Walrus ivory scrimshaw dated to around 1100, carved in the same fashion as the prow of a Viking longboat. New research has pinpointed where such walrus were hunted by Norsemen, revealing that their expeditions roamed much farther than previously thought. Source: Cleveland Museum of Art / Public Domain.

Ancient Walrus Ivory Reveals Vikings Regularly Hunted in North America

We may have grown up thinking it was true, but Columbus was not the first European to make contact with North America when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Norse sailors had been crossing the Atlantic for centuries by that time, but new research suggests it may have been for even longer than thought.

We now know what happened to James Fitzjames, first officer of the doomed Frankling Expedition of 1845. Source: Richard Beard / Public Domain.

Cannibalized Remains of HMS Terror’s First Officer Identified

The story of the ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, and the doom that awaited them in Canada’s frozen north, is among the most harrowing in history. The two ships, and the men who sailed in them, met with tragedy on the Franklin expedition trying to find a navigable Arctic route to the Pacific, and