Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (July 16, 1872–June 18?, 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–1912 which was the first to reach the South Pole.

Later life

In 1918 Amundsen began an expedition with a new ship Maud to explore the Northeast Passage. It did not meet its goals and was considered a failure. In 1925 with Lincoln Ellsworth and four others he flew to 87° 44' north in two aircraft. It was the northernmost latitude reached by plane up to that time. The planes landed a few miles apart without a radio contact, yet the crews managed to reunite. One of the aircraft was damaged. Amundsen and his crew worked for over three weeks to clean up an airstrip to take off from ice. They shovelled 600 tons of ice on 1 lb (400 g) of daily food rations. In the end six crew, packed into the remaining aircraft, took off and barely became airborne over the cracking ice. They returned triumphant when everyone thought they had been lost for ever.

Related Topics:
1918 - Northeast Passage - 1925 - Lincoln Ellsworth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The following year Amundsen, Ellsworth and Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile made the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge designed by Nobile. They left Spitzbergen on May 11, 1926 and landed in Alaska two days later. Because the three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole -- by Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before Norge) -- are all either dubious or fraudulent, Amundsen and the crew of the Norge are the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole.

Related Topics:
Umberto Nobile - ''Norge'' - Spitzbergen - May 11 - Cook - Robert Peary - Richard Byrd

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928 while flying on a rescue mission for Nobile, whose next airship the Italia had crashed. Some weeks afterwards, pieces from the plane he was in, improvised into a liferaft, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed and that Amundsen was killed in the crash, or died shortly afterwards. His body was never found.

Related Topics:
June 18 - 1928 - ''Italia''

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amundsen is remembered by posterity in many ways. Among those:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is named jointly after him and his rival.
• Amundsen Sea, off the coast of Antarctica, is named for him.
• A large crater covering the Moon's south pole is named Amundsen Crater after him.
• The Norwegian Navy is building a class of Aegis frigates, one of which, the HNoMS Roald Amundsen, will be named after him.