Amundsen planned to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in when he learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat. Amundsen completed his preparations and in June sailed instead for Antarctica, where the English explorer Robert F. Scott was also headed with the aim of reaching the South Pole. In October, both explorers set off—Amundsen using sleigh dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs.
The motor sleds broke down, the ponies had to be shot, and the dog teams were sent back as Scott and four companions continued on foot. On January 18, , they reached the pole only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month. Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad—two members perished—and a storm later trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their tent only 11 miles from their base camp. After his historic Antarctic journey, Amundsen established a successful shipping business.
He later made attempts to become the first explorer to fly over the North Pole. In , in an airplane, he flew within miles of the goal. In , he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just three days after American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently done so in an aircraft. In , Amundsen lost his life while trying to rescue a fellow explorer whose dirigible had crashed at sea near Spitsbergen, Norway.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! In June , he left Norway and 6 months later reached the continent of Antarctica establishing the camp in the Bay of Whales. He made two attempts to reach the South Pole.
During the first, he encountered extreme cold weather that made him return to camp. Second attempt was made with a crew of 6 people, 4 sleds and 52 dogs, travailing on a route that was previously explored by explorer Ernest Shackleton. Only five weeks later English explorer Robert Falcon Scott would reach the Pole, just to tragically die from cold and starvation while returning to his base camp.
McKenna, who was the first to congratulate Amundsen on his success. Amundsen, of course, hoped to reach Bering Strait and civilization that year, but ice conditions were bad. As early as September 2 progress was stopped at King Point, near Herschel Island, and within a week it was evident that another winter had to be spent in the Arctic. The magnetic recordings were continued at King Point, and during the winter Amundsen travelled to Eagle, Alaska, in order to send telegrams from the expedition to the outside world.
He made the trip in company with the skipper of the shipwrecked Bonanza , Captain Mogg, of whose accomplishments as a traveller by dog team Amundsen had a very low opinion. On his return to King Point, Amundsen learned the sad news that Wiik had been taken ill and died. She reached Nome on the 31st, where she was given a reception worthy of the adventurous and boisterous gold seekers who at that time were making Nome famous.
From there on the trip back to Norway was a triumphant journey that brought Amundsen full compensation for his worries and difficulties during the trying years of preparation. She deteriorated badly, but was restored in He hated the lecture trips on which he had to place himself in the hands of a manager and sell his freedom of action to a person whose publicity schemes he disliked but could not avoid.
Little wonder then that he soon worked on a new plan, which he presented to the Norwegian Geographic Society in the fall of The main purpose would be the repetition of the oceanographic work of Nansen, using better equipment and new and greatly improved instruments.
Nansen had not been prepared for the great depths he discovered and was not equipped with adequate sounding lines and the deep-sea oceanographic work was consequently much handicapped. Furthermore, the available deep-sea thermometers and other instruments were inaccurate.
By ingenious interpretation of the imperfect observations Nansen had been able to recognize the main features of the oceanography of the Arctic Ocean, but in spite of his brilliant analysis several points remained in doubt on account of the deficient data. In the years since the return of the First Fram Expedition, Nansen himself had contributed much to the improvement of instruments and methods.
Private and public funds were obtained and the outlook for the expedition was bright. A great deal of the public interest in the expedition was based on the assumption that Amundsen would make a dash for the North Pole and it was confidently expected that he would succeed and become the first man to reach that coveted spot.
There is no doubt that Amundsen wanted to have a try at reaching the Pole, although he never said so directly. That the public was more interested in the spectacular aspects of the expedition than in its laborious scientific work became evident when support failed in the early summer of after it was learned that both Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole.
The public interest in his expedition dropped off, the contributions ceased, and it appeared hopeless to equip the Fram for 5 years. He also felt that to maintain his name as explorer he had to accomplish a sensational feat. Without informing more than three of his closest associates he decided to try to reach the South Pole. When the Fram left Norway in June the official plan was that she should sail around Cape Horn, continue north through the Pacific and enter the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait in the summer of , but from Funchal, Madeira, Amundsen announced that he was instead heading for the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea and from there was trying to reach the South Pole.
Severe criticism was directed against Amundsen on the basis that he had entered a race against Scott, but it has gradually been admitted that Amundsen could not be blamed for attempting to reach the South Pole by a route different from that selected by Scott and using a different technique.
Amundsen and four companions reached the Pole on December 14, , Scott on January 18, , but Scott and his brave comrades perished on the return journey.
As soon as Amundsen was back in civilization he resumed his plans for the drift expedition across the Arctic Ocean. The Fram had taken him and his party on board in and gone to Hobart, Tasmania, from where Amundsen sent his first brief report. From Hobart the ship had continued to Buenos Aires for overhaul. After supplementing her equipment she was to return to the Pacific and sail north to Bering Strait. In when Amundsen was lecturing in the United States it was suggested to him that the Fram might be permitted to go as the first ship through the Panama Canal.
Amundsen was anxious to take advantage of this opportunity and ordered the Fram to Colon. However, after having waited in vain for two and a half months she had to be sent back to Buenos Aires with orders to go around Cape Horn and on to San Francisco.
The bottom of the ship had become so badly fouled that the trip to Buenos Aires took too long to make it possible for the Fram to reach San Francisco in time to continue to Bering Strait in the summer of Amundsen decided to have the Fram return to Norway and start from there in by following the north coast of Siberia to the east as Nansen had done in They were still more seriously upset when it was found that the Fram had been damaged beyond repair by dry rot during the long stay in the tropics.
