Amundsen: Quiet Conqueror of the Polar Regions

this is a story about a little-known yet much misunderstood hero but more than that it is also a story about a clash of philosophies the dawn of a new era a Young Nation and a once mighty one both in their own way experiencing an identity crisis in 1912 a young Norwegian Explorer called ruwald amundsen reached the South geographic pole in a slick clinical sportsman-like operation having recently also been the first man to sail through the fabled Northwest Passage on the other side of the globe he would push on with his Polar Ambitions pioneering technology and protocols that saw him become the first explorer to reach both the North and South Poles the first to fly a plane beyond the Arctic Circle and even the first to fly an Airship over the North Pole in recent decades a more sober reflection on what we now call the heroic age of polar exploration has begun to restore amundsen overshadowed by the likes of Scots and Shackleton to his preeminent position as the greatest of all polar explorers he was a man ahead of his time yet was wise enough to apply the skills of the ancient ways in attaining his Arctic goals join us as we Dive Into The Life and Times of reward barmanson Wyatt conqueror of the Earth's polar regions but before we begin if you enjoy our content please take a moment to like subscribe and share with your friends and perhaps consider supporting my channel through membership or donation see the description section for details where you can also check out the links to our website downloadable resources and merch an audio version is also available on the Heroes and Legends documentary Channel podcast via Spotify and other leading broadcasters I appreciate all your comments and yes even your Corrections which I always list in the erratum section below and once again thanks for watching [Music] Our Story begins on May the 30th 1889 as young Norwegian Explorer fritchov nanson sails up the narrow Fjord into Oslo then known as Christiania his ship bedecked in flowers escorted by a flotiller of local boats parading through the city among the throngs of cheering fans he and his companions had just crossed the entire breadth of Greenland and demonstrated in dramatic fashion that the use of skis in Arctic exploration was Superior to trudging along on foot you see prior to this Triumph several unsuccessful attempts had been made to Trek from one side to the other notably by pioneering American Explorer Robert Peary who managed to get a hundred kilometers Inland before having to turn back due to lack of supplies Peri would return some years later and himself go on to Greater Deeds but in the meantime nanson a university student on a marine biology field trip came up with the idea of using skis something that would seem perfectly reasonable to any Norwegian living at the northern edge of the habitable world but to much of the European establishment at the time believe it or not it was thought to be a silly way of traveling through the Arctic snow the thing is the use of skis was a peculiar and fairly localized Transportation mode throughout Alpine Europe but nobody in Britain or America at the time had seriously considered using them in modern polar exploration the British dominated search for the fabled Northwest Passage in Arctic America was characterized by a cumbersome inefficient manhalling of Supply sleds by explorers wearing snowshoes this setup caused such exhaustion and caloric deficit that the rations They Carried were wholly inadequate on top of that the clothing they wore was also very uncomfortable prone to excess sweating and therefore frostbite despite the presence of Inuit hunter-gatherers throughout the northern reaches of America and the frontier Pioneer trappers who got to know them little formal attention had been paid to their remarkable ability to survive in the harsh Arctic conditions most obviously witnessed in the disastrous Franklin expedition of 1845 in which 129 officers and Men perished due to starvation food poisoning and frostbite Sir John Franklin her decorated Royal Navy officer had already led to previous Arctic expeditions to chart the northern regions of Hudson Bay in Canada his first the copper mine River expedition in 1819 was plagued by vague orders poor organization unreliable supplies and a dependence on guides with whom there was no solid relationship they could depend on Additionally the members of the Expedition were completely unschooled in Arctic travel and survival such that the project ended in complete disaster with over half of the party perishing and the remainder barely rescued In Time by Yellowknife indigenous tribesmen despite his brush With Disaster and criticism from some quarters Franklin's harrowing account of the ordeal became a best seller and any suggestion of incompetence was brushed off as bad luck indeed Franklin himself appeared to have learned little from his experience apart from the conviction that it would have fared better if more money men and supplies had been thrown at it as opposed to cultivating a relationship with the natives and adopting their survival techniques he firmly believed that such Expeditions should be the domain of well-provisioned and disciplined Navy men who would operate as cogs in a juggernaut machine that would overcome all obstacles through sheer determination and improvisation this attitude would come to define the British approach to exploration in general and polar exploration in particular the British government desperate to chart a navigable Passage through the Arctic waterways between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once again appointed him to lead an expedition into Canada and this time they lavished The Venture with customized boats plenty of supplies and a free hand to do as he wished though ultimately unsuccessful in opening up a Northwest Passage it nevertheless resulted in the charting of hundreds of miles of the MacKenzie River and added volumes of scientific information on magnetic activity geology and botany towards the annals of the several gentlemen science clubs that were becoming increasingly fashionable at the time not to mention cashed up this public thirst for scientific inquiry expanded the scope of what had till then ostensibly been trade motivated expeditions pressure and financial support from the Royal Society the Royal Geographic Society Etc quickly turned these voyages into scientific Ventures that shifted the focus onto studying the North Pole both magnetic and Geographic a change of purpose that was beginning to make the Royal Navy increasingly uncomfortable you see in the post Napoleonic Pax Britannica there was a distinct lack of action for young officers in which they could test their metal as it were polar exploration was viewed by some in the admiralty as an excellent way to develop the next generation of semen in the absence of conflict others didn't see it quite that way and as the focus expanded Beyond merely sailing and into Arctic trekking there was substantial debate as to how much the Navy ought to participate in supplying both men and material but it wasn't just gentlemen and Admirals getting in on the ACT wealthy merchants such as booze magnate Felix Booth pumped substantial personal fortunes into the fit out and provision of expeditions to the North Pole the aforementioned Franklin would go on to continue with his own distinguished Naval career including a stint as governor in the colony of Van diemen's land or modern Tasmania but he would eventually be recalled and offered the lead in yet another expedition to seek the Northwest Passage despite his now being almost 60 years old and quite unfit for the grueling task of Arctic travel the reason for his obviously inappropriate commission was that foreigners were now engaging in significant polar exploration and the politicians back home in London were anxious that those last few hundred square kilometers of Uncharted waterways and the honor of being the first through the fabled passage should naturally belong to the British who had poured both blood and treasure into slogging their way across most of it already so it was that the Aging Franklin starved of Adventure in Tasmania stepped up and despite the extraordinary resources placed at his disposal he nevertheless found his ships the Erebus and Terror the very ships used by James Ross in his own extraordinary journey to Antarctica became completely icebound and immobilized for years on end the crew eventually abandoned them hoping to march to safety across the barren snow fields but being Sailors they were completely untrained and unprepared for terrestrial let alone Arctic trekking the tragic series of events that subsequently unfolded have been immortalized in both song and canvas yet the real tragedy was that these desperate men had encountered Inuit Hunters on a number of occasions seemingly without any ability or as has been suggested desire to negotiate their guidance back to civilization 40 years later a 17 year old school boy in Norway having long read of Franklin's earlier best seller and now watching excitedly from the docks as his own Countryman nanson returned home in Triumph wondered if he might be the one to discover the final reaches of the Northwest Passage which was still an elusive obsession now Roald amundsen the youngest of four brothers was born near the shipping hub of sarpsburg in modern Norway I say modern Norway because at the time it was the junior partner in a personal Union with Sweden during much of the preceding centuries Sweden Denmark and Norway along with Norwegian territories such as Greenland Iceland the Faroe Islands and orkney were part of a Triune Kingdom that is to say they each retained a degree of national sovereignty but were ruled by a single monarch as happens so often in love triangles jealousy and possessiveness led not only to a nasty breakup but also claims over each other's assets very much the junior partner Norway was at one time swallowed up by Sweden then later by Denmark then Sweden again anyway one of the effects of the Napoleonic breakup of old Continental Powers was a surge in National Consciousness among many European peoples who had long been subject to the Dominion of great powers and hence a suppression of their own ethnic identities the Norwegians were no exception and many felt that Independence was just a matter of time during the preceding centuries they had developed quite an experienced Merchant Navy as well as a thriving Timber and fishing industry while their liberal internal politics gave individuals much more freedom of travel and opportunity than other monarchies of the period Norwegians consequently developed a solid entrepreneurial Spirit which coupled with their industriousness saw many people develop successful shipping companies with the country enjoying a high literacy rate and standard of living that was the Envy