To accomplish that which for three centuries had been unsuccessfully
attempted would satisfy most people. But not a man like Roald Amundsen,
descendant of Vikings. To discover the Northwest Passage, long sought
by Hudson, Cabot, Frobisher, Franklin, and other adventure-loving
explorers, and to locate the exact position of the North Magnetic Pole,
where the north end of the compass needle points, was not enough for
this intrepid Norwegian. And so he set out for the South Pole--and
reached it.
It was on March 8, 1912, that the entire world was electrified by the
cablegram from Hobart, Tasmania, announcing the fact that, sometime
between December 14 and 17, 1911, Captain Roald Amundsen had reached
the South Pole. With four men and eighteen dogs from his ship, the
Fram, Captain Amundsen crossed the great ice barrier and reached the
southernmost point of the world in fifty-five days. According to the
most accurate indication of his instruments, he was at the South Pole
at three o’clock on the afternoon of December 14. On the vast plateau,
10,500 feet above the sea level, which the explorer named King Haakon
Land, Amundsen unfurled the Norwegian flag.
Amundsen left Buenos Aires in South America late in 1910. It was
in October, 1911, that the real “dash” for the South Pole began.
Amundsen and four companions, with eighteen dogs, started southward.
Shackleton’s “farthest south,” a point 111 miles from the Pole, was
passed on December 8, six days before his goal was reached. Compared
with the sufferings that other explorers have undergone, Amundsen’s
party had a comparatively easy time.
Captain Amundsen’s whole career has been characterized by that
unconquerable courage, perseverance, and patience which the fierce sea
rovers of old had. Born at Borje, Norway, in 1872, he was educated for
the naval service of Norway-Sweden, and became a second lieutenant. He
was a born sailor. At the age of twenty-five he sailed with the Belgica
expedition to the Antarctic. He was first officer of this ship, which
in 1897-99 explored the region west of Graham Land. In 1901 he made
observations on the East Greenland Current which were considered very
valuable.
It was after this that he decided to give the rest of his life if
necessary to discovering the Northwest Passage. He sailed from
Christiania, Norway, on June 17, 1903. After three years’ wanderings
through ice, rocks, and unknown lands he finally brought his little
vessel, the Gjoa, through Bering Strait, thus being the first one to
navigate the Northwest Passage. It was during this voyage that he also
located the North Magnetic Pole.
Amundsen is considered one of the most daring and skilful of polar
explorers; but he is very modest about his own great achievements.
[Illustration: ROBERT F. SCOTT]
_Robert Falcon Scott_