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Roald Amundsen
1872 - 1928
Roald Amundsen, born in 1872 near Oslo, Norway, left his mark on
the Heroic Era as one of the most successful polar explorers
ever born. His career of adventure began at the age of 15,
originally studying medicine, but dropping out to go to sea
where he soon moved his way up to the rank of mate. His first
experience in the Antarctic was with Adrien de Gerlache's 1899
BELGICA EXPEDITION. He became the first to travel the Northwest
Passage, in his ship Gjoa in 1903-06. After this expedition,
plans were assembled to drift across the North Pole in Nansen's
famous FRAM, but news arrived of Peary's successful attainment
of the pole which caused Amundsen to make new plans--covert
plans--for an expedition to the Antarctic and the subsequent
capture of the South Pole. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen and
four others stood at the South Pole, a month before Robert
Scott. This expedition was an incredible masterpiece of
organization.
"The North Pole is reached!" was the news that flashed all over
the world...it was September 1909 when the news reached Amundsen.
The original plan of the FRAM'S third voyage--the exploration of
the North Polar basin--was quickly called off. In order to save
the expedition, Amundsen immediately turned his attention to the
South simultaneously emphasizing to his financial contributors
that the FRAM'S Arctic voyage would be, in every way, a
scientific expedition and would have nothing to do with
record-breaking. Therefore, as far as the supporters were aware,
Amundsen's Arctic voyage would not be influenced one way or
another by Peary's accomplishment. Since he was so heavily in
debt, Amundsen felt his change in plans to head south and
capture the South Pole should be kept a secret. In his own
words, Amundsen wrote, "I know that I have been reproached for
not having at once made the extended plan public, so that not
only my supporters, but the explorers who were preparing to
visit the same regions might have knowledge of it. I was well
aware that these reproaches would come, and had therefore
carefully weighed this side of the matter". As hinted at, he
also felt it important to keep his intentions secret from his
peers. "Nor did I feel any great scruples with regard to the
other Antarctic expeditions that were being planned at the time.
I knew I should be able to inform Captain Scott of the extension
of my plans before he left civilization, and therefore a few
months sooner or later could be of no great importance. Scott's
plan and equipment were so widely different from my own that I
regarded the telegram that I sent him later, with the
information that we were bound for the Antarctic regions, rather
as a mark of courtesy than as a communication which might cause
him to alter his programme in the slightest degree. The British
expedition was designed entirely for scientific research. The
Pole was only a side-issue, whereas in my extended plan it was
the main object". Amundsen must have been in a dream world as
this simply was not true. Scott's intention to try for the Pole
had been widely publicized and was certainly not a side
issue...one only need turn to Scott's Antarctic Expedition
announcement in the September 13, 1909, issue of The Times of
London.
Amundsen admitted that he was heavily in debt and knew that his
best chance of raising money was to bring off a spectacular
triumph. Amundsen wrote, "If at that juncture I had made my
intention public, it would only have given occasion for a lot of
newspaper discussion, and possibly have ended in the project
being stifled at its birth. Everything had to be got ready
quietly and calmly. My brother, upon whose absolute silence I
could blindly rely, was the only person I let into the secret of
my change of plan, and he did me many important services during
the time when we alone shared the knowledge". The only other man
to know of the change in plans was the ship's commander,
Lieutenant Thorvald Nilsen. Amundsen kept his plans so secret
that only these two men, along with Lieutenants Prestrud and
Gjertsen (told on the eve of the FRAM'S departure), knew of them
before the FRAM reached Madeira, ostensibly on the way to Buenos
Aires and then northwards to the Arctic; the Madeira trip was
supposed to be mainly for the purpose of oceanographical
research.
The Norwegians left Christiania on August 9, 1910, eight weeks
after Scott's TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION had departed Cardiff. On
board were 97 Greenland dogs, the key to Amundsen's success,
along with a hut and provisions for two years in the Antarctic.