of many of its neighbors rold arminson was born into such a family of aspiring ship owners his father and uncles were already well-respected captains and owners of a number of vessels with his three older brothers also going into the family business they were one of those families that just seemed to get on everybody pulled together and there was little internal feuding or toxic sibling rivalry but ruold's Mother wasn't one of those tough Mariners wives she was from a more genteel interior family and she had aspirations that at least one of her boys would become a doctor after Years of Living the hard life she finally convinced her husband to get off the tools and run the company affairs from the capital today's Oslo she also hustled for young role to stay in school and despite his dream of going to Sea like his brothers he submitted to her wishes and remained a student now don't get me wrong being a sea captain was highly respected in Norway but to have a son who was a doctor or lawyer was just one extra tick on the list for aspiring families so every mother dreamed of at least one in the family we can just imagine poor teenage role watching his hero sailing into the harbor while he was stuck in a classroom by all accounts he wasn't a very good student either we have reports of his Headmaster lamenting that ruold was not only an embarrassment to his school but also had a pig-headed tendency to speak up when he felt some injustice was being dished out by the teacher he developed an early reputation for sticking up for his friends and calling a spade a spade even if it earned him demerits it was a fierce loyalty to his friends that would characterize his entire life Norwegian kids born into some of the harshest and longest Winters in Europe learned to ski almost as soon as they could walk they were completely comfortable traipsing across the freezing snow-covered mountains and skiing the many wild forested slopes that cover three quarters of their country the inhospitable breathtaking terrain wild Atlantic Seas long dark Winters and capricious weather breeds a tenacious people who live with a deep abiding respect of Nature and her awesome frequently brutal power with the heroic Crossing of Greenland on skis by nanson in 1888 Norwegians embraced their aptitude for winter sports and skiing became increasingly popular all across the country perhaps nowhere more so than in Telemark where a slick Cadre of Masters developed new designs boot attachments and pioneered Maneuvers that gave greater handling control and speed soldiers too were expected to be able to travel long distances and fight on skis to build shelters and survive In The Bleak terrain while teenagers on school holidays increasingly ventured into remote regions on cross-country ski tours ruold was no exception and in his Memoirs he recounts many near-misses and hard Lessons Learned in blizzards fog and snow drifts that could easily have cost him his life yet only made him more passionate about emulating his hero in the Arctic someday nanson himself didn't waste time basking in his Newfound celebrity he became obsessed with trying to reach the North Pole he firmly believed that Norwegians were better suited to the task than virtually any other nationality but more than this he was also convinced that the lumbering expensive resource heavy style of expedition that the British and others were engaging in was completely the wrong way about it his philosophy which would later be characterized as the Norwegian School of polar exploration viewed their objectives in a much more sportsmanlike manner he believed that an expedition should be small with few members chosen for their Elite abilities or multiple talents their superb Fitness and commitment to the task every minute detail had to be fit for purpose and he spent countless hours developing materials designs and utensils for everything from tents to clothing to cooking equipment nanson was the first to implement ration packs with calorie specific ratios of macronutrients notably fats at a time when we still didn't even know about vitamins he had garnered support for a new Expedition and had a custom-built ship called the Fram that was designed to withstand being frozen into solid ice without breaking up you see his goal was to get the ship up as far as possible frozen into an iceberg and then drift even further north from which a dash to the pole might be made there was a belief at the time that there were Arctic ocean currents that flowed east to west possibly even directly over the pole if you could lock yourself into that current you might Cruise courtesy of an ice flow all the way over so on midsummer's day 1893 the Fram set off down the Fjord to the cheers and hopes of adoring Spectators among them again was amundsen now a university student at the Medical Faculty dutifully though not enthusiastically still acquiescing to his mother's aspirations of having a doctor in the family the excitement of this spectacle was almost more than he could bear and when his mother suddenly and inexplicably died some months later amundsen unceremoniously quit University and sent a flurry of letters to every Explorer and organization he could think of even writing to the Consulate in London and Publishing an ad in the times offering to join any available Arctic Expedition disappointed he nevertheless began a serious self-motivated study of subjects including meteorology cartography and surveying then signing on to a seal hunting ship in order to experience Arctic sailing from a master Navigator when he returned home his family encouraged him to at least undertake some formal studies to qualify as a merchant Seaman so he threw himself into the task with serious commitment earning his mates certificate as well as doing national service in the Army reveling in the fitness and survival training still unsatisfied with his skill set he spent another grueling winter crossing a wild and inhospitable icy Mountain Plateau with his brother again narrowly avoiding disaster in the unforgiving terrain coming out the other end Victorious but very much humbled meanwhile nanson had managed to sail the Fram Eastwood into the ice pack and as expected it froze into it and began to drift Northwest the crew settled in to an expected two-year ice Drift But when it became obvious that the trajectory of the ship would not cross the pole nanson decided to leave the Fram and with one companion make a dash by dog sled initially they made great progress skiing and sledding almost 13 kilometers per day but it soon became apparent that they would run out of supplies so they were forced to turn back having reached 86 degrees north a new record but the variable weather conditions now saw them battle both breakups of the sea ice as well as dangerous blizzards till they eventually made it via kayak to Solid Ground as they finally emerged from eight months of wintry Twilight into the clearer days of May 1896 they fortuitously ran into a British Expedition that was mapping Francis land nanson had by now been away for three entire years and was presumed to be dead so when they finally made it back to Norway they were fated as Heroes returned from the grave nanson's account of the journey and his incredible Survival Story cemented his position not only as Norway's preeminent celebrity tough guy but more importantly as the unassailable Arctic Guru to whom many aspiring explorers now flocked for advice amundsen himself would regularly visit and mine him for information like a child eager for bedtime stories the usually reserved nanson saw something of himself in the young amundsen and took a shine to him as a father figure and Mentor over the many long years of their enduring friendship amundsen continued in his own Relentless Quest For Excellence so next he volunteered to participate without pay on a Belgian expedition to the Antarctic which set sail in 1897. the belgians in the colonial Scramble for Africa had done quite well to carve out a chunk of the Congo and with the sudden interest in Antarctica they felt it was only fair that the Belgian flag should number among those others laying claim to the Frozen Southern continent so it was that an expedition quickly materialized an Eclectic poorly thought out hodgepodge of Scholars and sailors drawn from a number of European countries it might have seemed a romantic multinational Venture at the time but few of the party had any Arctic experience safe for a couple of Norwegian Sailors and the ship's surgeon American doctor Frederick Cook now Dr Cook was a font of knowledge on the Arctic having accompanied Robert Peary on his unsuccessful attempt at Crossing Greenland in 1892 if you recall but despite their failure the two Americans later spent a great deal of time with the Inuit learning about their clothing transportation and most importantly diet you see the good doctor was a thinker well ahead of his time vitamins as I've mentioned had yet to be discovered but he was quick to realize that fresh meat in particular awful or internal organs seemed to Stave off the onset of scurvy in the Eskimo who were generally in excellent Health in an environment that European explorers were becoming increasingly sick in so he advocated the consumption of seal meat to supplement the diet of explorers amundsen knew a master when he saw one and stuck to him like glue the two eventually becoming close friends the Belgian boat eventually wound its way South past Cape Horn and entered dangerous Antarctic Waters the dodgy charts they possessed failed to prevent a near wreckage on a reef and a sailor had been knocked overboard and lost in a storm despite this ominous start miraculously they got through and inched their way South into uncharted waters discovering a passage that would eventually be named after the captain the gerlash sound the team of Resident scientists now eagerly swarmed over the islands and rock formations dragging and man hauling sleds over the icy crevasses and slippery slopes collecting samples and all the while lumping heavy equipment ill-suited to the terrain as they began surveying the newly discovered coastline amundsen noted firsthand the exhaustion and inefficiency of this method of transport and was appalled at the waste of time and resources while the scholars were busy doing their thing he and cook would take this idle time to ski and explore their surrounds discussing their clothing the environment snow quality and comparison with the Arctic half a world away indeed amundsen is credited with being the first ever to ski on Antarctica and noted in his journal how easily he traveled compared to cook who was trudging laboriously on snowshoes as was the norm but interestingly Cook's seal skin clothing and reindeer fur hood seemed to be much more comfortable than the gear Amazon was wearing he needed to learn more the captain had Grand plans of navigating a third of the entire continent