Norwegian traveler, record holder, explorer and great man Roald Amundsen known all over the world as
- the first man to conquer both poles of our planet;
- the first person to visit the South Pole;
- the first person to travel around the world with its closure at the North Pole;
- one of the pioneers of the use of aviation - seaplanes and airships - in Arctic travel.
Short biography of Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen (full name - Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen) born on July 16, 1872 in Borg, Norway. His father - Jens Amundsen, a hereditary sea trader. His mother - Hannah Salkvist, daughter of a customs official.
Schooling
Roal was always at school worst student, but stood out for his stubbornness and a heightened sense of justice. The director of the school even refused him to take the final exam for fear of dishonoring the institution as an unsuccessful student.
Amundsen had to sign up for the final exams separately, as an external student, and in July 1890, with great difficulty, he received a certificate of maturity.
Further studies
After the death of his father in 1886, Roald Amundsen wanted to study on the sailor, but the mother insisted that her son choose medicine after receiving his matriculation certificate.
He had to submit and become a medical student at the university. But in September 1893, when his mother suddenly died, he became the master of his fate and, leaving the university, went to sea.
Marine specialty and travel to the Arctic
For 5 years, Roald sailed as a sailor on various ships, and then passed the exams and received navigator diploma... And in this capacity, in 1897, he finally went to the Arctic for research purposes on a ship Belgica, which belonged to the Belgian Arctic expedition.
It was the hardest test. The ship was trapped in ice, hunger, disease began, people went crazy. Only a few remained healthy, among them was Amundsen - he hunted seals, was not afraid to eat their meat and thus escaped.
Northwest Passage
In 1903 Amundsen used the funds raised to buy a used 47-ton motor-sailing yacht "Yoah", built just in the year of his birth. The schooner had a diesel engine of only 13 horsepower.
Together with 7 crew members, he went out to sea. He managed to walk along the coast of North America from Greenland to Alaska and open the so-called northwest passage.
This expedition was no less severe than the first. Had to endure wintering in ice, ocean storms, encounters with dangerous icebergs. But Amundsen continued to conduct scientific observations, and he was able to determine the location of the Earth's magnetic pole.
On a dog sled, he reached "residential" Alaska. He had aged a lot, at 33 he looked 70. The difficulties did not frighten the experienced polar explorer, seasoned sailor and passionate traveler.
Conquest of the South Pole
In 1910, he began to prepare a new expedition to the North Pole. Just before going out to sea, a message came that the North Pole had submitted to the American Robert Peary.
The proud Amundsen immediately changed his goal: he decided to go to the South Pole.
Travelers overcame 16 thousand miles in a few weeks, and came to the Ross ice barrier in Antarctica. There I had to go ashore and move on with dog sleds. The path was blocked by icy rocks, abysses; skis barely glided.
But despite all the difficulties, Roald Amundsen December 14, 1911 reached the South Pole. Together with his comrades-in-arms, he walked through the ice 1,500 kilometers and was the first to hoist the flag of Norway at the South Pole.
Polar aviation
Roald Amundsen flew to the North Pole in seaplanes, landed on the island of Spitsbergen, and landed in the ice. In 1926 on a huge airship "Norway"(106 meters long and with three engines) together with an Italian expedition Umberto Nobile and an American millionaire Lincoln-Ellsworth Amundsen made his dream come true:
flew over the North Pole and landed in Alaska.
But all the glory went to Umberto Nobile. The head of the fascist state Benito Mussolini glorified one Nobile, promoted him to general, they did not even remember Amundsen.
Tragic death
In 1928 Nobile decided to repeat his record. On the airship "Italy", of the same design as the previous airship, he made another flight to the North Pole. In Italy, they were eagerly awaiting his return; they were preparing a triumphal meeting for the national hero. The North Pole will be Italian ...
But on the way back due to icing, the Italia airship lost control. Parts of the crew, together with Nobile, succeeded land on an ice floe... Another part flew away with the airship. Radio communication with the crashed victims was interrupted.
