Roald amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen /ˈɾuːɑl ˈɑmʉnsən/ (Borge, Norway, July 16, 1872 – Barents Sea, June 18, 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of the polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition that first reached the South Pole. He was also the first to cross the Northwest Passage, which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific, and was part of the first air expedition to fly over the North Pole.

He had an excellent seamanship training and a special skill in survival techniques, learned in part from his experience in winter sports, in the life of the Eskimos and in the expeditions that preceded him. In his different expeditions, he had a renowned team in the fields of navigation, skiing, aeronautical engineering and aviation. Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928 while flying in an airplane during a rescue operation in the Arctic.

Early Years

Amundsen was born on July 16, 1872 in the municipality of Borge, very close to Oslo, the capital of Norway. He was the fourth child of boat owner and Navy Captain Jens Amundsen. His mother, Gustava Zahlqvist, tried to keep him away from the sea and wanted him to study medicine. When Fridtjof Nansen returned triumphantly to Norway after crossing the island of Greenland on skis in 1888, Amundsen—at the time sixteen years old—decided to become a polar explorer.. In 1890 he began to study medicine at his mother's wish, but after her mother's death in 1893 he failed his school exams and later dropped out of university. At the age of twenty he embarked on a sealing ship to continue his apprenticeship as a sailor.

After traveling to the United States in search of sponsors for his projects, American millionaire and explorer Lincoln Ellsworth became one of his main funders. The next step was to gain knowledge of navigation, so he returned to Oslo to attend the Christiania Sjømandsskole, where he obtained his nautical license on May 1, 1895.

Polar crossings

Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897-1899)

The ship Belgium

In 1897, Amundsen learned of a Belgian project to explore Antarctica. After meeting with Adrien de Gerlache, the leader of the expedition, Amundsen obtained the position of helmsman. Aboard the ship Belgium, the exploration set sail from Antwerp (Belgium) on August 16, 1897. There He met the American Frederick Cook, the expedition's doctor, with whom he would cultivate a lasting friendship. The Belgian expedition was the first to winter south of the Antarctic Circle. The ship was trapped in the frozen sea at coordinates 70°30'S, west of the Antarctic peninsula. The crew had to face a harsh winter without being properly prepared to do so. Frederick Cook fed the crew the raw meat of marine animals, thus avoiding the possibility of contracting scurvy, and Amundsen encouraged the crew and had sealskin coats made. This would be an important lesson for Amundsen's subsequent travels.

Northwest Passage

Northwest pass route.

The Gjøa sailboat.

In 1903 Amundsen commanded the first expedition that managed to cross the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, along with six other members aboard the sailing ship Gjøa, purchased by Amundsen. It led through Baffin Bay, Lancaster, Peels, James Ross, and Rae Straits until it reached the region now known as Gjoa Haven in Nunavut, Canada. There they remained for two winters in exploration activities. During this time he gathered knowledge about the magnetism of the planet Earth. He had previously studied magnetism in Holland.

During this time, Amundsen studied the local inhabitants called netsilik to learn their survival techniques, which led him to adopt their clothing. It was also from them that he learned the use of sleds with draft dogs. After continuing their journey south of Victoria Island, the expedition crossed the Arctic archipelago on August 17, 1905, but had to stop for the winter before reaching the town of Nome, on the Pacific coast of Alaska. Amundsen traveled 800 km to Eagle City, a city that had a telegraph station, to deliver the news of his accomplished goal. In 1906 he came to Nome. It is said that everything learned on this trip, especially the usefulness of dogs, was decisive in reaching the South Pole.

Conquest of the South Pole

The ship Fram in Antarctica

After his expedition to the Northwest Passage, Amundsen planned an expedition to the North Pole, for which he would make use of the Fram, the ship owned by the Norwegian government but devised and designed for polar exploration by Fridtjof Nansen who had used it in his arctic explorations. Amundsen recruited the crew from him in Tromso. After learning that Robert Peary had gone ahead to be the first man to reach the North Pole, Amundsen changed his plans, and decided to explore the South Pole. It appears that he did not notify his crew of the change until after they had sailed.