but time was now against him so he hatched the secretive plan of overwintering there by getting his ship Frozen in the ice and thereby drifting South trying to mirror what Manson had done in the north just a couple of years ago the trouble was they had neither the supplies nor the equipment to do so and worse still none of the crew had signed up for that no preparation whatsoever physical let alone psychological had been made to select participants for such an isolated dangerous and lonely undertaking in near Darkness so when he intentionally maneuvered the ship into an ice flow which made the outcome inevitable a terrible anxiety gripped the crew which as the months now dragged on became worsened by the Specter of scurvy that soon appeared lethargy depression mood swings and irrational outbursts early signs often misdiagnosed now descended upon the crew like a Paul they Then followed the more telltale signs such as gum bleeding tooth loss weeping sores and persistent infections Dr Cook was appalled at the deteriorating mental and physical state of the entire party it was only through his actions taking it upon himself to go out hunting for seal meat and penguin accompanied of course by his Protege amundsen that the outbreak finally came under control and yet there was much dissent and many crew members including the captain were disgusted by the idea of eating seals and seabirds those that did recovered their Vitality while those that didn't got worse or died amundsen's winter frozen into the Antarctic pack ice the first ship there ever to do so gave him a baptism of fire on the consequences of poor planning and Reckless decision-making but more importantly it demonstrated the limitations of pre-prepared rations and the necessity of living off the land as well as lessons on the selection of companions who were appropriate for the grueling mental and physical challenges inherent in polar exploration as the Sun finally reappeared in June of 1898 it was clear that the ordeal had taken its toll a number of men had gone insane in the endless Darkness while the rest were sallow from lack of sunlight and had prematurely grayed they eventually managed to blast themselves free with explosives and sailed North to Punta Arenas where they now heard news of a rapidly changing world the Spanish-American as well as Boer Wars had broken out and Marconi had sent the first Telegraph despite their valuable new charts and collection of interesting scientific and meteorological data it was clear that everybody was too traumatized to continue with the Expedition so they each made their own way home amundsen escorting one of his own countrymen who had lost his mind he made no fuss or Public Announcement upon his return but he did contact nanson who was Keen to know how it went amundsen viewed the Expedition not only as an education but also as a necessary trial to gain credibility in nanson's eyes which she did as they discussed his thoughts on improving tent design clothing and sled composition all learned from his friend Dr Cook after completing another stint in national service and completing his master's sailing certificate amundsen now turned his attention to his Boyhood fantasy breaking through the Northwest Passage a task that still eluded even the wealthiest and most illustrious geographical societies he read every account that could be found but was unimpressed by the tragic heroics that seemed to drip from the many anglo-american memoirs his experience on the Belgian expedition to Antarctica had taught him that there was nothing Noble about a reckless and underprepared Captain who risked both his ship and the lives of his crew so amundsen consciously determined to sacrifice panash rather than lives it was clear to him that an expedition into Arctic regions would have to partially live off the land which was incapable of supporting a large number of participants if Franklin in his doomed Expedition had taken eight instead of 128 men with him to Canada amundsen was convinced that they would have not only all survived but probably achieved their objectives in his extensive background reading amundsen was impressed by the account of James Clark Ross in locating the north magnetic pole during the booth expedition of 1831 that I mentioned earlier Ross struck him as a serious and talented Explorer and rightly deserving of the huge respect he enjoyed in Britain Ross's writing and now arminson's own Reflections on the Belgian Expedition made it clear that if he was to get any serious credibility or funding the Expedition would need to have some scientific value Beyond simply the competitive credit for first place Ross's interest in the north magnetic pole and the ongoing debate on whether it was stationary or actually shifted intrigued him so amundsen now undertook extra studies in magnetic assessment with the intention of justifying his exploratory goals by adding an additional scientific agenda he knew he would need to be the captain of his own ship but first he wanted greater Arctic experience than his formal studies provided so he made his way North to the seal and wailing Hub of Tromso a remote and socially insular Arctic community of tough and Hardy Seaman who distrusted even their own Southern countrymen and viewed everyone not of their own Clan as soft but amundson's persistence and dedication to learning from these crude though highly experienced Mariners saw him eventually win their confidence and he soaked up their knowledge like a sponge he also felt that the design of their boats was the most appropriate for the task he had in mind so he asked his brother the family accountant to liquidate his not in substantial inheritance and send the funds to him right away so he could buy himself a sealer the Gower was a 45-ton shallow draft Square rigged Sloop and at 21 meters long was way smaller than any that had even been considered adequate to attempt the Northwest Passage at the time the ever conscientious amundsen had his own ideas though but first he wanted to get the feel of her as well as to learn more about arctic navigation first hand and what better way of conducting trials than to license her out for a ceiling Voyage complete with the most experienced Crew He could hire in Tromso so he basically handed his boat over to a local Skipper and his crew and came along for the ride taking notes and picking their brains as he watched them navigate the icebergs and Savage pole the weather throughout the next hunting season it was a master class well worth paying for when he eventually floated his plans to nanson back home he received his full support and blessing and amundsen wrote that it was at that point he truly felt the Northwest Passage was Norway's for the taking he spent the next few months fitting her out with an experimental new paraffin fuel motor and making improvements on the ship and its rigging very conscious of his days spent with Dr Cook and his unusual snow clothing he also negotiated with the nomadic lapse in the north of the country to purchase Furs and skins that would be used in Custom Manufacturing the weatherproof clothing he would take with him ever the perfectionist he made his way back south and with nanson's help organized a lab to perfect the recipe for his intended rations of pemi can a kind of jerky that was the staple high energy survival food of explorers of course the entire project was overseen by a professor of chemistry an old buddy of nansen's keen to help out and rack another one up for Norway it was around this time that he met Otto svedrop a brilliant Explorer and fellow countrymen who had traversed Greenland together with nanson and had skippered nanson's ship the Fram while he made his famous dash for the pole in recent years he had taken the Fram all across the Canadian Arctic charting enormous lengths of Coastline overwintering there among the Inuit three seasons in a row and through their tutelage mastered the Eskimo art of dog sledding it was svedrop who convinced amundsen that dogs should be an integral component of any polar exploration having pioneered the combination of skier and dog sled team into a finely tuned partnership that revolutionized polar travel amundsen once again absorbed everything svedrop could teach him and determined to add dog sledding to his growing resume of skills swear drop for his part delighted at amundsen's intensity gifted him his own dog team a huge show of support having himself just returned to a hero's welcome from his own adventures in Canada where he controversially even claimed a few newly discovered islands for Norway it's been said that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity if it could be said about anyone it was definitely true of amundsen a man who left no stone unturned in his Relentless preparation for the task at hand as it happened nanson now introduced him to Sir Clements Markham president of the royal Geographic Society in London who regularly came to Norway to take the waters as it was then called by that I mean he used to visit a local Health Spa to treat his gout and other Urban ailments that affluent society suffered back in England so Clement's Markham was also impressed by amundsen's Youthful dedication and gave him a number of letters of recommendation to call in on British men of consequence should he find himself in London among these were officers of the society itself as well as within the admiralty took off at once and visited anyone who could give him insight into what to expect on the frontier at the admiralty his new contacts helped him obtain the latest charts of the regions he would be venturing into but he also took the opportunity to call on a number of well-respected though aging Navigators who had thoroughly mapped the waterways leading into the unknown West among them was Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock and Sir Alan Young both Legends of their time to whom he listened intently and paid his reverent respects by now the cat was well and truly out of the bag and news reports began to circulate about the Plucky young Norwegian who would be attempting to break through the Northwest Passage but few took him and his tiny project seriously amundsen uncomfortable in the spotlight played his cards close to his chest but mounting debts forced him to take some interviews give some talks and seek the sponsorship of rich businessmen nanson once again kicked in and appealed directly to the king back in Stockholm for support it was no trifling thing to ask at a time when Norway's agitation for independence from Sweden was at a crescendo nor was it a small gesture for King Oscar II when he showed considerable magnanimity in granting a 10 000 krona personal donation at a time when many swedes were openly hostile to Norway and her pretensions for Independence in any case it had the knock-on effect of drawing wider support from the Norwegian business Community but especially