Amundsen agreed to become a member of one of the rescue expeditions of the Nobile team. June 18, 1928 together with the French crew, he flew by seaplane "Latam-47" in the direction of the island of Svalbard.
This was Amundsen's last flight. Soon, radio communication with the aircraft, which was over the Barents Sea, was interrupted. The exact circumstances of the death of the plane and the expedition remained unknown.
In 1928, Amundsen was awarded (posthumously) the highest U.S. honor - Congressional Gold Medal.
Brief chronology
- B - studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Christiania.
- He sailed as a sailor and navigator on different ships. Since then, he has made a number of widely known expeditions.
- Passed for the first time (-) on a small fishing vessel "Joa" Northwest Passage from East to West from Greenland to Alaska.
- On the ship "Fram" went to Antarctica; landed at Whale Bay and on December 14, on dogs, reached the South Pole, a month ahead of the English expedition of R. Scott.
- In the summer, the expedition left Norway on the Maud and reached the Bering Strait.
- He headed the 1st transarctic flight on the Norway airship on the route: Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska.
- In 1928, during an attempt to find the Italian expedition Umberto Nobile, which suffered a disaster in the Arctic Ocean on the Italia airship, and to help her, Amundsen, who took off on June 18 on the Latam seaplane, died in the Barents Sea.
Life
Youth and first expeditions
Roald was born in 1872 in the south-east of Norway (Borge, near Sarpsborg) into a family of sailors and shipbuilders. When he was 14 years old, his father died and the family moved to Christiania (since 1924 - Oslo). Roald went to study at the medical faculty of the university, but when he was 21 years old, his mother dies, and Roald leaves the university. He later wrote:
"With inexpressible relief, I left the university to devote my whole soul to the only dream of my life.".Northwest Sea Route
Amundsen Arctic Expeditions Map
In 1903 he buys a used 47-ton motor-sailing yacht “Gjøa”, “the same age” as Amundsen himself (built in 1872) and sets off on an Arctic expedition. The schooner was equipped with a 13 hp diesel engine. The personnel of the expedition included:
- Roald Amundsen- Head of the expedition, glaciologist, specialist in terrestrial magnetism, ethnographer.
- Godfried Hansen, Dane by nationality - navigator, astronomer, geologist and photographer of the expedition. Senior Lieutenant of the Danish Navy, participated in expeditions to Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
- Anton Lund- skipper and harpooner.
- Peder Riestvedt- senior machinist and meteorologist.
- Helmer Hansen- second navigator.
- Gustav Yul Vik- second driver, assistant for magnetic observations. Died from an unexplained disease on March 30, 1906.
- Adolf Henrik Lindström- cook and food master. Member of the Sverdrup expedition in 1898-1902.
Amundsen crossed the North Atlantic, Baffin Bay, Lancaster, Barrow, Peel, Franklin, James Ross Straits and in early September stopped for the winter off the southeastern coast of King William Island. In the summer of 1904, the bay was not free of ice, and "Joa" remained for the second winter.
Last years and death
Amundsen spent his last years at his home in the Bunnefjord, near Oslo. His life was called Spartan. He sold all the orders and openly quarreled with many former associates. Fridtjof Nansen wrote to one of his friends a year:
"I get the impression that Amundsen has completely lost his peace of mind and is not fully responsible for his actions."Relations with Umberto Nobile, whom Roalle called "an arrogant, childish, selfish upstart", "an absurd officer," "a man of a wild, semi-tropical race", also developed badly.
Nobile became general under Mussolini. On May 23, 1928, he decided to repeat the flight to the North Pole. Starting from Svalbard, he reached the pole, but on the way back due to icing, the airship crashed, the members of the expedition were thrown onto the drifting ice, radio communication with them was interrupted.
At the request of the Minister of War of Norway, Amundsen joined the multitude of rescuers who went in search of Nobile. On June 18, he took off in a seaplane "Latham-47" ("Latham") with a French crew from the city of Tromsø in northern Norway and headed for Svalbard. When the plane was in the area of Bear Island in the Barents Sea, the radio operator reported that the flight was in dense fog and requested a radio bearing, after which the connection was cut off. On the night of 31 August to 1 September, a Latama-47 float was found near Tromsø. The exact circumstances of Amundsen's death are unknown.