A month later, on September 6, the FRAM arrived at Madeira where
fresh water and other provisions were taken on board. A few
minor repairs were made to the ship as the crew enjoyed some
free time ashore. On the evening of the 9th, some three hours
before departing for Antarctica, Amundsen called the crew to his
attention. Many of the men were quite puzzled and unhappy to be
interrupted as they were quickly writing final letters for home.
As they came on deck, Amundsen was standing next to a map of
Antarctica pinned to the mainmast. Amundsen spoke, "...it is my
intention to sail Southwards, land a party on the Southern
continent and try to reach the South Pole". Gjertsen wrote,
"Most stood there with mouths agape staring at the Chief like so
many question marks". Amundsen personally asked each man if he
would like to join him on this historic journey. The last man to
go ashore was Amundsen's brother, Leon. His charge would be to
mail the men's letters and cable Scott...but not until the
beginning of October when Amundsen knew he would be beyond the
point of recall. Once Amundsen left Madeira, he vanished, bound
for an unknown destination...Scott never dreamt it would be the
Ross Sea. Scott, on board the TERRA NOVA, arrived in Melbourne
on the evening of October 12, 1910. Among the mail waiting for
him was Amundsen's telegram, sent from Madeira, which came as a
complete surprise: "Beg leave inform you proceeding Antarctic.
Amundsen." Although there is no record of Scott's reaction,
Evans later recalled, "we considered that he [Amundsen] would go
to the Pole from the Weddell Sea side". In London, Sir Clements
Markham eagerly put forth his opinion: "She [the FRAM] has no
more sailing qualities than a haystack. In any case, Scott will
be on the ground and settled long before Amundsen turns up, if
he ever does". Markham gleaned information from his sources in
Norway and reported to the Royal Geographic Society's secretary,
on October 15, that Amundsen had "quietly got a wintering hut
made on board and 100 dogs and a supply of tents and sledges.
His secret design must have been nearly a year old. They believe
his mention of Punta Aranas and Buenos Aires is merely a blind,
and that he is going to McMurdo Sound to try to cut out
Scott...If I were Scott I would not let them land, but he is
always too good-natured". Whatever the rights and wrongs of the
matter, the general view among those involved in Scott's
expedition was that Amundsen's behavior was underhanded.
It took the FRAM four months to reach the Ross Ice Shelf, on
January 14, 1911. Amundsen chose the Bay of Whales as winter
headquarters for a number of reasons. First, they could sail a
whole degree farther south than Scott could hope to get in
McMurdo Sound, putting them 60 miles closer to the Pole;
secondly, they could set up their headquarters right on top of
their field of work; thirdly, animal life in the Bay of Whales
was extraordinarily rich and offered all the fresh meat the men
required in the form of seals, penguins, etc. Besides, it
offered a favorable site for an investigation of the
meteorological conditions in all directions and was very easy to
reach by ship. Unloading started on January 15 with camp
established two miles inland. The first sledge was loaded with
supplies, hitched to eight dogs and led away by Amundsen.
For the next three weeks, five sledges, 46 dogs and five men
transferred some 10 tons of supplies daily to base camp.
Meanwhile, the carpenter, Jorgen Stubberud, supervised the
assembly of the prefabricated hut. After a visit from Scott's
TERRA NOVA, the base camp was christened Framheim--"The home of
Fram"--and the depot-laying journeys began. Within a three-week
period, depots were established at 80°S, 81°S and 82°S...more
than a ton and a half of supplies had been stored within 480
miles of the Pole. On April 21 the sun finally sank and the long
winter night began.
A great deal of work had to be done over the next four months.