from his own brothers and wider family such that the Venture at one point verging on insolvency was back on track it now remained for him to select his team and with his firm philosophy of limited numbers amundsen decided to take only six men with him all experts in their given Fields whether it was dodging icebergs engineering or as in the case of the cook preparing seal meat in various and creative ways that would be palatable day in and day out all of them were Veterans of Arctic sailing the expedition was to last four years and he wanted his men to be committed and tough so he screened them closely there were no misgivings as to the arduous nature of their mission wanting to avoid the Fanfare and public fuss they departed at midnight in the middle of June 1903 and sailed quietly out of Christiania harbor not a flag waving or so much as even a kayak out to escort them in one of the countless contrasts to the established practice of exploration amundsen gave each man on board an almost complete freedom to do their jobs as they saw fit he wrote in his own words that his ship was a republic in which each expert would be free to act according to their own experience he went on to write that each man must be treated as a rational being not as a machine and in this way he believed each would be willing to do more than was expected of him and feel valued enough to work towards a common goal indeed this turned out to be one of his great strengths a number of reports tell us that how astonishing the harmony was under his command he even went under extreme duress about six weeks later they pulled into port at Greenland to pick up specially ordered sled dogs kayaks and supplies here he began his proper training in dog sledding but soon they were off again and spent the next two weeks in thick fog dodging icebergs as they made their way slowly across Melville Bay they continued on to Dalrymple rock where they were expecting supplies but were pleasantly surprised when they also received a kayak escort a Dockside reception and cheers from the locals this was their first public acknowledgment of their Dangerous Mission now heavily Laden with a pack of raucous dogs howling and scuffling on Deck they soon pushed deeper into Baffin Bay by the end of August they anchored at beachy Island the site of Franklin's ultimate cruel disaster almost 60 years ago as they rested ahmedson spent some time alone on Deck meditating on the tragic demise of those Brave explorers in whose wake he now hoped to Triumph it says something about him that he viewed his present Mission as a sacred duty to justify the sacrifices of these Pioneers by proving that they were right and opening up the waterway that cost them so dearly amundsen now had to decide which way to go there were several waterways which were candidates for the Northwest Passage but so far none had proved wholly navigable there was no way of making a rational decision so he let the compass decide since they were also hoping to assess the location of magnetic north as compared to Ross's original expedition in 1831. the needle said Southwest so on they sailed and into the teeth of storms they had not yet experienced on their Journey almost being wrecked on a submerged Reef only through some miracle had they pried themselves off staving off complete disaster cautiously making their way along the bouthier peninsula named by Ross on which the north magnetic pole appeared to be centered foreign they moved along further still into the Simpson Strait noting the ice-free Waterway and currents that tantalizingly suggested an opening but it was now getting late in the season and when they spotted a sheltered and convenient little Cove they decided to wait out the winter here rather than risk being locked into somewhere less hospitable further along sure enough they were soon locked into the forming ice and amundsen named The Cove Gila Haven after their Brave Little ship the crew now settled into what was to become their home for two whole years fortunately Goa Haven was on the Caribou migration route and the Marksman on board ensured a continuous Feast of fresh venison if that's what we should call it it wasn't long before the piercing crack of rifle shots attracted the attention of native netsilic Hunters who seemed suitably impressed with the snipers in the party and a healthy Rapport quickly developed between them all amundsen's notes now seem to take on a fresh excitement as he threw himself into the study of Neti League culture trading artifacts with them and making a concerted study of their language but also apprenticing several of the crew to one of their Elders to learn the art of igloo building for his part amundsen now obsessively also practiced his own dog sled training and despite many comical failures slowly became increasingly competent they had all the time in the world and plenty of fresh meat to keep the dogs fat and happy he also spent a great deal of time studying and acquiring the reindeer clothing that was used by his new friends the hair of reindeer fur is hollow which makes the Pelt light and warm Eskimo people use these skins to make a loose fitting anorak which allowed air to circulate around the limbs preventing the buildup of sweat it was superior to the wolf skin that amundsen was using underneath they had underwear made from Caribou skins Supple and not prone to chafing important for someone who planned to move on skis within the next few months the entire crew was completely dressed in Eskimo clothes and could competently build shelters in the snow the crew also used their engineering skills to manufacture steel arrowheads and other requested tools to order for the Grateful Eskimo while they are reciprocated by tutoring the crew in the finer points of dog sledding teaching them which dogs to put in which position how to balance and steer while on a full run such that several crew members became proficient very quickly the dogs themselves boisterous full of energy with big personalities provided much entertainment in the quiet hours and their companionship staved off the loneliness that was inevitable in such a harsh environment their first foray out to reach the magnetic pole lasted only three days the temperature at -60 degrees Celsius was too low for the dogs to work and the skis stuck to the snow instead of gliding along disappointed they turned back and man hauled their sleds for six whole days back to Camp while the dogs ambled alongside humiliating them the squad continued their practice and it became apparent that dogs preferred to pull when someone was out in front leading them it was therefore an ideal setup to have a skier out front scouting the terrain and setting the pace which motivated the dogs to run excitedly to catch up so as the weather continued to improve a new attempt was made to reach the position of Ross's pole site and after some near misses with Bears and the odd ankle sprain it became apparent that the pole had indeed moved some distance away from the original measurement site amundsen was therefore the first to prove that the magnetic poles do indeed migrate the men also had to unfortunately shoot one of their dogs who refused to run and when they presented its skinned carcass to the other dogs they ate him with relish amundsen had just confirmed that Eskimo dogs are cannibals which would be handy to know if food was scarce in an emergency they spent the next winter season in the company of their new Eskimo friends repairing equipment refining their sledding technique and continuing their magnetic surveys hundreds of miles of new Coastline was chartered and throughout this time there was rarely an argument or conflict of any kind something that is extremely hard to maintain under such drying conditions no doubt this was partly attributed to all the fresh meat they were eating that staved off all the symptoms of scurvy that so plagued the Belgian Expedition as well as all the previous British ones up here In The Bleak North finally the weather warned once again the sun came out and the ship thawed free from the solid grip of the winter pack ice they packed up their gear and solemnly sailed on down the Simpson Straits aware that they were now moving past the limits of their tragedy-stricken predecessors and on into the unknown Waters the channels were riddled with reefs and Rocky outcrops that might have easily wrecked the Goa were it not for the motor propeller that allowed for nimble turns and a controlled Advance through the treacherous Channel after a week of foul weather and perilous Shoals little Goa broke out into the open Beaufort sea after two centuries of human trial and tragedy within a week they cited a vessel flying the Stars and Stripes Under full sail bearing down on them in amundsen's own words my Boyhood dream at that moment was accomplished a strange feeling welled up in my throat I was somehow over strained and worn it was weakness in me but I felt tears in my eyes the captain of a San Francisco Whaler was soon aboard and shook his hand profusely harmanson was astonished that anyone would recognize them despite his fatigue he now left most of the crew on board iced into the late season's fresh ice flows while he skied 500 miles to Eagle Alaska to send a telegram back home here he was to discover that six months prior in June of 1905 Norway had declared independence he had embarked on his trip with the support and blessing of one king and now found himself the subject of a new King in a new country he duly addressed the telegram to his new monarch reporting that it was a great achievement for Norway it seems that the people of Norway despite their desire for Independence had developed a reasonable affinity for the Danes during their centuries of Union with them because in the deliberations of the independence campaign the Norwegian Parliament decided against the Republican system of government and instead opted for a constitutional monarchy for which they requested Danish Prince Carl to take the throne he accepted and chose the regnal name of Harkon VII a clear demonstration of his commitment to Norway despite his own Danish roots amundsen soon rejoined his crew and they pressed on through the Bering Straits and on to San Francisco where they were hailed as Heroes before returning home to the same ticker tape parades nanson had received almost 20 years before and which amundsen had watched as a mesmerized Schoolboy he was now the first great hero of the fledgling Nation on the face of things the British were congratulatory and full of Praise amundsen was invited to lecture at the Royal Geographic society and nanson now ambassador to Britain was careful to appeal to British sensibilities by reiterating that the Norwegian triumph over the Northwest Passage Road as it were upon the shoulders of the Giants that proceeded them there there were however elements within British society that lamented the failure