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Roald Amundsen

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geographers and explorers

   Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (1872-1928)
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   Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (1872-1928)

   Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen ( July 16, 1872– presumably June 18,
   1928?) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first
   successful Antarctic expedition to the South Pole between 1910 and
   1912. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue
   mission.

Early life

   Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in
   Borge near Fredrikstad. His father was Jens Amundsen. The fourth son in
   the family, his mother chose to keep him out of the maritime industry
   of the family and pressured him to become a doctor, a promise that
   Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was age 21. Amundsen had
   hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of
   Greenland in 1888 and the doomed Franklin Expedition. He decided on a
   life of exploration.

Amundsen's Polar Treks

Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897–1899

   Amundsen was a member of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition ( 1897– 1899)
   as second mate. This expedition was led by Adrien de Gerlache, using
   the ship the Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in
   Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in
   the sea ice at 70°30'S off Alexander Land, west of the Antarctic
   Peninsula. The crew then endured a winter for which the expedition was
   poorly prepared. The doctor for the expedition was an American,
   Frederick Cook. Cook, by Amundsen's own estimation, probably saved the
   crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh
   meat, an important lesson for Amundsen's future expeditions.

Traversing "the Northwest Passage"

   In 1903 Amundsen led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest
   Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (something explorers
   had been attempting since the days of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot,
   and Henry Hudson), with six others in the ship Gjøa. They travelled via
   Baffin Bay, Lancaster and Peel Sounds, and James Ross and Rae Straits
   to spend two winters exploring over land and ice from the place today
   called Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada.

   During this time Amundsen learned from the local Netsilik people about
   key Arctic survival skills that he would need to survive; Amundsen even
   went to far as to adopt their dress (from them, for example, he learned
   to use sled dogs). Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship
   cleared the Arctic Archipelago on August 17, 1905, but had to stop for
   the winter before going on to Nome on the Alaska Territory's Pacific
   coast. Five hundred miles (800 km) away, Eagle City, Alaska, had a
   telegraph station; Amundsen travelled there (and back) overland to wire
   a success message ( collect) on December 5, 1905. Nome was reached in
   1906. Due to water as shallow as 3 feet (1 m), a larger ship could
   never have used the route.

The South Pole expedition

Change of plans

   After crossing the Northwest Passage, Amundsen made plans to go to the
   North Pole and explore the North Polar Basin. On hearing in 1909 that
   first Frederick Cook and then Robert Peary claimed the Pole, he changed
   his plans. Using the ship Fram ("Forward"), earlier used by Fridtjof
   Nansen, he instead set out for Antarctica in 1910. He states in his
   book The South Pole that he needed to attain the South Pole to
   guarantee funding for his proposed North Polar journey.

   Amundsen told no one of his change of plans except his brother Leon and
   Thorvald Nilsen, commander of the Fram. He was afraid that Nansen would
   rescind use of Fram, if he learned of the change. Nansen, when he was
   informed of the change, supported Amundsen fully. And he probably
   didn't want to alert Robert Falcon Scott that he would have a
   competitor for the pole, though Scott later said that Amundsen's
   presence had no effect on his own plans for the Pole. Since the
   original plan called for going around the Horn to the Bering Strait he
   waited until Fram reached Madeira to let his crew know of the change.
   Every member agreed to continue. Leon made the news public on October
   2. While in Madeira, Amundsen sent a telegram to Scott, notifying him
   of the change in destination: "BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING
   ANTARCTIC -- AMUNDSEN".

Arrival at the Bay of Whales

   On 14 January 1911 they arrived at the eastern edge of Ross Ice Shelf
   at the location known as the Bay of Whales. Amundsen located his base
   camp there and named it Framheim, literally, "Home of the Fram." It was
   60 statute miles (96 km) closer to the Pole than McMurdo Sound, where
   the rival British expedition led by Scott stayed. Scott would follow
   the route, discovered by Ernest Shackleton, up the Beardmore Glacier to
   the Antarctic Plateau. Amundsen would have to find his own entirely new
   path south to the Pole and, as he would later discover, ascend the
   Trans-Antarctic Mountains to reach the Polar Plateau.