At this point it should be mentioned that Amundsen had long contemplated the use of airplanes in arctic exploration, thus pioneering a development that was to revolutionize arctic work.
As early as when he was making his first preparations for the drift expedition he had negotiated with one of the early aviators about participation in the enterprise, and in he had bought a Farman biplane in the United States and shipped it to Norway where he himself obtained a certificate as pilot and where he gave it to the Norwegian Government at the outbreak of the war.
The war and the loss of the Fram did not make Amundsen abandon his plans. He invested his accumulated funds in shipping stock, doubled his capital and contracted in for the building of a new ship, which still left him enough money to finance the long-postponed drift expedition. His new ship was launched in June and named the Maud after the Queen of Norway.
The Maud had been designed by the yacht builder Chr. Jensen and was built along lines similar to those of the Fram , but she was even more bowl-shaped. Her over-all length was feet, her beam 40 feet and in any vertical section, lengthwise or athwart ship, the line of the hull was part of a circle. From the outer side of the ironwood ice-sheathing to the inner side of the inner sheathing the sides were nearly three feet thick.
Inside the hull was strengthened with vertical and inclined stanchions that were tied with naturally-grown knees of oak. Her shape made her behave excellently under heavy pressure from ice, but in the open sea she rolled like a wash basin. During the winter , Amundsen equipped the Maud for a five-year journey, obtaining provisions from the United States under special license.
This number was increased to ten when a Russian-Norwegian engineer was added at Kharborovo. The party included Helmer Hansen as captain, who had been with Amundsen through the Northwest Passage; Oscar Wisting, first mate, who had been to the South Pole; and among the three tenderfeet was Dr. Sverdrup, in charge of scientific work. The Maud Expedition met with many difficulties. In September progress was stopped some 10 miles to the east of Cape Chelyuskin, where the Maud stayed a fully year.
That period was used for carrying out scientific observations and charting the northernmost peninsula of the continent. In the summer of the ice did not break up around the Maud and only on September 12, after much blasting and advancing foot by foot, did the ship reach open water and could continue to the east.
Here two men, Knudsen and Tessem, were left behind. They had a number of dogs and provisions for a year and had the choice of leaving in the fall or waiting until the following spring.
They left in the fall but failed to reach their destination. The Maud sailed to the east but the season was too late to penetrate to the north and start the drift.
An attempt to turn away from the coast east of the New Siberian Islands failed and on September 21 all progress was stopped. Winter quarters were established on the open coast of Ayon Island about miles west of Bering Strait. During the winter Sverdrup left the ship and stayed for eight months among the reindeers and the Chukchis. In July the journey east was resumed and on July 28 the Maud reached Nome.
Amundsen thus completed the Northeast Passage that had been navigated for the first time by A. In Nome Amundsen announced that all his companions were free to leave the expedition, which had already been in the Arctic for two years without having started its actual task, the drift. Four of the eight remaining in the party decided to return to Norway.
Since no new men could be found in Nome, the Maud left with only four men on board, including Amundsen. His plan was to return to the Siberian coast, take some natives on board and attempt to start the drift.
However, the ice conditions were worse than before and after a long struggle in which the propeller shaft was damaged, it became necessary to go into winter quarters only 25 miles from the place where the Vega stayed in During the winter Amundsen decided that next year he would leave it to Wisting and Sverdrup to have another try at the drift if they were willing, and that he himself would return to his old plans for the use of airplanes in the Arctic.
Consequently the Maud was taken to Seattle in the summer of for repairs. She left again for the Arctic in June with a crew of eight, including a native boy from Siberia and finally succeeded in getting away from the coast. She became fast in the ice east of Wrangell Island but was not carried across the Arctic Ocean as had been hoped. The Maud and her crew finally returned to Seattle in October with a wealth of observations that made the expedition a scientific success.
Difficulties During the years from to Amundsen experienced the bitterest disappointments, but also the most spectacular triumph of his varied life. In he had bought a Junkers plane, which the Maud took to Point Hope, Alaska, where it was transferred to the Holmes, which unloaded it at Wainwright. Amundsen with Oscar Omdal as pilot hoped to fly from Wainwright to Spitsbergen in the spring of , but when spring came it was impossible to get the plane off the ground with the necessary supply of fuel, and the plan had to be given up.
After returning to Norway in Amundsen found himself at the lowest ebb in his career. He had hoped to raise funds for an airplane expedition to start from Spitsbergen, but he found himself blocked in every direction.
From the public point of view the Maud Expedition was a failure and furthermore it was considered that Amundsen should have stayed with the ship instead of trying ventures, which were called stunts that were unworthy of being taken seriously.
All sorts of rumours were being circulated reflecting not only upon Amundsen's intentions as serious minded explorer, but also upon his morals. On top of all that Amundsen found his finances in a hopeless tangle. On previous occasions he had often been close to bankruptcy, partly because he was so engrossed in his undertakings that he always was convinced that somehow the funds would be forthcoming. So far his optimistic calculations had been successful because help had always arrived when it was most needed, but in no help was in sight.
His debt had increased steadily, partly because some of his trusted friends had been far too optimistic in their dispositions. His only asset, the Maud , was drifting in the ice north of Siberia and nobody knew if she ever would return.
The most distressing blow came from his own brother who had lent him money and now feared that everything would be lost.
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