of one of their own to close the chapter on the Northwest Passage it didn't seem right that all their sacrifices had been exploited by a nobody worse still a foreigner but they had just themselves completed an expensive and somewhat ramshackle Expedition on the other side of the globe in Antarctica the discovery expedition of 1901 organized by The Joint efforts of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographic Society had pulled together an ambitious plan to set up an Antarctic base and from there engage in all manner of scientific exploration surveying and the Gathering of specimens and data the trouble was that the scientists on board were amateurs and moreover Urban gentlemen the expedition was being led by a young hastily promoted torpedo Lieutenant who had never sailed in Arctic Waters nor ever been on any kind of expedition the mix of Navy and merchant seamen on board were at each other's throats and the objectives themselves were Broad and vague their leader Robert Falcon Scott chosen under dubious circumstances was widely disliked prone to complaining secretive and known for making questionable decisions on a whim his prior Naval service record was lackluster to say the least so eyebrows were raised at his selection to top it all off despite bringing along both skis and dogs at the advice of Norwegian Guru nanson nobody knew how to either ski or run a dog sled because they thought they could just learn on the Fly how hard could it be in any case Scott believed that dog sleds were cruel and skiing was unbefitting a British Explorer the Navy was going to haul tons of gear up and down the Frozen wastes by dragging them with glorious machismo 1140 in front of the other as was the custom unsurprisingly the expedition was a shambles man and dog became emaciated through malnutrition several died of accident exhaustion or scurvy the merchant Seaman resigned and left on the next Supply ship out the mothership itself got frozen in with the prospect of several seasons locked in and the entire Expedition had to be resupplied and eventually rescued by blasting her out of the solid grip of the Ice Flow a number of Scots subordinates lay the palava squarely at Scott's feet notably his third in command Ernest Shackleton with whom he would have a lifelong simmering Feud even the data they collected was dodgy and amateurish being rejected by the scientific Community back home some successes however included the discovery of the Polar Plateau a record for attaining the furthest south at 82 degrees some very decent survey charts and the discovery of a number of Inland valleys but the ordeal saw the ship slink its way back to England without so much as a brass band reception on the docks the depressed public however was hungry for heroics and the politicians of course did what they do best put a positive spin on it if Scott had one skill above all others it was creative writing and his narrative account of the Expedition or should I say reinterpreting of the journal entries Made A Cinderella Story out of the debacle the public bought it and he became an instant celebrity the admiralty were not so stupid though and he failed to win the promotions in rank he was so desperately hungry for the Royal Navy itself became increasingly reluctant to squander any more resources on what they saw as vanity projects by academic land lovers and so they opposed repeated attempts to rope them into another Expedition but everything changed when the German government began flexing on them by financing a number of their own expeditions to both the Arctic and the Antarctic a sudden Resurgence of political interest now re-emerge to deny the Germans any Prestige that they felt rightly belonged to the British it also grated on them that amundsen's recent small-scale operation had shown itself to be superior to the established doctrine of massive expeditionary assault on an objective there was only one thing for it an even more massive expedition to Ram the point home so sir Clements Markham president of the royal geographical Society granddaddy of monumental projects once again began hustling for funds the admiralty suddenly nervous about the Germans swarming over potential assets cautiously committed to the idea and plans began to crystallize for an expedition to the South Pole Scott once again put up his hand but his dreams of another massive navy-led campaign was slow to draw funding and many distrusted both Scott's competence and Sir Clements markham's autocratic demands for control as has ever been the case throughout history aspiring adventurers now turned to wealthy philanthropists for support with the promise of naming some obscure Noble Creek after them and this was definitely becoming the norm everywhere so it was with Shackleton greatly upset by Scott's negative and as it turned out spurious portrayal of him in his book as a slacker since returning Shackleton had struggled to make a go of things in civilian life and now held the mother of all grudges against Scott whom he in turn viewed as a bungling idiot so he suddenly announced plans to push for both the geographic and magnetic South poles and quartered a number of wealthy businessmen to finance him both sir Clements Markham and Scott were beside themselves with Fury money was tight and Shackleton was muscling in on their plans they said as much and when he refused to back out they demanded he stay the hell away from the site of the established base at McMurdo sound that had been set up on the previous Expedition Antarctica was now becoming subject to a Turf War and Shackleton was publicly pressured to commit to an alternative base camp without any reasonable justification besides jealousy when he was forced to nevertheless break that promise he was subjected to a smear campaign back in London despite actually breaking a new record for furthest south in his own Nimrod expedition of 1907. when criticized for failing to reach the pole Shackleton at least satisfied that he had snuffed out Scott's record and proven himself in the field said that it was better to return home a live donkey than a dead lion some in the establishment back in London disagreed but the public nevertheless hailed him as a hero upon his return Shackleton had just upped the ante but he and his team barely made it back home alive in snowshoes I might add none of them had bothered to learn from the Norwegians who seemed to be getting on famously in the snow amundsen back in Norway was nevertheless impressed by shackleton's resolve superhuman effort and achievement but both he and nanson were bewildered by the continual British refusal to see the value of the ski and dog sled combination they saw absolutely no sense in men dragging tons of equipment to the point of complete exhaustion when dogs could do it much more easily for his own part amundsen riding the wave of popular Acclaim back home and inspired by shackleton's pluck next planned to go the whole hog himself and make an attempt for the north geographic pole something even his mentor nanson had failed to do he was betting on being given nanson's custom-built ship the Fram and along with nanson's blessing a grant by the Norwegian Parliament to kick off the venture amundsen no slacker in lobbying Support also wrote to London seeking the recommendation of boffins at the Royal geographical society and Sir Clements Markham once again gave the project ostensibly another scientific mission to study currents magnetic patterns and the weather his own seal of approval now himself completely immersed in his own Antarctic project eventually this new baby of Clements markhams called the Terra Nova expedition began to gain traction private investors injected some much needed funds and the government also eventually came to the party the gentleman of the several scientific societies had planned a comprehensive data collection program as the primary motivation but this time they weren't to be in charge the Navy was calling the shots and it was going to be done their way with discipline order and good old-fashioned British chain of command despite the scientific agenda Scott pulled no punches by flat out declaring he was going for the poll to him nothing else mattered he was going to put Shackleton squarely back in his box and drop the mic on him now you would think that Scott had learned the hard way that manhalling was a stupidly painful way of achieving the objective but again despite going to the trouble of visiting nanson in Norway and seeking his advice and even taking a trained skier with them as a tutor both he and Sir Clements Markham decided that skis were for losers and dogs were only to be used in emergencies instead Scott had the bright idea that motorized transport was the way of the future and as he was now flush with cash commissioned the development of three caterpillar tracked motor sleds to be designed from scratch more on them later almost at the last hour he realized that the sleds wouldn't be able to take them all the way up the Steep Glacier so he sent a subordinate who knew nothing about horses to Siberia to purchase special Manchurian ponies which he believed would finish the hauling for them never mind that there was no natural fodder for the vegetarian animals on the entire Antarctic continent they would just ship it in no worries the Norwegians just Shrugged their shoulders and wished them luck why do it the easy way when you can do it the British way Scott's expedition was slated to depart England in June 1910 around the same time amundsen was due to depart Norway on his own trip to the North Pole and then news reached him that two Americans Robert Peary as well as amundsen's old friend and Mentor Dr Frederick Cook had both in separate Expeditions claimed the conquest of the north geographic pole the news shocked him what was the point of his own expedition now that two others had already beaten him to the punch sure enough the phone soon rang hot with creditors wanting their money and sponsors threatening to cancel their support the public just wouldn't be turned on anymore by anything less than a heroic first he was out of cash and about to lose everything it was just a matter of time before the government impounded his ship and sent him bankrupt something radical had to be done to save the expedition outwardly he optimistically said that there was plenty of oceanographic work still to be done in the Arctic and that he was excited to get into it secretly though he engaged in feverish modifications to fit a new agenda if the North Pole was gone he was just going to head in the opposite direction and go for the South Pole instead oh he would still fulfill his contractual obligation of Arctic data Gathering he would just do it after going to the South Pole no problem the thing is Scott was just about to go for the same prize himself for his own reasons things might get awkward because Scott had just given amundsen