   During February, March and early April, Amundsen and his men laid
   supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South, along a line direct to the
   Pole. This gave him some experience of conditions on the Ross Ice Shelf
   and provided crucial testing of their equipment. During the winter at
   Framheim, they kept busy improving their equipment, particularly the
   sledges. This was facilitated by the digging of a network of tunnels
   and work rooms in the massive snow drifts that covered their wooden
   winter's quarters. The sledges, the same kind and manufacturer that
   Scott used, weighed 165 pounds. During the winter, Olav Bjaaland was
   able to reduce their weight to 48 pounds. On February 4, 1911, members
   of the Scott's team on Terra Nova paid a friendly visit to the Amundsen
   camp at Framheim. The actual date he set for the south pole was October
   19th 1911

Eight man pole team reduced to five

   Amundsen made a false start to the Pole on 8 September 1911. The
   temperatures had risen, giving the impression of an austral-Spring
   warming. This Pole team consisted of eight people, Olav Bjaaland,
   Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, Jorgen Stubberud, Hjalmar
   Johansen, Kristian Prestrud and Amundsen. Soon after departure,
   temperatures fell below -60°F (-51°C). On 12 September, it was decided
   to reach the Depot at 80°, deposit their supplies and turn back to
   Framheim to await warmer conditions. The Depot was reached on 15
   September from which they hurriedly retreated back to Framheim.
   Prestrud and Hanssen sustained frost-bitten heels on the return. The
   last day of the return, by Amundsen's own description, was not
   organized. Whether this was the result of poor leadership or necessity
   is unclear. At Framheim, Johansen openly suggested that Amundsen had
   not acted properly. Amundsen then reorganized the Pole party by
   reducing its number. Prestrud, with Johansen and Stubberud, was tasked
   with the exploration of Edward VII Land. This separated Johansen from
   the Pole team. . The new Pole team, Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel, Wisting
   and Amundsen, departed on 19 October 1911. They took four sledges and
   52 dogs. Etah was the name of the lead female dog. Their daily rations
   were:

   Men:
     * Biscuits (40 biscuits): 380 g (13.4 ounces)
     * Men's pemmican: 350 g (12.34 ounces)
     * Chocolate: 40 g (1.4 ounces)
     * Milk powder: 60 g (2.1 ounces)

   Dogs:
     * Dogs' pemmican: 500 g (1.1 pounds)

Slowly southward

   Their track to the South Pole was as follows, on October 23, they
   reached the 80°S Depot and on November 3, the 82° Depot. On November
   15, they reached latitude 85°S. They had arrived at the base of the
   Trans-Antarctic Mountains. The ascent to the Antarctic Plateau, along
   the Axel Heiberg Glacier, was easier than they had expected. They
   arrived at the edge of the Polar Plateau on November 21. Here they
   camped at the place they named "Butcher Shop", where 24 of the
   remaining dogs were killed. Some of the carcasses were fed to the dogs,
   the balance was cached for the return journey. Blizzards and poor
   weather made progress slow as they crossed the "Devil's Ballroom", a
   heavily crevassed area. They crossed 87°S on December 4, and on
   December 7, they reached the latitude of Shackleton's furthest south,
   88°23'S, 180 km (97 nautical miles) from the South Pole.

Arrival at the South Pole

   On 14 December 1911, the team of five, with 16 dogs, arrived at the
   Pole (90°00'S). They had arrived 35 days before Scott's group. Amundsen
   named their South Pole camp Polheim, "Home of the Pole". Amundsen
   renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII's Plateau. They left a
   small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in the event they
   did not return safely to Framheim.

   Amundsen's extensive experience, careful preparation and use of
   high-quality sled dogs (Greenland huskies) paid off in the end. In
   contrast to the misfortunes of Scott's team, the Amundsen's trek proved
   rather smooth and uneventful, although Amundsen tended to make light of
   difficulties. They returned to Framheim on January 25, 1912 with eleven
   dogs. Henrik Lindstrom, the cook, said to Amundsen: "And what about the
   Pole? Have you been there?" The trip had taken 99 days (originally
   planned to have taken 100 days), the distance about 1,860 miles.