To one Italian journalist who asked what fascinated him in the polar regions, Amundsen replied:
"Ah, if you ever had a chance to see with your own eyes how wonderful it is, I would like to die there."Umberto Nobile and seven more surviving companions were discovered five days after the death of Roald Amundsen.
Amundsen is one of the most famous sailors in Norway. Since childhood, his hobby has been reading books about travel to distant countries. As a child, he read almost every publication on travel in the Arctic Circle that he could get hold of. Unbeknownst to his mother, Amundsen began to prepare for expeditions in his early years: he tempered himself, did physical exercises, and also played football, believing that this game helps to strengthen the muscles of the legs.
The youth of the great polar explorer
When Amundsen entered the Faculty of Medicine in Oslo, he devoted most of his time to studying foreign languages, confident that their knowledge was essential for travel. What Roald Amundsen discovered in geography was largely due to his many years of training throughout his youth.
In 1897-1899, young Amundsen took part in the Antarctic expedition of Belgian polar explorers. In one team with him was Frederick Cook, who in 10 years will fight in the fight for the right to be the discoverer of the North Pole with Robert Peary.
Outstanding Polar Explorers: Struggle for Superiority
The North Pole became the goal that Roald Amundsen set for himself. What did he discover in the future, if other travelers had already fought for the extreme point of the planet before him? Officially, for a long time, it was believed that the first on April 6, 1909, Frederick Cook reached the North Pole, claimed that he had already been here on April 21, 1908. Since the evidence presented by Cook was in doubt, they decided to give the palm to Piri. But his achievements were also in doubt.
The fact is that the equipment of that time had not yet reached the level of development at which one could confidently assert the truth of a perfect discovery. The next person to try to conquer the unforgiving North Pole was Fridtjof Nansen. But he could not achieve his goal, and Roald Amundsen took over the baton from him. What he discovered and when, forever remains in the history of geographical research. But Amundsen's main discovery was preceded by many trials. After the death of his mother, Amundsen decided to become a long-distance navigator. However, in order to successfully pass the exams, it was necessary to work for at least three years as a sailor on a schooner.
Roald Amundsen: what he discovered before becoming a great navigator
The future polar explorer goes to the shores of Spitsbergen on an industrial ship. He then changes to another ship and heads for the Canadian coast. Before that traveler, Amundsen served as a sailor on several ships and visited many countries: Spain, Mexico, England and America.
In 1896, Amundsen passed the exams and received a diploma, which made him a navigator of the long voyage. After graduation, Antarctica finally becomes the destination for Roald Amundsen. What did he discover during his first journey? Only the fact that in Antarctica the main goal is to stay alive. The expedition, which was intended to study earth magnetism, almost became the last for the entire crew. The strongest blizzards, scorching frost and long hungry wintering - all this almost ruined the team. They were saved only thanks to the energy of a brave traveler who constantly hunted seals to feed the starving crew.
Change of goals
Roald Amundsen: what did he discover and what is his role in modern geographical knowledge? In 1909, when Cook and Peary officially announced their rights to open the North Pole, Amundsen decided to radically change his task. Indeed, in this race, he could only be second, if not third. Therefore, the polar explorer decided to conquer another goal - the South Pole. However, there were already those who wanted to achieve this goal faster.
Scott's English expedition
In 1901, an expedition was organized by Great Britain, led by officer Robert Scott. He did not consider geographical discoveries to be a matter of his entire life, but approached the preparation for the harsh journey with all responsibility. Roald Amundsen, what the polar explorers discovered in their travels, did they do it together? Rather, it was a desperate competition to reach the South Pole first. In June 1910, Scott began an expedition to Antarctica. He knew that he had a competitor, but did not attach much importance to Amundsen's expedition, considering him inexperienced. But the main thing in the years 1910-1912 belonged to the Norwegian.
