Researchers have discovered the wreck of a pioneering British steamship that sank in the Russian Arctic in 1878. According to the Russian Geographical Society, he tried to continue upriver the next year but the ship ran aground and froze to the bottom. The Royal Geographical Society recognised his work to open the Kara Sea route with the 1894 Murchison award. Two researchers from the Russian Geographical Society, which is chaired by President Vladimir Putin, found its wreck in shallow waters on the Yenisei river near the village of Goroshikha just south of the Arctic Circle. Wiggins was an early believer in the possibilities of sea trade with Siberia, which was rich in timber, furs, coal and even mammoth bones.

Source: The Guardian August 09, 2016 13:45 UTC