On the right bank of the Thames, outside Greenwich Hospital, stands an obelisk of red granite bearing the single word “BELLOT”. For those (and they must be the vast majority) to whom this means nothing, a bronze tablet at the back provides a little more light:

To the intrepid young/BELLOT,/Of the French Navy,/Who, in the endeavour to rescue/Franklin,/Shared the fate and the glory of that/Illustrious navigator./(From his British admirers.)/1853.

There are places in the Soviet Arctic which on English maps and in English literature are called by three or four quite different names. The confusion to which this state of affairs leads is obvious. Yet it is not too difficult to establish a set of principles which might be generally used as a guide in putting Russian Arctic place-names on English maps.

The Three-Power Conference on Aid to Russia between Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union opened in Moscow on 29 September 1941. The British and American missions, headed respectively by Lord Beaverbrook and Averill Harriman, travelled in H.M.S. London which left Scapa Flow on 22 September and arrived at Arkhangel'sk five days later.

In 1941 the Admiralty decided to construct a radar station to overlook Denmark Strait off the north-west coast of Iceland.

The site finally selected was on the top of the promontory between Aðalvik and Ísafjarðardjúp at approximately 1600 ft. (480 m.) above sea-level. A base camp was to be set up at Sæbol in Aðalvik for the maintenance of the station. There was no landward communication except with a few hamlets in the immediate neighbourhood. Supplies were brought by sea from Reykjavík, 180 miles (290 km.) away. There was a telegraph service from Reykjavík to Ísafjörður, and a telephone from Ísafjörður to the base camp. Radio communication was used as little as possible.

Near the Poles, the geographical system of reference by meridians and parallels approaches limiting conditions, and the apparent motion of heavenly bodies is unfamiliar. Accepted routines of navigation break down, and it is therefore necessary to devise new methods for the use of aircraft in polar regions. In addition, the weakness of the magnetic field in these regions forces us to modify or supplement the ordinary method of steering by magnetic compass. It cannot be too much emphasised, however, that the overriding criteria by which any technique must be examined are those which are common to navigation in all latitudes, and which are imposed by the nature of the aircraft itself. They arise chiefly owing to the speed and instability of the machine, and to the conditions of physical and mental strain in which the aerial navigator must work. Techniques and instruments must survive the three-fold test, applicable to any latitude: “Is the manipulative process handy enough to be done accurately by a navigator, tired or under nervous tension?”, “Is it simple enough for him to avoid errors under conditions of stress or mild anoxia?”, and “Is it fast enough?”