some equipment that they would calibrate and compare notes from the opposite ends of the Earth the Norwegian government sensitive to British opinions might itself pull the pin not wanting to risk offending anyone but as far as ahmedson was concerned the die was cast after years of meticulous preparation everything was ready there was no way out for him besides Victory or bankruptcy when Scott made a visit to Norway to inspect the development of his sled engines arminson evaded meeting up with him and even avoided answering the phone so on the 7th of June 1910 Norwegian Independence Day the Fram snuck out of Norway in the dead of night under everyone's nose and by the morning she was out of sight of both the government and the creditors only nanson still blissfully unaware of amundsen's change of plan watched her Sail Away into the darkness and with that his own dreams of Adventure he reportedly told his son some years later that it was the bitterest moment of his life the crew also most of whom were unaware of the change of plan now settled into life on board amundsen once again had assembled another crack team of companions three naval officers Nielsen prestrud and gertson all trained in oceanographic science magnetic data collection and Arctic navigation we Stig an all-around handyman and dog handler extraordinaire Olaf bialand a world champion skier from Telemark in both jumping and cross country the island was already a national hero when amundsen asked him to join to top it off he was also a skilled Carpenter and ski maker and he was thrilled to sign up becoming a critical member of The Polar assault team there was also Hanson and hassle dog sled Masters who had trained in the Arctic and been on a number of expeditions already another notable addition was Lindstrom a jovial yet tough sealer who was veteran of several Arctic Expeditions with a natural gift for cooking no easy thing when trying to prepare seal meat every day day in and day out he had served with amundsen in the Northwest Passage and his entertaining and calming demeanor earned him the love and respect of all the crew amundsen was later to write that Lindstrom who was the man who kept the home fires burning while the others were all in country was the single most valuable asset of the entire Expedition a further notable addition was the only member not personally hand-picked by amundsen Frederick Johansson he was a tough and incredibly strong gymnast who had accompanied nanson on his epic failed North Pole Dash and had proven his worth both as a skier and Survivor but after returning in Triumph with nanson he fell into depression drinking and hard times and nanson begged for him to be accepted on the mission tough and highly experienced he might be a great asset and in the event turn his own life around but amundsen had his reservations he wanted nobody in his team whose unstable personal life might jeopardize the mission Manson loyal to his old buddy pleaded amundsen caved in altogether there were 19 members of the Expedition all of whom besides the captain and first mate were completely oblivious to amundsen's change of plans but murmurings soon began about why they were picking up their dogs in Denmark only to schlep them Halfway Around the World when they could have just got some in Alaska the signature Harmony that was the Hallmark of amundsen's Northwest Passage Voyage was now replaced by an uncomfortable air of suspicion that something just wasn't right acutely aware of the mood and desperate to clear the air now that they were away when they reached Madeira to rest and resupply amundsen gathered the crew and dropped his bombshell they were stunned he gave everyone the option of resigning and returning home but each one in turn agreed to stay on they understood what was at stake and what the prize would represent for Norway he now wrote to his mentor nanson profusely apologizing for his deception begging him for his ongoing support back home in hopes that Triumph in Antarctica would Rectify any offense the government might take at the Scandal he also sent a telegram to Scott who received it when he himself already well underway had reached Melbourne Australia beg leave to inform you Fram heading Antarctic amundsen bewildered Scott telegraphed London sir Clements Markham barely recovering his composure after shackleton's recent interloping Unleashed a tirade of abuse at the Norwegian referring to him as a rascal and a blaggard and insisted that amundsen be denied any landing near their own base of operations Scott already in full race mode given his ongoing feud with Shackleton Shrugged it off as ridiculous saying that after all dogs were clearly inferior to both ponies and motorized sleds and blissfully carried on with his own preparations confidence of success they needn't have worried about a Norwegian squatter at their base amundsen had already decided after a long study to set up on the Ross ice barrier a huge permanent sheet of solid ice the size of France several hundred meters thick that extended from the Antarctic Mass out into the ocean like a Monumental Glacier the it was in a sheltered Inlet called the Bay of Wales on the opposite end to the site at McMurdo where the British had already set up their base that amundsen chose to make his base camp the British had ignored it as a landing site considering it and the entire ice shelf to be potentially unstable but amundsen thought otherwise and to boot it was a full degree of latitude 60 nautical miles closer to the pole amundsen's race will be shorter but the interior was completely unknown and potentially fraught with insurmountable obstacles Scott's route was longer but 80 percent of it had already been traversed into separate Expeditions so they knew what to expect the race was on Ahmanson ship the Fram was 126 feet long 440 tons powered by a revolutionary new diesel motor with 19 Souls aboard Scott's Terra Nova was 187 feet 747 tons powered by a coal driven steam engine with 65 crew this wasn't going to be just a race between explorers it was a battle of philosophies Scott's team was described by one of his own crew as many random men shoved together to undertake a large ponderous campaign while the Fram and her limited specially chosen crew was later described as a viking Marauder going in for a raid four months after leaving Madeira by mid-January the Fram was finally anchored off the great ice barrier it's 200 feet high walls gleaming in the sunshine like the battlements of a fortress finding a foothold and passage up was not easy but eventually they scrambled their way up and orders were given to construct the base camp four kilometers inland this they did using prefabricated Hut components that the two Carpenters on board quickly reassembled and locked deep into the ice sheet within just six days their new home away from home was to be called framheim after the ship the howling boisterous team of almost 100 dogs excitedly got to work pulling tons of supplies and material across the ice in the first bit of action they had had after months of boredom at sea each crew member was assigned a number of dogs to care for and as in Goa Haven before it went a long way to staving off the boredom and stress of life on the ice their furry companions getting into frequent mischief and antics hunting parties were also sent out to procure seal meat that would feed the dogs and lessen the risk of scurvy among the men by February they were now ready to begin the first great test of their mission the transportation of supplies into regularly spaced Depots as deep into the terrain as possible so that the attempt on the pole The Following Season would need to carry few supplies it would also provide plenty of food and cooking fuel on the Journey Back armenson was determined to avoid the near starvation that both Scott and Shackleton had experienced in the previous Discovery and Nimrod Expeditions so he meticulously planned the design and spacing of distance and orientation markers that could be easily stumbled across even under severe blizzard conditions just then they cited a ship in the bay approaching the Fram it was the Terra Nova she had just deposited Scott and his Shaw party and were scouting a landing site for their secondary expedition to map the vicinity shocked at the encounter they had expected amundsen to be on the other side of the continent in the Weddell sea they nevertheless cordially received each other for breakfast and lunch the following day exchanging pleasantries with amundsen showing the captain around framheim even offering to share the entire site with them if it was convenient to their mission they declined courteously of course and hurriedly returned to Scott's camp at McMurdo to report on amundsen's activities it was now time to start laying out the Depots of food and supplies along the path that the polar assault team would travel this would be accomplished by loading up the sleds and then skiing out on a number of consecutive runs hopefully laying supplies Deeper South each time the first run was made by four men and three sledges pulled by 18 dogs as they made their way across the ice sheet they didn't know what to expect but by the end of the first day they had skied almost 30 kilometers it was their first test of dogs and equipment and amundsen noted in his journal how splendidly the dogs were performing and how he just couldn't understand why the British were so averse to using them it was a dream run and the next few days were no different as man and beasts settled into their daily Rhythm amundsen forbidding any more than 30 kilometers of progress per day before setting up camp and resting his long conversations with the Eskimo in Canada had taught him that exhaustion sweating and mental fatigue were the real killers in this environment he needed his team to be full of vigor and clear-headed at all times in just four days they had reached 80 degrees south setting up their Depot and planting their intricate network of cans and markers then turned around with empty sledges and raced back to framheim within just one week they had astonishingly covered 260 kilometers meanwhile Scott had also begun his own Depot run but ran into trouble before it even began one of his three heavy motus ledgers being unloaded onto an unstable ice platform beside the ship cracked it and sunk to the bottom of the Bay the other two were plagued with mechanical problems and were completely unusable the eight ponies fared little better plodding along their hoofs frequently breaking through the ice sinking them often to their bellies and needing to be offloaded and extracted the men continued onward hauling everything by themselves but a blizzard and slow progress induced Scott to dump their loads at 79 and a half degrees south a good 30 kilometers less than they had hoped as they lay in their tents completely exhausted the two dog teams that had been brought along