Northwest Passage, South Pole, then a fatal Arctic rescue
Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen (16 July 1872–c.18 June 1928) traversed the Northwest Passage on Gjøa (1903–06) and planted the first flag at the South Pole on 14 December 1911. In 1926 the airship Norge made him part of the first verified North Pole party; he vanished on an Italia rescue flight in 1928.
The fourth son of a family of shipowners and captains at Borge, between Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg, he promised his mother he would become a doctor rather than a sailor. At fifteen he devoured Sir John Franklin’s accounts of Arctic overland journeys, which he said set the course of his life, and as a boy he sometimes played with the future Antarctic pioneer Carsten Borchgrevink. At 25 he signed on as first mate of the Belgica under Adrien de Gerlache, the first expedition to spend a winter in Antarctica after the ship froze in at 70°30′S. He credited its American doctor, Frederick Cook, with fending off scurvy by feeding the crew fresh meat.
For the Northwest Passage he chose just six men and a shallow 45-ton fishing boat that could hug the coast. They spent two winters at what is now Gjoa Haven on King William Island, learning survival skills from the Netsilik Inuit, cleared the Arctic archipelago on 17 August 1905 and wintered again before reaching Nome. Along the way he learned that Norway had split from Sweden and wrote to the new king, Haakon VII.
When Cook and Robert Peary both claimed the North Pole in 1909, he quietly turned south instead. From Framheim, his base at the Bay of Whales, he laid depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South. A party of five with four sledges and 52 dogs left on 19 October, climbed the unknown Axel Heiberg Glacier, and returned on 25 January 1912 with 11 dogs; he announced the result from Hobart on 7 March. Good preparation, skis and skill with dogs made the trek unusually smooth.
His Maud expedition of 1918–25 tried to drift over the pole as Nansen had but stuck fast in thick ice; he broke an arm and was mauled by a polar bear. He then switched to aircraft, leading to the Norge flight and his final disappearance in June 1928.
Source: Roald Amundsen