Roald Amundsen: what did he discover? Summary of the expedition to the South Pole
Scott made his main bet on the use of technology - snowmobiles. Amundsen, using the experience of the Norwegians, took with him a large team of dogs for sledding. In addition, Amundsen's team consisted of excellent skiers, and Scott's crew did not pay enough attention to ski training.
On February 4, Scott's team, reaching Whale Bay, suddenly saw their competitors. The British, although they lost their fighting spirit, decided to continue the journey. In addition to the fact that the team was shocked by the appearance of the Amundsen expedition, insufficient preparation also played a role. Their horses began to die, as they could not acclimatize for a long time. One of the snowmobiles crashed. Scott realized that Amundsen's bet on the dogs was the winning decision. Despite the fact that Amundsen also suffered losses, on December 14, 1911, his team reached the South Pole.
Roald Engelbregg Graving Amundsen lived at the end of the Age of Discovery. In fact, he became the last of a cohort of great travelers who tried to conquer still unexplored spaces.
The entire biography of Roald Amundsen is full of vivid events in which he played the "main violin".
Roald Amundsen's biography
Roald Amundsen was born on July 16, 1872 in the Norwegian province of Ostfold in the town of Borge. From an early age, the boy was taught to play sports, and they put him on skis as soon as he began to walk on his own. Not shining with knowledge at school, he was distinguished by perseverance and perseverance in achieving his goals.
It was his character and perseverance, coupled with prudence and caution, that allowed him to do things that no one had ever done before him: to completely close the ring around the globe, using the North-West and North-East passages, to conquer the South Geographic Pole first.
The final years of Roald Amundsen's life saw the explosive emergence of new types of vehicles, which took the exploration of "blank spots" on the map to a whole new level, reducing such accomplishments to the level of a hobby.
The first step in the development of Amundsen as a researcher came after the death of his mother in 1893, when he dropped out of the university, where he studied at the medical faculty. The young man got a job as a sailor on a fishing vessel, where he diligently studied maritime affairs and navigation. In 1896, after passing the exams, he became a navigator for long voyages, which was very useful to him in the future.
Amundsen's first expedition
Roald Amundsen's first expedition began in 1897 on the Belgica, where he was accepted as navigator at the request of Fridtjof Nansen. Belgian polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache then went on an Antarctic expedition. The venture for the researchers was not a good one. Moreover, an epidemic of scurvy broke out among the crew on the pack-ice ship, and malnutrition and depression drained the morale of the participants to the extreme.
Only the young navigator Amundsen did not lose his presence of mind, who took command and brought the ship, which had stood for 13 months in the ice, into open water. Some of the medical knowledge he got at the university helped him get out and most of the team. In 1899 Belgica finally returned to Europe.
Roald Amundsen's travels and discoveries
But the main discoveries of Roald Amundsen were ahead. Thanks to the experience gained, he successfully passed the exams and became the captain of the ship. Immediately after this, Amundsen begins preparations for a new expedition. In 1903, on the Yova, he set out to discover the Northwest Passage around Northern Canada.
What Roald Amundsen did on this expedition, no one has ever succeeded. For two years of sailing, he still managed to pass from the east of the American mainland to its western part. The 34-year-old traveler instantly becomes a world celebrity, although this fame did not bring him wealth.
The loudest thing in Amundsen's life was his trip to the South Pole of the Earth. In the most difficult conditions of Antarctica, having made a two-month transition, he and his comrades reached the geographic South Pole, after which he returned to the base of the expedition.
Unfortunately, this was the "swan song" of all that Roald Amundsen discovered. And although after this epoch-making campaign he still continued his expeditions, they did not become so loud because of the changed situation. The First World War and a different approach to research, where the personal qualities of a person no longer played a dominant role, plunged the famous polar explorer into depression. He quarreled with all his friends and began to live as a hermit.
The last bright event, which made the whole world start talking about him again, was Amundsen's attempt to help the Nobile expedition, which had fallen into disaster. Having hired a flying boat, on June 18, 1928, he flew in search of, from which he never returned. This is how the life of the great polar explorer ended dramatically, although, perhaps, for people of his level, this is the best departure to another world.