at the recommendation of Manson back in Norway trotted up with their own sleds a little wobbly as beginners often are but they had started days behind and had now completely caught up to Scott's immobilized party and seemed not the least bit troubled by the blizzard officers in his team reported that Scott seemed alternately surprised and then annoyed at the efficiency of the dogs and how even in untrained hands they basically overtook every other team indeed comparing Scott's round trip with the Norwegian party his daily average distance traveled was less than half of amundsen's but the fatigue Factor was orders of magnitude worse even the ponies were completely exhausted one dying on the way and several others falling through an ice sheet and drowning such that of the eight that departed only two made it back alive it was a bad omen amundson on the other hand still had some time up his sleeve and a week after he got back from the first Depot run pushed another sled team up the barrier depositing another load at 81 degrees south but this time the weather had deteriorated blizzards the same ones hammering Scott made their progress slower and the further they got the lower the temperature dropped despite their suitability to the task dogs are not of course impervious to freezing and as the temperature hit minus 40 degrees celsius they began to noticeably struggle amundsen took a couple of teams of the strongest dogs and pushed on to 82 degrees but frostbit and pores caused him to unload there satisfied that they managed to set up another Depot a degree yet further south depositing seal meat that would be a valuable source of nutrition both teams having returned back to camp now settled into the uneventful winter amundsen and his team used the time to remodel their sledges to be lighter and more maneuverable they adjusted their clothing boot designs and painstakingly altered their ski equipment to better suit the terrain they were encountering both teams made preparations of rations and otherwise engaged in organized activities and games that staved off boredom in the camps the Norwegian and British leaders occasionally had to deal with The Frayed tempers and frustrations of isolation but Scots Camp seemed to be faring far worse its strict organization along Naval protocols had separate quarters for officers and Men while amundsen kept a more egalitarian social system a number of Scots officers had begun openly questioning his decisions and privately his indecisiveness which was a dangerous problem in such an extreme environment amundsen had issues of his own but predominantly with Johansson The Experience though troubled friend of nanson who grumbled on about equipment and procedure but more troubling was the gradual anxiety that began to affect amundsen personally about Scott's three motus ledgers himself a technophile he had no way of knowing the truth of course but was worried that these sledges would give Scott an advantage in whisking supplies up the glacier and on to Victory while his own dogs were at risk of frostbitten pores he knew that the only salvation back home for his scandalous change of plans was to get there first the unforgiving Norwegian public not to mention creditors would ruin him for anything less than a glorious Triumph his reputation hung by a thread but his underlying sense of guilt over all the skullduggery began to cast serious doubts over his otherwise meticulous preparations so early in September as the sun began to return to the sky against his own better judgment he decided to go for it and prepped his Polar assault team for the attempt against the advice of Johansson who told him it was way too early in the season and risky uncharacteristically amundsen pushed on and despite good progress when they hit 80 degrees south the temperature suddenly plummeted and the dogs began to suffer once again with several dying of frostbite realizing he had made a terrible mistake amundsen decided to turn back but the party became separated as they raced back to framheim Johansson and his partner's dogs stalled and they made it back to Camp many hours after the rest themselves somewhat frostbitten and Furious at having been left so far behind without backup Johansson rebuked his leader not unreasonably it should be said but under such critical circumstances amundsen could not afford any dissent or disrespect so Johansson was penalized for insubordination and removed from The Polar assault team a huge blow for the experienced veteran the merits of which have been hotly debated ever since having narrowly avoided disaster because of his own lapse in judgment amundsen now regained his mental composure and waited patiently for the weather to suitably improve a month later five-man team initially made steady progress but heavy fog and blizzards caused them on a number of occasions to nearly plunge into the bottomless crevasses that littered the ice sheet this was the very real risk of traveling across unknown Terrain finally reaching the base of the mountains from which the ice shelf extended a month after starting out and now beyond their final Depot they now had to snake their way over dangerous Rock ledgers all the while steering sledges and herding the dogs along narrow and precarious Ravines uphill into the unknown days of anxious crisscrossing followed and on the 21st of November they were at 3 500 meters altitude at the summit of the glacier they committed themselves to follow arriving without the loss of a single dog or sled meanwhile Scott and his team of 16 men ponies and repaired motorcade had also begun their own staggered push South but after barely 80 kilometers the motorized sledges again failed and were finally abandoned with men and animals now having to haul tons of supplies all the way across the barrier to the base of the mountains the painfully slow staggered progress was now already a month behind the Norwegians with the steep climb still ahead of them amundsen's team now lightened their loads and with heavy hearts shot a number of their weaker dogs which had been calculated to serve as food for the others each man taking responsibility for the dispatch of his own animals this had always been part of the plan but they had by now become so attached to their furry companions that they all reported it was the hardest thing they had to endure on the whole Expedition the five-man squad Now set off with their remaining dogs for the estimated 60 days of skiing across yet more frightening crevasses and Ice Fields passing shackleton's heroic previous record of over 88 degrees south on the 14th of December having battled blizzards impenetrable fog and crackling ice Fields underfoot the party finally made it to the South Pole planting the Norwegian flag and embracing joyfully soaking up the significance of their unbelievable accomplishment they pitched a tent and named their new Abode polheim A fitting name for man's most distant southerly home after a few days spent calibrating their position and taking some data they left some equipment and a letter for Scott to deliver in the case of their death to King harcon amundsen was desperate now to get news out to the world as soon as possible but the return was nevertheless disciplined and orderly never pushing his team more than 30 kilometers per day to preserve the fitness and energy of both man and dog lessons from Canada that were still burned deep into his mind by the 4th of January they were already making their way back down the glacier while Scott having himself only just passed shackleton's record was still deciding who was to accompany him to the poll and who would be returning back to the camp he now made the Fateful and inexplicable decision to increase his Polar assault team from the original plan of four men to five which would Gravely endanger the already strained ration allocations that were in place on the 17th of January plodding one painful burning step after another a look of dread suddenly bled across their faces as they came across amundsen's tent with his letter and the dawning realization that they had got there over one month ago with the usual British stiff upper lip they consoled themselves at their momentous achievement heroically completed on foot but the price they would pay was already beginning to show the men were completely exhausted the trudging had Frozen their inadequate boots with several men developing significant frostbite moreover it had been some time since they'd had a fresh meal and the tell-tailed depression and mental fogginess began to set in amundsen's team back on the barrier now upped the pace and was soon at their Depot with food or plenty and the remaining dogs in good form the laborious groundwork of setting highly visible markers at regular intervals paid off as they easily found their way to the next and the next one even when blizzards whipped up spontaneously around them by the 25th of January 1912 they were back at framheim both men and dogs having actually put on weight despite skiing and sledging almost three and a half thousand kilometers over the course of 99 days something that had never been heard of in European Arctic exploration where starvation and scurvy were the norm his lessons learned from the Eskimo of maintaining a leisurely energy-preserving Pace had paid off with his team now safely back at base and reunited with their colleagues ecstatic at having achieved all of their objectives 10 days ahead of schedule amundsen's meticulous intricate planning and subsequent gamble for Glory had paid off surely he was now Vindicated they were the first to the South Pole they hadn't interfered with the British Expedition and they had even sent several side trips to be the first to set foot on King Edward VII land as well as to conduct the first oceanographic survey of the South Atlantic all the way from Africa to America they were professionals indeed a viking Strike Force the Fram having returned from her own expedition he quickly wound up and soon departed for Hobart where no news had yet arrived of Scots progress they were warmly received by the local governor and churches held Services giving thanks for their safe arrival amundsen sent telegrams to his King to nanson and to the media and Norway soon erupted into national celebration his reputation back home was safe but the political establishment was worried that he might have damaged Norway's delicate relationship with Britain it wasn't long though before the team received congratulations from abroad with King George V and even Theodore Roosevelt sending their well wishes some elements in the UK particularly Scott's backers were publicly upset at what they expressed as the dirty trickery of the Norwegians Shackleton on the other hand was well pleased there was little chance that Scott would gloat over him now that amundsen had taken the poll from right under his nose so much for the mic drop the Fram eventually