Amundsen did not immediately make his change of plans public, given the possibility that Nansen would refuse to lend the Fram for the Antarctic voyage. When Nansen found out, he supported the expedition. When he arrived on the island of Madeira, Amundsen telegrammed news of his expedition to Robert Falcon Scott, another explorer aiming to reach the South Pole and who would be his rival in that race. The text of the telegram read BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC -- AMUNDSEN.

On January 14, 1911, the Fram arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf, in the Ross Sea. There he anchored the ship in the Bay of Whales and Amundsen set up his camp, which he named Framheim . Scott, for his part, had settled in MacMurdo Sound, 96 km further from the pole than Amundsen. While Scott's plans were to follow Ernest Shackleton's route over the Beardmore Glacier to the Antarctic Plateau, Amundsen intended to create his own route, deciding to climb the Transantarctic Mountains to reach the Antarctic Plateau.

In February, March and April of 1911, the expedition members placed provisioning posts at parallels 80°, 81° and 82° South in a direct line towards the pole, a practice that would allow them to test the conditions of the place as well as the equipment operation. During the winter, the expedition members devoted themselves to improving the equipment, particularly the sleds. Olav Bjaaland managed to significantly decrease the weight of the sleds. On February 4, 1911, a part of Scott's team paid a friendly visit by ship to Framheim.

Roald Amundsen and his companions looking at the Norwegian flag stuck in South Pole on December 16, 1911. Photo taken by Olav Bjaaland.

On September 8, 1911, the expedition set out for the pole, taking advantage of an increase in temperature that seemed like spring warming. The team consisted of eight people: Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, Jørgen Stubberud, Hjalmar Johansen, Kristian Prestrud and Amundsen. But shortly after the start, temperatures dropped drastically to minus -51°C. On 12 September they reached post 80°S, dropped off their supplies and hurried back to Framheim. The result of this ill-fated expedition was the disagreement between Amundsen and Johansen, who was expelled from the South Pole team. Amundsen decided to reorganize the team: Prestrud, Johansen, and Stubberud were commissioned for the exploration of Edward VII Land, previously discovered by Scott, while Amundsen, Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel, and Wisting formed the new South Pole team.

Amundsen and his team set out on October 19, 1911 with four sleds and 52 Greenlandic dogs, led by the female Etah. The team's food consisted of a daily personal ration of 380g biscuits, 350g pemmican, 40g chocolate and 60g powdered milk, while the dogs were fed 500g pemmican daily.

On October 23 they reached the position of 80th and on November 3 that of 82nd, the last one. On November 15, the latitude of 85° South was reached, remaining at the foot of the Transantarctic mountains. They ascended the mountains and on November 21 they reached the Polar Plateau, which would be renamed King Haakon VII Plateau, while the adjacent mountains were named Queen Maud Mountains. There they set up a camp that would receive the name La Carnicería, in which 24 dogs were sacrificed. A part of the meat would be used to feed the surviving dogs, and the rest would be stored for the return trip. Subjected to storms while crossing rather steep trails, they reached 87° on December 4 and on the 7th, three days later, they would reach the southernmost point of Shackleton's expedition: 88° 23'; South, being 180 km from the South Pole.

The South Pole was reached on December 14, 1911, 35 days before Scott's expedition. Amundsen set up his camp in the middle of the Pole, called Polheim. He decided to leave a tent with a letter inside, which would testify to his achievement in the event the team were unable to return to Framheim Scott's ill-fated expedition would reach the pole 34 days later. The team returned to Framheim on January 25, 1912, with eleven dogs, after 99 days of traveling to and from the pole.

Lacking the media, Amundsen's success was not publicly announced until March 7, 1912, when the team arrived in Hobart, Australia. His entire journey would be narrated in his book The South Pole: A Report of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the & # 34;Fram & # 34;, 1910-1912 . He wrote part of that book on a ranch in the province of Santa Fe, in Argentina. He was there in 1912, hosted by people he knew, it was a few months before continuing on his journey to the Northern Hemisphere.

Amundsen and Scott Expeditions Comparison

The routes followed by Amundsen (red) and Scott (green).

The major strategic difference between the two expeditions was that Amundsen based his transportation exclusively on Greenlandic dog sleds, while Robert Falcon Scott relied on the use of Mongolian horses. Amundsen decided to slaughter several dogs before reaching the pole and store the meat for the return; This strategy allowed him to reduce the weight of the dogs' food and ensure that the surviving animals were fed on the return trip.