Amundsen was well aware of potential problems brought by nine
men cramped into close quarters over the long winter nights so a
strict routine was quickly introduced. Six days a week the men
would rise at 7:30 am, have breakfast, start work at 9:00 and
have lunch at noon. They would return to their work at 2:00 pm
and end at 5:15, with the balance of the day to be used as they
pleased. Each man took his turn as the week's housekeeper
emptying ashtrays, sweeping up and generally keeping the hut
clean. Each man had two hooks on which to hang clothes, while
the rest of their small stuff was kept out of sight in a clothes
sack nearby. In addition to the hut in which they lived, fifteen
16-man tents were erected to store fuel and supplies. Bjaaland
and Hassel built a Scandanavian staple...a sauna. A bottomless
box, on a platform raised two feet off the ice floor, was built
large enough to slip over the man, allowing only his head to
protrude. A tin box, fitted between the platform and the ice
floor, was heated by two paraffin stoves. As the water boiled,
the compartment would fill with steam. When the man was
finished, a rope-and-pulley system would lift the box clear,
exposing a naked man, who then had to make a dash back to the
hut. Exposure to the elements would quickly seal the pores...the
event became a Saturday night ritual.
Over the winter, every man had specific chores. Kristian
Prestrud, assisted by Hjalmar Johansen, made scientific
observations; Sverre Hassel, assisted by Helmer Hanssen, was
nicknamed the "Managing Director of Framheim's Coal, Oil and
Coke Company Limited", the position responsible for supplying
lamps and heaters with fuel. Johansen packed the sledges with
pemmican, chocolate, milk powder and biscuits. Remodelling and
overhauling of the expedition's sledging equipment was left to
the skilled carpenter, Olav Bjaaland, assisted by Jorgen
Stubberud. Bjaaland was an expert at reducing unnecessary weight
on the sledges. As well as preparing two sets of skis for each
man, Bjaaland lightened the weight of the sledges by nearly one
third. Stubberud achieved similar results with the sledging
cases. When Bjaaland was finished, Hanssen and Oscar Wisting
would assemble the sledge using rawhide lashings. In a tiny snow
cave off the main storage room, Wisting spent most of the winter
at a sewing machine where new tents were made, complete with
floors, from weight-saving windcloth. The new tents weighed
nearly nine pounds less than the tents brought on the
expedition. The camp's cook was an overweight and jolly man
named Adolf Lindstrom. Lindstrom would rise each morning at 6:00
am to prepare a breakfast of hot buckwheat cakes spread with
whortleberry preserve, plus wholemeal bread enriched with
wheatgerm, butter and cheese. Amundsen said Lindstroms' cakes
"slipped down with fabulous rapidity". As for lunch, various
meals were prepared from fresh or frozen seal meat, supplemented
with tinned meats by the end of winter. For dessert, tinned
California fruits, tarts, pudding, pies and pastries, all made
by Lindstrom, were served. Supper was seal steak, bread with
butter, whortleberry jam and cheese. Coffee was the staple
beverage although brandy was served on Saturday evenings,
birthdays and holidays. Amundsen made certain the food at
Framheim was very nutritious since he'd learned first-hand the
effects of scurvy while on the BELGICA EXPEDITION in 1897.
The men actually enjoyed getting together each evening over
supper. Since they had worked in different parts of the camp
during the day, rarely was there a lack of conversation come
evening time. Card games, dart matches, reading and needlework
took place often around the main table. Occasionally the
gramophone was brought out and a few records played. But,
despite the relative easy passing of winter nights, Amundsen
remained worried about Johansen's quick temper. Forced
abstinence from alcohol made Johansen quite difficult to deal
with at times. To make matters worse, Johansen had as much
experience in polar exploration as Amundsen; he had been to the
Arctic with Nansen. Johansen felt this put him, at worst, on
level par with Amundsen. And then there was the matter of Robert
Scott...how far had the English advanced? Amundsen was aware
that Scott was using motorized sledges although he doubted their
efficiency. Little did he know of what was going on at McMurdo
Sound.