Amundsen Roald (1872-1928), Norwegian polar traveler and explorer. The first to cross the Northwest Passage on the ship "Joa" from Greenland to Alaska (1903-06). He led an expedition to Antarctica on the ship "Fram" (1910-12). He was the first to reach the South Pole (12/14/1911). In 1918-20 he sailed along the northern shores of Eurasia on the Maud ship. In 1926 he directed the first flight across the North Pole on the Norway airship. Died in the Barents Sea while searching for the Italian expedition of U. Nobile.
Amundsen Roal. The first to pass the Northwest Passage on the ship "Joa" from Greenland to Alaska (1903-1906). He led an expedition to Antarctica on the ship "Fram" (1910-1912). The first to reach the South Pole (December 14, 1911). In 1918-1920 he passed along the northern shores of Eurasia on the "Mod" ship. In 1926, he directed the first flight across the North Pole on the Norway airship. Died in the Barents Sea while searching for the Italian expedition U. Nobile.
Amundsen said that he decided to become a polar traveler at the age of fifteen when he read a book by D. Franklin about the expedition of 1819-1822, the purpose of which was to find a way from the Atlantic to the Pacific around the northern shores of North America. But it was only at the age of twenty-two that the cabin boy Amundsen first stepped on board the ship. At twenty-six, he first wintered in high latitudes.
He was a member of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. The forced, unprepared wintering lasted 13 months. Amundsen remembered this lesson for the rest of his life.
Returning to Europe in 1899, he passed the exam for captaincy, then enlisted the support of Nansen, bought a small yacht "Joa" and began to prepare his own expedition. He wanted to accomplish what Franklin had failed, what no one had been able to do so far - to go through the Northwest Passage. And for three years he carefully prepared for this journey. He invited people from thirty years old to his travels, and everyone who went with him knew and was able to do a lot. There were seven of them on "Joa", and in 1903-1906 they accomplished in three years what mankind had dreamed of for three centuries.
Fifty years after the so-called opening of the Northwest Passage by McClure, Amundsen was the first to sail around North America. From West Greenland, following the instructions of McClintock's book, he first repeated the path of the unfortunate Franklin expedition. From Barrow Sound, he headed south through the Peel and Franklin Sounds to the northern tip of King William Island. But, taking into account Franklin's fatal mistake, Amundsen skirted the island not from the west, but from the east - the James-Ross and Rey straits - and spent two winters in the harbor of Joa, off the south-eastern coast of King William Island. From there, in the fall of 1904, he surveyed the narrowest part of the Simpson Strait by boat, and in the late summer of 1905 headed straight west along the coast of the mainland, leaving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to the north. He passed a series of shallow, island-strewn straits and bays, and finally met whaling ships arriving from the Pacific to the northwestern shores of Canada. After wintering here for the third time, Amundsen crossed the Bering Strait to the Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1906 and finished his voyage to San Francisco.
Amundsen considered his next task to be the conquest of the North Pole. He wanted to enter the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait and repeat, only in higher latitudes, the famous Fram drift. Nansen lent him his ship. While the expedition was being prepared, Cook and Piri announced that the North Pole had already been conquered ...
“To maintain my prestige as a polar explorer,” Amundsen recalled, “I needed to achieve some other sensational success as soon as possible ... I informed my comrades that since the North Pole was open, I decided to go to the South Pole. enthusiastically agreed ... "On a spring day, October 19, 1911, the pole party of five people on four sledges harnessed by 52 dogs, set off. Initially, the trail passed along the snowy, hilly plain of the Ross Ice Shelf. At the 85th parallel, the surface steeply went up - the ice shelf ended. The ascent began on the steep snow-covered slopes. At the beginning of the ascent, the travelers set up a main food warehouse with a supply for 30 days. For the entire further journey, Amundsen left provisions for 60 days. During this period, he planned to reach the South Pole and return back to the main warehouse.