sailed on to Buenos Aires where she was to be refitted at the expense of a wealthy Norwegian expat for the ongoing Voyage to the north as originally intended meanwhile amundsen would go on a whirlwind tour around the world giving what were to him painful lectures to packed out audiences wherever he went it was while in the United States that amundsen received the Dreadful news of Scott and his party's fate as feared the supplies for a five-man squad were inadequate the lack of fresh meat brought on the ravages of scurvy and the exhausted and now sick and Delirious men had no energy left to haul their sledges to the main Supply Depot which had been laying short of their needs their markers had also been poorly set and in the increasingly foul weather they became ever more disoriented having spent 150 days in the freezing Terrain confused final orders meant that the dog teams that could have delivered fresh supplies to them never materialized so one by one Scott's Brave companions succumbed to their deaths stoically writing their journals to The Bitter End with Scott the last to die even addressing parting words to the British public snatching what has been described by some historians as a martyr's victory out of the jaws of defeat the British public went into mourning and even the normally reserved amundsen was stunned by the senseless loss of such brave men despite some useful scientific data the Monumental disaster highlighted a failure of British Doctrine Logistics and understanding of the terrain made all the more jarring by contrast with the clinical efficiency and success of the tiny Norwegian Expedition it was an embarrassment that could only be expunged by transforming it into a story of heroism for heroism's sake the tragedy was soon spun into a myth of the doomed hero who did things the hard way the noble way whose endurance and ultimate sacrifice was attributed to external factors such as the weather rather than internal factors such as philosophy or preparation Scott's Legacy became sacrosanct as the first world war soon broke out and young men across the British Empire were urged to emulate his heroic example as they were being mowed down in their tens of thousands in senseless battles from Flanders to Gallipoli by this time amundsen's anticipated final expeditionary phase in the North had been shelved by the onset of war and he secretly looked for a way out but his old Mentor nanson held him to account it was a matter of Honor that he try and complete the original Mission the Fram was by now all but useless after years of neglect in Buenos Aires but amundsen's finances for once took a turn for the better as the war came to an end Norway's shipping industry in which he had managed to invest the last of his personal funds boomed such that he was once again in the black he used these funds to build a new more advanced polar Explorer he called the mort after Norway's english-born Queen the moored would fulfill his promise and drift with the ice pack for seven whole years though it too like nanson's attempt so long ago would not end up drifting across the North Pole at this time amundsen also became obsessed with the latest technology of the day airplanes even earning his pilot's license mortgaging the last of his assets into an aircraft he hoped would be the first to fly across the Arctic in 1923 with maud's Crews coming to an end amundsen having honored his promises escorted the ship for repairs and left the completion of the expedition to subordinates while he returned to Norway to face fresh Financial demands of new creditors who had backed his aircraft research he had planned to fly his plane over the Arctic Circle in yet another first but the plane crashed during trials and he was now back to square one the public were not impressed the Norwegian newspapers even accused him of a publicity stunt and many started to view him as a has been who didn't know when to quit investors got nervous and bailed out of their sponsorship Norwegians are a tough lot they expect a lot from their Heroes his private life was also in chaos he had never married and had only maintained peripheral relationships that always seemed to come to nothing he nevertheless adopted two Eskimo children perhaps out of a long-standing emotional debt to the people who had taught him so much but when the creditors finally forced him into bankruptcy he had no choice but to give up the children as well completely dejected he had lost everything he was one of those individuals for whom money for its own sake was of no importance the only thing that mattered was his obsessive pursuit of excellence and once again as if by Miracle at this lowest ebb of poverty and despair a wealthy American businessman finally came to the rescue Lynn canelsworth was the son of a multi-millionaire who worshiped the ground amundsen walked on he had long dreamed of undertaking his own Arctic Expedition and now approached amundsen prepared to fund the project in its entirety as long as he could be a part of it amundsen agreed and in 1925 they flew to dornier seaplanes to almost 88 degrees north the furthest any plane had yet traveled by far when one of them suddenly malfunctioned and was forced to land in the desolate pole the wilderness the other plane landed safely some distance away and when it was discovered that the fault was unrepairable the entire crew worked for almost an entire month on severely restricted rations to clear 600 tons of ice for a makeshift Airfield packing into the remaining aircraft they managed to skim their way back to civilization by the seat of their pants reappearing in spectacular fashion when everyone had long given them up for dead armenson was back and now at the age of 53 he had an even bigger plan Ellsworth had agreed to fund the construction of an Airship which they planned to take over the North Pole the Norwegian had proven that aircraft could do it and while they were busy putting the final touches on their airship in their Italian Workshop Commander Richard E Byrd who would go on to become a celebrated American Admiral himself Flew Over the pole amundsen felt Vindicated and in some sense relieved that he hadn't usurped yet another pole from an Empire that demanded its share of Glory he had himself championed the skier dog sled Expedition and now he had ushered in a completely new era of polar aircraft Expedition in May 1926 amundsen and his Italian air crew eventually flew their own Zeppelin over the pole he being the first man in history to have reached both the North and South Poles the people back in Norway went berserk if you'll excuse the phrase he was now an unassailable national hero greater than he ever was before clearly it was time to go out on a high so he announced his retirement from exploration and settled into the boredom of traveling lectures speeches and dinners and writing his Memoirs all of which he completely disliked debts began to mount again and his health began to slowly fail he aged rapidly as the world now passed him by never the warmest or gentlest of souls he had few remaining friends and struggled to reconcile himself with the life of the mundane indeed the British had by now completely sidelined his achievements and even their school textbooks were crediting Scott as the discoverer of the poll instead of him amundsen became increasingly bitter and his latest book was dark nasty and basically a literary failure his mentor nanson on the other hand would go on to become the Elder Statesman of Norwegian Society a much-loved humanitarian and spokesman for international refugees following the horrors and displacement of World War it's funny how two men of similar passions and personalities could diverge so much in the way they accepted their own mortality for amundsen a couple of lonely years now went by then news reached him in 1928 that the Italian captain of the Airship he had flown with had disappeared over the Arctic on another Voyage North Captain Nobile and he had fallen out badly during their own polar flight you see despite his love of Technology amundsen Long used to being in charge was no longer the obvious Undisputed Mission leader and unquestionable Technical master and his Italian companion put him firmly and uncomfortably in his place despite his bitterness at their rail he immediately volunteered with the French rescue team that was just one of many scouring the Arctic for the crash site from Tromso they finally received a radio message from the downed Captain with their location marooned on an ice flow so the rescue team leapt into action flying low and fast to get there first of course as they flew out of sight of the base suddenly the radio went dead amundsen and his crew had vanished a frantic search was now mounted for them too but all that was ever recovered was one of the floats and the gas tank amundsen had gone the way of his Viking ancestors and back to the only home he ever knew so what can we say about amundsen and his ongoing Legacy his remaining friends described him as honorable and straightforward he had himself once joked that he was a hard man to like contemporaries described him as the Napoleon of the Arctic so dominant was his impact on future polar exploration he had a gift for making the difficult seem easy in a world where the converse making the easy things seemed difficult was the formula for becoming a hero yet despite his Relentless pursuit of Excellence he could never even balance his own checkbook amundsen's obsessive attention to detail and minute perfectionism were hard to romanticize his books were never best sellers but where previous Arctic explorers had led their men to Madness starvation and death he brought his team home alive Victorious and fatter than they left he showed that man could value both modern technology and ancient wisdom that the hubris of civilization was to assume it could overcome the power of nature rather than have the humility to adapt and operate in harmony with it he was a man straddling to epochs but also a Restless Soul who was never truly at peace with himself in the final analysis perhaps his life and achievements can best be summed up in the old adage that fortune favors the prepared mind or maybe even more relevant for us today that nature always has the last word

Channel: Heroes and Legends Documentary Channel

Views: 181,856

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Id: RFVnzRTc84U

Length: 107min 23sec (6443 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/CPE_Rimsky-Korsakov]

Phew! ... that's a long one.

Noticed the mention of Fridtjof Nansen near the beginning: he's renowned for allowing his ship to get stuck in ice, & to be a marker for the motion of the ice, from which the effect of Coriolis force on that motion was detected, & from which result the entire theory of 'Ekman Spirals' (which are helices really !) stemmed.

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