By August 24 the sun had reappeared and the packed sledges were
ready to be taken out from their underground storage. But two
long, frustrating months would pass before the weather was warm
enough for them to start the journey to the Pole. Tensions
increased as each day passed. Amundsen would have the men and
dogs prepared for departure only to cancel at the last moment
due to inclement weather. The weather had to be clear for their
first run to the 80°S depot, or there was a real risk of missing
it. Finally, on Friday, September 8, 1911, they sped off across
the snow...eight men with sledges pulled by 86 dogs; only
Lindstrom was left behind as custodian of Framheim. Amundsen
wrote that "the going was splendid" and they covered 31 miles
over the next three days. However, on the morning of the 11th
they awoke to frigid temperatures nearing -70°F. By the next
day, conditions were even worse as the fluid in their compasses
froze solid. Amundsen determined that it was simply too risky to
continue on towards the Pole. That evening a decision was made
to make a run for the depot, weather permitting, unload their
sledges and race back to Framheim. The weather co-operated and
they arrived at the depot on Thursday. The next evening Hanssen
and Stubberud discovered their heels were frostbitten. As well,
a number of the dogs were suffering from the cold; two of the
dogs froze to death in their sleep. At 7:00 the next morning
they set off for Framheim.
They would normally keep in sight of each other but the first
two sledges moved so rapidly that the others were soon left
behind. The sledge teams continued to break up, with Bjaaland
and Stubberud reaching Framheim first at 6 pm, followed two
hours later by Amundsen's group. A half an hour after that
Hassel arrived and six hours later, at 12:30 am, Johansen and
Prestrud finally stumbled into camp. Johansen and Prestrud were
totally exhausted, having found Framheim in the dark and fog
only by following the barking of the dogs. At breakfast the next
morning, Amundsen finally succeeded in knocking the chip off
Johansen's shoulder when Amundsen asked why it had taken them so
long to make it back to Framheim. Johansen exploded, angrily
accusing Amundsen of panicking and displaying poor leadership
qualities when the group had been allowed to split up. In the
dead silence that followed, Amundsen remained speechless. It was
what Amundsen had always feared--a confrontation with the one
man in the expedition with experience to equal his own. This
brought to an end the harmony amongst all the men as Amundsen
never forgave Johansen or spoke to him unless absolutely
necessary. Amundsen's excuse to the others was that Hanssen was
suffering too severely from frostbite to linger behind...the men
were not totally convinced.
At noon, Amundsen announced to his men a change in plans.
Amundsen would lead one party to the Pole while Prestrud--with
Johansen--would lead a second party to explore King Edward VII
Land. Amundsen's decision was not a revengeful one as he felt
that if the Pole party were not successful, at least there might
still be a "first" gained for Norway. Amundsen then spoke to
each man individually (ignoring Johansen), asking for his pledge
of loyalty...all gave it. And so, on October 20, 1911, Amundsen,
Bjaaland, Wisting, Hassel and Hanssen departed on their historic
journey to the Pole. Four sledges were used, each pulled with 13
dogs. They made good progress, other than a little trouble with
crevasses, and arrived at 80°S depot on the 24th. They uncovered
the provisions and gave the dogs a feast of seal meat and
blubber. The next day the party left with all five men on skis.
