When was roald amundsen first voyage

This was because the pole had moved about 30 miles to the north of where he thought it was. However, to prove that the pole was moving was of huge scientific significance. When Amundsen encountered a whaling ship from San Francisco coming in the opposite direction he knew he would complete the North-West Passage.

In his diary, he wrote:. My boyhood dream—at that moment it was accomplished. In woollen things you have to jump and dance like crazy before you get warm. Finally, skins are absolutely wind-proof, which is of course a very important point.

On the 13th of August she left the now ice-free Gjoa Haven and set her course toward the unknown west. Ice, fog, and shoals endangered the progress, the sounding lead had to be used continually and often there was hardly a foot of water under her keel. The Northwest Passage was completed. McKenna, who was the first to congratulate Amundsen on his success.

Amundsen, of course, hoped to reach Bering Strait and civilization that year, but ice conditions were bad. As early as September 2 progress was stopped at King Point, near Herschel Island, and within a week it was evident that another winter had to be spent in the Arctic. The magnetic recordings were continued at King Point, and during the winter Amundsen travelled to Eagle, Alaska, in order to send telegrams from the expedition to the outside world. He made the trip in company with the skipper of the shipwrecked Bonanza , Captain Mogg, of whose accomplishments as a traveller by dog team Amundsen had a very low opinion.

On his return to King Point, Amundsen learned the sad news that Wiik had been taken ill and died. She reached Nome on the 31st, where she was given a reception worthy of the adventurous and boisterous gold seekers who at that time were making Nome famous.

From there on the trip back to Norway was a triumphant journey that brought Amundsen full compensation for his worries and difficulties during the trying years of preparation. She deteriorated badly, but was restored in He hated the lecture trips on which he had to place himself in the hands of a manager and sell his freedom of action to a person whose publicity schemes he disliked but could not avoid.

Little wonder then that he soon worked on a new plan, which he presented to the Norwegian Geographic Society in the fall of The main purpose would be the repetition of the oceanographic work of Nansen, using better equipment and new and greatly improved instruments.

Nansen had not been prepared for the great depths he discovered and was not equipped with adequate sounding lines and the deep-sea oceanographic work was consequently much handicapped. Furthermore, the available deep-sea thermometers and other instruments were inaccurate. By ingenious interpretation of the imperfect observations Nansen had been able to recognize the main features of the oceanography of the Arctic Ocean, but in spite of his brilliant analysis several points remained in doubt on account of the deficient data.

In the years since the return of the First Fram Expedition, Nansen himself had contributed much to the improvement of instruments and methods.

Private and public funds were obtained and the outlook for the expedition was bright. A great deal of the public interest in the expedition was based on the assumption that Amundsen would make a dash for the North Pole and it was confidently expected that he would succeed and become the first man to reach that coveted spot.

There is no doubt that Amundsen wanted to have a try at reaching the Pole, although he never said so directly. That the public was more interested in the spectacular aspects of the expedition than in its laborious scientific work became evident when support failed in the early summer of after it was learned that both Frederick A.

Cook and Robert E. Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole. The public interest in his expedition dropped off, the contributions ceased, and it appeared hopeless to equip the Fram for 5 years. He also felt that to maintain his name as explorer he had to accomplish a sensational feat.

Without informing more than three of his closest associates he decided to try to reach the South Pole. When the Fram left Norway in June the official plan was that she should sail around Cape Horn, continue north through the Pacific and enter the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait in the summer of , but from Funchal, Madeira, Amundsen announced that he was instead heading for the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea and from there was trying to reach the South Pole.

Severe criticism was directed against Amundsen on the basis that he had entered a race against Scott, but it has gradually been admitted that Amundsen could not be blamed for attempting to reach the South Pole by a route different from that selected by Scott and using a different technique. Amundsen and four companions reached the Pole on December 14, , Scott on January 18, , but Scott and his brave comrades perished on the return journey.

As soon as Amundsen was back in civilization he resumed his plans for the drift expedition across the Arctic Ocean. The Fram had taken him and his party on board in and gone to Hobart, Tasmania, from where Amundsen sent his first brief report. From Hobart the ship had continued to Buenos Aires for overhaul. After supplementing her equipment she was to return to the Pacific and sail north to Bering Strait. In when Amundsen was lecturing in the United States it was suggested to him that the Fram might be permitted to go as the first ship through the Panama Canal.

Amundsen was anxious to take advantage of this opportunity and ordered the Fram to Colon. However, after having waited in vain for two and a half months she had to be sent back to Buenos Aires with orders to go around Cape Horn and on to San Francisco.