Scott's horses had to carry sacks of oats for their feed, which increased their weight and their chances of sinking in the snow. Another drawback was that horses' sweat froze on their skin while dogs regulate their temperature without sweating. In addition, it seems that Amundsen's expedition had better equipment and clothing that was more resistant to cold. All of Scott's horses were killed, and the team was left to fend for itself. In addition, Scott added an extra member to the team at the last moment, which led to a mismatch in food rations.

While Amundsen made an efficient and uneventful trip, Scott arrived with great hardship at the pole, found Amundsen's tent, and both he and his team perished on the return trip due to lack of preparation, inadequate clothing and lack of sufficient food. In addition, they also had internal problems. Thus, Lawrence Oates clashed with Scott on several occasions, over issues related to how to lead the expedition. He once wrote in his diary: "Myself, I dislike Scott intensely and would chuck the whole thing if it were not that we are a British expedition... Scott is not straight, it is himself first, the rest nowhere..." ('I don't like Scott at all and would throw it all away if it weren't for the fact that we are a British expedition... Scott does not act upright, his first concern is himself, the rest does not matter to him...& #39;). Oates who had repeatedly suffered pain from an old war wound left himself to die on his thirty-second birthday “he left the store and told his companions I am going out and I may not be back for a while” he did it so as not to disturb the departure of Scott, who might not have died had he followed Oates's advice.

On the other hand, in his book An empire of ice, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward J. Larson indicates that Scott put science as a priority objective in his conquest of the South Pole, unlike Amundsen, conflicting visions that have already been treated by other authors; in fact, Amundsen's expedition was made up of only four of his men, leaving the other 27 (between scientists and naval officers) in the base camp carrying out scientific measurements or doing parallel explorations, while en route to the South Pole, Scott's group spent additional time taking geological, meteorological and biological samples, many of which turned out to contain fossilized remains of a paleozoic flora known as Glossopteris, definitive proof of the connection between Antarctica and the rest of the continents, evidence that had been fruitlessly sought for decades. Amundsen, meanwhile, set up camp 100 km from the South Pole and set off quickly; Indeed, regarding Scott, this author notes that

[...] fatally he was at a disadvantage in his competition in front of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, a highly skilled polar adventurer who only cared about winning the race.

Latest scans

Heading for the Northeast Passage

The boat Maud of Amundsen, built in 1917.

In 1918 Amundsen began a new expedition, this time with his own ship, the Maud, built in 1916, with which he planned to cross the Northeast Passage, traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean across the Arctic Ocean, along the Siberian coast of the Soviet Union. Amundsen's project was to freeze the Maud into a floating ice pack and drift, as Nansen had previously done with the Fram. The expedition lasted two years, from 1918 to 1920, and would not have the expected results. However, there were quite important scientific investigations by Harald Sverdrup. He came to request 300,000 crowns to continue with the project.

A first attempt to reach the North Pole

Captain Amundsen to the helm during the North Pole expedition in 1920.

In 1913 Amundsen visited the United States, where he would give a series of lectures on his travels. After a plane trip to San Francisco and his contact with Lincoln Ellsworth he began to consider a new expedition to the North Pole, this time by air. Returning to Norway, he would become increasingly interested in aviation, taking flying lessons at the Norwegian Department of Defence. In 1914 he received a flight certificate from him, the first ever received by a civilian in Norway.

In 1925 he carried out his purpose of carrying out an aerial expedition to the North Pole. Along with Lincoln Ellsworth, Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, Leif Dietrichson and two other companions, they left Ny-Ålesund, (scientific settlement on the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago), in two planes, the N-24 and the N- 25 bound for Alaska. The team reached 87° 44' North, the northernmost latitude reached by an aircraft in that time.

The planes landed about 15 km from the North Pole, and eventually the crews reunited. The N-24 broke down and the team worked for four weeks trying to clear the ice to create a makeshift runway for takeoff. With a daily ration of 400g of feed, the team managed to remove 600t of ice. The six men boarded the N-25 and managed to leave the place thanks to the maneuver of the pilot Riiser-Larsen, who managed to take off with excess weight. Their return to Spitsbergen was greeted with glee, as they were believed to have been lost forever. This expedition is narrated by Amundsen himself in his book To the North Pole by Plane.