On the way south, they spotted a cairn still standing as they
had built it the prior April. Thus proving reliability, another
150 similar cairns were built on the journey south, each left
with a written record inside stating the distance and bearing to
the next cairn. Each day, as they built their cairn, lunch was
eaten..."nothing very luxurious", wrote Amundsen, "three or four
dry oatmeal biscuits, that was all. If one wanted a drink, one
could mix snow with the biscuit". They arrived at 82°S depot on
November 4. Two days later they left...they were accomplishing
20 miles each day, in only five hours, after which they would
build their cairn, in an hour and a half, and then rest for the
remainder of the day. On November 11 the peaks of mountains were
seen in the distance, which Amundsen later named Queen Maud's
Range, after the Queen of Norway. At the foot of the range they
camped and discussed strategy for the final push to the Pole,
some 340 miles distant. The final plan was to take supplies and
provisions for 30 days, along with the remaining 42 dogs, and
make the climb. After reaching the top, 24 of the dogs would be
shot, since they would no longer be needed, using the remaining
18 in the final dash for the Pole. Once reached, six more would
be slaughtered to provide food for the remaining twelve on the
trip back to Framheim. On November 17 they started the climb up
the Axel Heiberg Glacier. The weather was warm and the climb
even better as they covered 11.5 miles before making camp at
2000 feet. Four days later, on November 21, they found
themselves at the summit. They'd managed to carry a ton of
supplies to an altitude of 10,000 feet. Twenty-four dogs were
shot and the party stayed at "The Butcher's Shop", as it was now
called, for four more days before heading off into a raging
blizzard. They had already waited two days longer than planned
so they had no choice but to push on. For the next ten days they
struggled, five men and 18 dogs, against driving snow in 35 mph
winds and thick fog. At last they reached the plateau, only to
be confronted by "The Devil's Ballroom", a glacier with a thin
crust of snow covering a number of dangerous, deep crevasses.
This proved to be the last major obstacle.
On December 8, with the sun shining brightly, they passed
Shackleton's farthest south, 88°23'S. They were only 95 miles
from the South Pole. The dogs were hungry and exhausted, the men
had many sores and frostbitten faces, yet still the party pushed
on. The closer they came to the Pole, the more Amundsen worried
that Scott had already beaten them. The temptation to race on,
at full speed, was shared by everyone. At 3:00 pm, on Friday,
December 14, 1911, there was a simultaneous cry of "Halt!" as
the sledge meters registered their arrival at the South Pole.
They had achieved their goal. Symbolic of their struggle in
unity, each of the men, with their weathered and frostbitten
hands, grasped the Norwegian flag and planted it firmly at the
geographical South Pole. Amundsen named the plain King Haakon
VII's Plateau. There were festivities in the tent that evening
with each man sharing a little seal meat. At midnight
observations were taken that put them at 89° 56'S. Arrangements
were now made to encircle the camp with a radius of
approximately twelve and a half miles.
At noon, on December 17, the observations had been completed and
it was certain the men had done all that could be done. In order
to come a few inches closer to the actual Pole, Hanssen and
Bjaaland went out four geographical miles and promptly returned.
Bjaaland surprised Amundsen when he pulled out a cigar-case full
of cigars at dinner. A cigar at the Pole! Following the festival
dinner, preparations for departure began. A tent was erected,
naming it Poleheim, with Amundsen leaving a message inside for
Scott, along with a letter for King Haakon. Thirty-nine days
later the party returned to Framheim, as planned, with all five
men and 11 dogs "hale and hearty". The month-long voyage back to
Tasmania was a frustrating time for Amundsen, who was now quite
anxious to be the first to announce the news of their
achievement. On March 7, 1912, Amundsen finally cabled his
brother Leon with the historic news.
During World War I Amundsen made a significant amount of money
from supplying "neutral" shipping. He went on to build the MAUD
in order to continue his Arctic drift. He managed to complete
the Northwest Passage around Siberia--only the second to do
so--but failed in his attempt to proceed farther north.
Subsequently, he left the ship in 1921. Amundsen now became
consumed with flying, but was soon facing extreme financial
hardship before gaining support from Lincoln Ellsworth. Together
with Ellsworth, history was made when they flew the airship
NORGE from Spitsbergen to Alaska via the North Pole. This was
the first trans-Arctic flight right across the Pole. Amundsen,
fulfilled by his reputation, now retired. Unfortunately, he
never could come to terms with the British reaction to his
secret change of plans in 1910. Mill, of the Royal Geographic
Society, described him as the most unhappy of all the polar
explorers he had ever met. In 1928, while searching for
survivors of an airship disaster, Amundsen's plane crashed and
he disappeared without a trace.
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