   Amundsen's success was not publicly announced until 7 March 1912, when
   he arrived at Hobart, Australia. Amundsen recounted his journey in the
   book The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition
   in the "Fram", 1910–1912.

Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott expeditions

   The reasons for Amundsen's success and for Scott's failure in returning
   from the South Pole have always been the subject of discussion and
   controversy. Whereas Amundsen returned, Scott's party of five lost
   their lives on the Ross Ice Shelf on the return journey from the pole.

Amundsen's assessment

   The fact remains that Amundsen's party had better equipment, better
   clothing, had a clearer recognition of the primary task, understood
   dogs and their handling, used ski effectively, pioneered an entirely
   new route to the Pole and they returned. In Amundsen's own words:

          "I may say that this is the greatest factor -- the way in which
          the expedition is equipped -- the way in which every difficulty
          is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it.
          Victory awaits him who has everything in order -- luck, people
          call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the
          necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck."

                            --from The South Pole, by Roald Amundsen.

Later life

   In 1918 Amundsen began an expedition with a new ship Maud, which was to
   last until 1925. Maud sailed West to East through the Northeast
   Passage, now called the Northern Route (1918-1920). Amundsen planned to
   freeze the Maud into the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole
   (as Nansen had done with the Fram), but in this he was not successful.
   However, the scientific results of the expedition, mainly the work of
   Harald Sverdrup, were of considerable value.

   In 1925, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth, pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen
   and three other team members, Amundsen took two aircraft, the N-24 and
   N-25 to 87° 44' north. It was the northernmost latitude reached by
   plane up to that time. The planes landed a few miles apart without
   radio contact, yet the crews managed to reunite. One of the aircraft,
   the N-24 was damaged. Amundsen and his crew worked for over three weeks
   to clean up an airstrip to take off from ice. They shovelled 600 tons
   of ice on 1 lb (400 g) of daily food rations. In the end six crew
   members were packed into the N-25. In a remarkable feat, Riiser-Larsen
   took off and barely became airborne over the cracking ice. They
   returned triumphant when everyone thought they had been lost for ever.

   In 1926, Amundsen, Ellsworth, Riiser-Larsen and Italian aeronautical
   engineer Umberto Nobile made the first crossing of the Arctic in the
   airship Norge designed by Nobile. They left Spitzbergen on May 11, 1926
   and landed in Alaska two days later. The three previous claims to have
   arrived at the North Pole – by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in
   1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge) –
   are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright
   fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider
   the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have
   reached the North Pole.
   Amundsen monument in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway
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   Amundsen monument in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway

Disappearance and (probable) death

   Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928 while flying on a rescue mission
   with the famous Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, the French pilot Rene
   Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen, looking for missing members of
   Nobile's crew, whose new airship the Italia had crashed while returning
   from the North Pole. Afterwards, a pontoon from the French Latham 47
   flying-boat he was in, improvised into a life raft, was found near the
   Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the
   Barents Sea, and that Amundsen was killed in the crash, or died shortly
   afterwards. His body was never found. The search for Amundsen was
   called off in September by the Norwegian Government. In 2003 it was
   suggested that the plane went down northwest of Bjørnøya (Bear Island).

Legacy

     * The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is named jointly after him
       and his rival.
     * Amundsen Sea, off the coast of Antarctica, is named for him.
     * Amundsen Glacier in Antarctica is named after him.
     * Amundsen Gulf, in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of the Northwest
       Territories in Canada (separating Banks Island and the western
       parts of Victoria Island from the mainland), is named for him.
     * A large crater covering the Moon's south pole is named Amundsen
       Crater after him.
     * The Norwegian Navy is building a class of Aegis frigates, one of
       which, the HNoMS Roald Amundsen, will be named after him.
     * Among the tall ships, the German brig Roald Amundsen is named after
       him.
     * Writer Roald Dahl is named after Amundsen.

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