Fedorov two hydrographers were specially allocated the task of checking the existence of the strait and investigating it. Unfortunately, their best efforts were foiled by fog and heavy seas. In 2012, as part of a multi-disciplinary expedition mounted by the Russkaya Arktika National Park (established in 2009 to protect northern Novaya Zemlya and expanded to include Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa by 2011), the first detailed survey of the strait was made by a party from the research vessel Professor Molchanov, as reported by the park's Deputy Director Mariya Gavrilo. GPS coordinates of both sides of the strait were determined, a photo survey was made and the navigation conditions investigated. Also in that summer the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute's Vysokoshirotnaya Ekspeditsiya [High Latitude Expedition] led by Vladimir Sokolov on board the icebreaker Rossiya, also landed a party to survey and sound the strait.
On the basis of the reports by Gaidovskiy, Rumyantsev and Ousland, on 26 November 2008, at the recommendation of the Academic Council of the Russian Geographical Society, the Russian State Museum of the Arctic and the Murmansk Shipping Company which operated the icebreaker Yamal, the deputies of the Arkhangel’sk Oblast’ Assembly officially named the western island Ostrov Yuriya Kuchieva [Yuriy Kuchiev Island] while retaining the name Ostrov Nortbruk [Northbrook Island] for the eastern island.
Born on 26 August 1919 in the remote mountain village of Tib in Northern Osetia, Kuchiev graduated from high school in Ordzhonikidze in 1938 and by 1941 was working as a seaman on a tug based at Dikson at the mouth of the Yenisey. From 1944 until 1962 he served as First Officer on a series of icebreakers and from 1962 was captain of the icebreakers Murmansk then Kiev. From 1964 he held the post of relief captain, and thereafter captain, of the nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin. In 1971 he took command of the nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika and in 1977 took that ship to the North Pole, the first surface vessel to reach that goal. For this achievement he was made a Hero of Socialist Labour. He retired in 1997 and died in St. Petersburg on 14 December 2005. His ashes (and those of his wife) were scattered at the North Pole from the icebreaker Yamal on 19 August 2006.
In terms of the explanation of why the existence of the strait was discovered only relatively recently, according to geomorphologist Andrey Panin, until a few years ago, the two islands were linked by a sand or shingle tombolo, which must have been breached and largely removed by tidal and storm-wave action (Polyanskiy Reference Polyanskiy2013).
To be truly official place names in Russia have to be approved by the Federal’noe agenstvo geodezii i kartografii Rossii [Russian Federal Agency for Geodesy and Cartography]. It is not clear whether this body has yet ruled on acceptance of the place name Ostrov Kuchieva.
