Amundsen - My Life as an Explorer

AMBERLEY

This edition first published in Great Britain 2008

Introduction Campbell McCutcheon, 2008

This electronic edition published 2011 by Amberley Publishing

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. EARLY MEMORIES

II. ICE-BOUND IN THE ANTARCTIC

III. THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

IV. THE DASH TO THE SOUTH POLE

V. IN THE GRIP OF THE NORTHERN ICE PACK

VI. FINANCIAL WORRIES

VII. AN AIRPLANE FLIGHT WITH LINCOLN ELLSWORTH

VIII. THE TRANSPOLAR FLIGHT OF THE NORGE

IX. CONCERNING MR. STEFANSSON AND OTHERS

X. THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF EXPLORATION

XI. PROBLEMS OF FOOD AND EQUIPMENT

APPENDIX

Born on 16 July 1872 in Borge, Norway, Roald Amundsen was destined to become an explorer. From his earliest days he worked with a phenomenal determination towards this goal. It was his reading of the works of Sir John Franklin, the intrepid explorer of the North West Passage, that set his life on a course that make him the first man to reach the South Pole, the first to reach the North Pole by dirigible, and the first man to conquer the North West Passage a feat Franklin had died trying to achieve.

The life of an explorer is a hard one, and one that requires much time spent gathering the necessary funds to achieve ones goals. Amundsen knew this only too well, taking his Gjoa from Norway in the dead of night on 16 June 1903 on a three-year voyage to the frozen wastes of the Arctic to trace the route of the North West Passage. Having left his brother to deal with his creditors, Amundsen and his friends set sail for Greenland. For three years they sailed in summer and lay trapped in winter quarters in the frozen ice before breaking through from the Arctic Ocean into the Pacific.

The journey was not his first into the frozen wastes, but it was the first that Amundsen had organized. His journey to the Antarctic as First Mate aboard the Belgian polar vessel Belgica had shown him the value of organization and planning, or rather the disastrous problems created by a lack of planning and organization. Meticulous preparation was to be a feature of each and every journey Amundsen would undertake. In 1910 he set sail in Nansens old ship, the Fram, for Madeira, where he cabled Robert Falcon Scott, in Australia at the time, to tell him of his plans to conquer the South Pole.

Scott had a two-month advantage over Amundsen for the quest, but his planning was not as good. Amundsen took dogs with him, both as transport and as food, while Scott used new-fangled motor sleds and Shetland ponies. Amundsens plans included eating the dogs as they weakened, and his route to the Pole was shorter and easier. He reached the Pole two weeks before Scott; the rest is history. Amundsen brought all of his men back alive, while Scott, Oates, Bowers, Evans and Wilson died on their failed attempt.

During the First World War Amundsen invested in shipping, amassing a small fortune which he used to further his polar exploration. He had seen the virtues of aircraft before the war, purchasing a Farman for use in 1914. This aircraft was never used, being donated to the fledgling Norwegian air force instead. After the war ended, Amundsen equipped himself with a new Junkers, but problems with the undercarriage made it unsuitable for polar work. A Curtis was used next, followed by two Dornier seaplanes in 1925 for an expedition from Spitzbergen over the polar icecap. One of the planes broke down as it landed, and both seaplanes became trapped in the ice. For three weeks Amundsen and his crews made efforts to release the planes. The world feared that he, his adventurer financier Lincoln Ellsworth and the crews had died, but by cutting a runway through the ice and making a very risky take-off, the adventurers escaped back to Spitzbergen after a flight to 88 degrees north.

The following year Amundsen and Ellsworth purchased the N-1, an Italian airship, renamed it Norge, and set out for Spitzbergen with the Italian Nobile as pilot. Despite numerous setbacks, a successful flight was made over the polar icecap from Kings Bay, Spitzbergen, to Teller, near Nome, Alaska. After seventy-two hours flying, the Norge had succeeded in flying from continent to continent over the polar ice. Despite its success, the flight was not without its problems; but these were of a personal nature. The conflict that existed between the Italian pilot Nobile and the commander of the expedition, Amundsen, runs through the chapters relating to this historic flight.

Amundsens life was one of adventure, and it was to be ended in mysterious circumstances somewhere in the polar regions. Always prepared, always organized, with plans for every eventuality, Amundsens demise is a mystery. Retired from exploration, he set off from Tromso in June 1928 in search of Nobile and the crew of the airship Italia, which had crashed on the return from the North Pole. Amundsen and his five companions, in a Latham 47 floatplane, simply disappeared, the only trace of their aircraft being a pontoon, which had been converted into a makeshift life raft, discovered near Tromso in Norway. Nobile was found and rescued by a second rescue mission, but Amundsen, fifty-five at the time, was lost forever.

So ended the life of one of polar explorations most single-minded men. A born explorer, Amundsen died in a part of the world he had done much to open up. His determination to explore the frozen wastes led to much new scientific knowledge of the polar regions. The first man to set foot at the South Pole, the first man to sail the North West Passage, the first man to fly over the North Pole by dirigible, Amundsen did more than any other man to further Polar exploration. This is his story.

Campbell McCutcheon,

November 2008

HOW did I happen to become an explorer? It did not just happen, for my career has been a steady progress toward a definite goal since I was fifteen years of age. Whatever I have accomplished in exploration has been the result of lifelong planning, painstaking preparation, and the hardest kind of conscientious work.