Kolyma River
One year before Nordenskiöld's voyage, commercial exploitation of a section of the route started with the so-called "Kara expeditions", exporting Siberian agricultural produce via the Kara Sea. Of 122 convoys between 1877 and 1919 only 75 succeeded, transporting as little as 55 tons of cargo. From 1911 the Kolyma River steamboats ran from Vladivostok to the Kolyma once a year.