Second air trip to the North Pole

Tower of the base of Ny-Ålesund, from where Amundsen came out in his air expeditions to the North Pole.

In 1926 Amundsen, together with Ellsworth, Riiser-Larsen, Oscar Wisting and the Italian engineer Umberto Nobile, made a new air expedition to the North Pole, aboard the airship Norge, designed by Nobile. They left Spitsbergen on May 11, 1926, and arrived in Alaska two days later, passing through the North Pole. Amundsen and Wisting became the first men to reach both poles. This expedition is narrated by Amundsen in his book Over the North Pole in an Airship.

Death

Roald Amundsen in Svalbard in 1925

After the airship expedition, a disagreement occurred between Amundsen and Nobile, motivated by disagreements over who had the honor of having sailed across the Arctic. The following year, Nobile led his own Arctic expedition aboard the airship Italia. Returning from the North Pole, the airship was lost, and Amundsen would be part of the rescue team that left Tromsø on June 18, 1928, aboard the French seaplane Latham. Shortly afterwards a float from the seaplane was found off the coast of Tromsø.

The Latham watercraft 47.02, in Tromsø, on June 18, 1928, shortly before Admundsen went out with him to search for Umberto Nobile and therefore shortly before the disappearance of Amundsen.

It appears that the seaplane crashed in the Barents Sea near the island of Bjørnøya and that Amundsen died in the accident. Rescue missions by the Norwegian government ended three months later, in September, when all hope of finding the explorer alive was lost. His body was never found, on the contrary, Nobile was found alive.

The Norwegian government established December 14—South Pole Day—as Roald Amundsen Memorial Day. The explorer was remembered with the ringing of all the churches in the country, two minutes of silence at 12 noon, and a memorable speech by Fridtjof Nansen.

Amundsen as a person

Although Amundsen never married, he had two adopted daughters, to whom he would become a good father. The girls, Camilla and Kaconitta, were Inuit and Amundsen would have picked them up in Siberia during his expedition on the Maud . They lived in the Amundsen house in Norway from 1922 to 1924, when they were sent to school. Luke Quadlooq, who died in 1978 in Gjoa Haven, stated shortly before he died that he was the son of Roald Amundsen.

Her house in Uranienborg (present-day Frogner), within the Oslo metropolitan area, was her residence from 1908 until her death in 1928. It currently functions as a museum.

He was a member of several Norwegian and foreign honorary orders, and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olaf (1906). He and he also received the South Pole Medal (1912) and the Medal of Great Civic Merit. In 1917 he relinquished his German decorations in protest of Germany's submarine warfare.

Legacy

The research station at the Amundsen-Scott Base at the South Pole in 2007

The Fram Museum on Bygdøy Island, near Oslo

• Base Amundsen-Scott, American research station in Antarctica.
• The Amundsen glacier in Antarctica.
• the sea of Amundsen, in the Antarctica.
• The Gulf of Amundsen, Canada.
• The Amundsen crater at the south pole of the Moon.
• The asteroid (1065) Amundsenia, which crosses the orbit of Mars.
• The ship Roald Amundsen, is a German steel helmet ship originally built in 1952 and refurbished several times with the name of the explorer in 1992, and used as a vessel for sailing sailing training of large ships.

Posts

• Amundsen, Roald: The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antartic Expedition in the Fram, 1910 - 1912John Murray, 1912. Online edition at eBooks @ Adelaide
• Amundsen, Roald (1927). Roald Amundsen: my life as an explorer. Garden City, New Yourk: Doubleday, Page & Co. Consultation on 27 May 2021.
• Amundsen, Roald (1912). The South Pole, an account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram" 1910-1912. John Murray, Albermarle Street, W. Consultation on 27 May 2021.
• Admundsen, Roald (30 10 2008). The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the Fram, 1910-12 (audolibro) (in English). LibriVox. Consultation on 27 May 2021.

In Spanish

• Amundsen, Roald: North Pole in Avión. Interfolio Books 2008 ISBN 978-84-936950-0-2
• Amundsen, Roald: On the North Pole in Directable. Interfolio Books 2008 ISBN 978-84-936950-1-9
• Amundsen, Roald: South Pole, account of the Norwegian expedition to the Antarctic of the Fram, 1910-1912. Interfolio Books 2010 ISBN 978-84-936950-5-7