On 14 January 1911 they arrived at the eastern edge of Ross Ice Shelf at the location known as the Bay of Whales. While in Madeira, Amundsen sent a telegram to Scott, notifying him of the change in destination: " BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC - AMUNDSEN". 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. 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. Nansen, when he was informed of the change, supported Amundsen fully. He was afraid that Nansen would rescind use of Fram, if he learned of the change. 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.Īmundsen told no one of his change of plans except his brother Leon and Thorvald Nilsen, commander of the Fram. Using the ship Fram ("Forward"), earlier used by Fridtjof Nansen, he instead set out for Antarctica in 1910. On hearing in 1909 that first Frederick Cook and then Robert Peary claimed the Pole, he changed his plans. Due to water as shallow as 3 feet (1 m), a larger ship could never have used the route.Īfter crossing the Northwest Passage, Amundsen made plans to go to the North Pole and explore the North Polar Basin. 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. 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. 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.ĭuring 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). 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. 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. The doctor for the expedition was an American, Frederick Cook. The crew then endured a winter for which the expedition was poorly prepared. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70☃0'S off Alexander Land, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. This expedition was led by Adrien de Gerlache, using the ship the Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. He decided on a life of exploration.Īmundsen was a member of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition ( 1897– 1899) as second mate. Amundsen had hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland in 1888 and the doomed Franklin Expedition. 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. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue mission.Īmundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge near Fredrikstad. He led the first successful Antarctic expedition to the South Pole between 19. Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen ( July 16, 1872– presumably June 18, 1928?) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (1872-1928)
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