The bottom of the ship had become so badly fouled that the trip to Buenos Aires took too long to make it possible for the Fram to reach San Francisco in time to continue to Bering Strait in the summer of Amundsen decided to have the Fram return to Norway and start from there in by following the north coast of Siberia to the east as Nansen had done in They were still more seriously upset when it was found that the Fram had been damaged beyond repair by dry rot during the long stay in the tropics.

At this point it should be mentioned that Amundsen had long contemplated the use of airplanes in arctic exploration, thus pioneering a development that was to revolutionize arctic work.

As early as when he was making his first preparations for the drift expedition he had negotiated with one of the early aviators about participation in the enterprise, and in he had bought a Farman biplane in the United States and shipped it to Norway where he himself obtained a certificate as pilot and where he gave it to the Norwegian Government at the outbreak of the war. The war and the loss of the Fram did not make Amundsen abandon his plans.

He invested his accumulated funds in shipping stock, doubled his capital and contracted in for the building of a new ship, which still left him enough money to finance the long-postponed drift expedition. His new ship was launched in June and named the Maud after the Queen of Norway.

The Maud had been designed by the yacht builder Chr. Jensen and was built along lines similar to those of the Fram , but she was even more bowl-shaped. Her over-all length was feet, her beam 40 feet and in any vertical section, lengthwise or athwart ship, the line of the hull was part of a circle.

From the outer side of the ironwood ice-sheathing to the inner side of the inner sheathing the sides were nearly three feet thick. Inside the hull was strengthened with vertical and inclined stanchions that were tied with naturally-grown knees of oak.

Her shape made her behave excellently under heavy pressure from ice, but in the open sea she rolled like a wash basin. During the winter , Amundsen equipped the Maud for a five-year journey, obtaining provisions from the United States under special license. This number was increased to ten when a Russian-Norwegian engineer was added at Kharborovo. The party included Helmer Hansen as captain, who had been with Amundsen through the Northwest Passage; Oscar Wisting, first mate, who had been to the South Pole; and among the three tenderfeet was Dr.

Sverdrup, in charge of scientific work. The Maud Expedition met with many difficulties. In September progress was stopped some 10 miles to the east of Cape Chelyuskin, where the Maud stayed a fully year.

That period was used for carrying out scientific observations and charting the northernmost peninsula of the continent. In the summer of the ice did not break up around the Maud and only on September 12, after much blasting and advancing foot by foot, did the ship reach open water and could continue to the east. Here two men, Knudsen and Tessem, were left behind.

They had a number of dogs and provisions for a year and had the choice of leaving in the fall or waiting until the following spring. They left in the fall but failed to reach their destination. The Maud sailed to the east but the season was too late to penetrate to the north and start the drift. An attempt to turn away from the coast east of the New Siberian Islands failed and on September 21 all progress was stopped.

Roald Amundsen in his teens. In autumn , Roald begins university and gradually throws himself into medical studies. Gustava Amundsen was the daughter of the baliff Gustav Sahlqvist. In spring , Roald finds employment on the seal ship the Magdalena. In March , the Belgica sails out of the ice and begins the journey home. Upon returning home, he visits Fridtjof Nansen and tells of his plan to sail through the Northwest Passage and explore the magnetic North Pole.

That summer, he takes her out for a trial run in the Arctic Ocean. The scientist Georg Balthasar von Neumayer. Although in August they sailed through the passage, they must overwinter at King Point before returning home.

The Northwest Passage was done. My dream from boyhood — at this moment it was realized. Uranienborg a short time after Amundsen purchased the house in Roald Amundsen washing his clothes on board the Maud. In September , Amundsen goes bankrupt. Kakonita and Camilla at the gate to Uranienborg, summer of On 12 April, Amundsen holds a radio talk from his home at Svartskog. In a letter he writes about the biography: I have now finished my memoirs. God damn — they are ugly! In the summer, Amundsen goes on a lecture tour of Japan.

Roald Amundsen visiting Japan. History of Antarctic explorers. Roald Amundsen was a respected Norwegian explorer who was determined to beat the British expedition and be the first to reach the South Pole.

He kept his plans to head south very secret - he had originally planned to head north, but upon hearing that the North Pole had been reached, changed his mission. On 18 October , after the Antarctic winter, Amundsen's team set out on its drive toward the Pole. Captain Scott began his trek three weeks later. He had reached the Pole a full 33 days before Captain Scott arrived. Amundsen and his crew returned to their base camp on 25 January , 99 days and roughly nautical miles after their departure.