Finally they found themselves on a large glacier, which, like a frozen icy river, cascades down from above between the mountains. This glacier was named after Axel Heiberg, the patron saint of the expedition, who donated a large sum. The higher the travelers climbed, the worse the weather became. The mountain peaks that arose in front of them in clear hours, they called the names of the Norwegians: friends, relatives, patrons. The highest mountain was named after Fridtjof Nansen. And one of the glaciers descending from it was named after Nansen's daughter - Liv.
On December 7, 1911, they passed the southernmost point reached before them: three years ago, the Englishman Shackleton's party reached latitude 88 ° 23 ", but facing the threat of starvation was forced to turn back, not reaching the pole just 180 kilometers.
On December 17, they reached the point where, according to their calculations, the South Pole should be located. They left a small gray-brown tent, a Norwegian flag was fixed on a pole above the tent, and a pennant with the inscription "Fram" underneath. In the tent, Amundsen left a letter to the Norwegian king with a brief account of the campaign and a message to his rival, Scott. Amundsen's entire trip to the South Pole and back took 99 days. Here are the names of the discoverers of the South Pole: Oscar Wisting, Helmer Hansen, Sverre Hassel, Olaf Bjaland, Roald Amundsen.
On March 7, 1912, from the city of Hobart on the island of Tasmania, Amundsen informed the world of his victory and the safe return of the expedition.
In 1925, Amundsen decided to make a test plane flight to the North Pole from Svalbard. If the flight was successful, then later he planned to organize a transarctic flight. The son of the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth volunteered to finance the expedition. Subsequently, Ellsworth not only financed the famous Norwegian's air expeditions, but also participated in them himself. Two seaplanes of the Dornier-Val type were purchased. The famous Norwegian pilots Riiser-Larsen and Dietrichson were invited as pilots, and Voicht and Omdal were mechanics. Amundsen and Ellsworth took over as navigators. In April 1925, the members of the expedition, aircraft and equipment arrived by steamer to Kingsbay on Svalbard.
On May 21, 1925, both aircraft took off and headed for the North Pole. Ellsworth, Dietrichson and Omdal were on one plane, and Amundsen, Riiser-Larsen and Voicht were on the other. About 1000 kilometers from Svalbard, the engine of Amundsen's plane began to malfunction. Fortunately, in this place, among the ice, there were openings. I had to go to land. They sat down relatively well, but could no longer take off. The situation seemed hopeless. Immediately after the accident, Amundsen carefully calculated everything they had and established a rigid ration.
Finally, on June 15, on the 24th day after the accident, it froze, and they decided to take off. They flew, as Amundsen put it, "having death as their closest neighbor." In the event of a forced landing on the ice, even if they survived, starvation awaited them.
The meeting in Norway was solemn. They were greeted by crowds of cheering people. It was July 5, 1925. It seemed that all the hardships of Amundsen were in the past. He was a national hero.
In 1925, Ellsworth bought an airship, dubbed Norge (Norway). The expedition leaders to the North Pole were Amundsen and Ellsworth. The creator of the airship, the Italian Umberto Nobile, was invited to the post of captain. The team was formed from Italians and Norwegians.
On May 8, 1926, the Americans started to the North Pole. On board a plane dubbed "Josephine Ford", probably in honor of his wife Ford, who financed the expedition, there were only two: Floyd Bennett as the pilot and Richard Byrd as the navigator. After 15 hours they returned safely, having made a flight to the Pole and back. Amundsen congratulated the Americans on the happy completion of the flight.
At 9 hours 55 minutes on May 11, 1926, in calm clear weather, "Norgue" headed north towards the Pole. There were 16 people on board. After 15 hours 30 minutes of flight, at 1 hour 20 minutes on May 12, 1926, the airship was over the North Pole.
The return of the travelers was triumphant. On July 12, 1926, Amundsen and his friends arrived by steamer to Bergen, Norway.
On May 24, 1928, Nobile reached the North Pole on the Italia airship and was above it for two hours. On the way back, he crashed. On June 18, Amundsen flew out of Bergen to rescue the Italia's crew. After June 20, his plane went missing.
He was the first to reach the South Pole and the first to fly from Europe to America (Svalbard - Alaska); he was the first on the yacht "Joa" from the north to circumnavigate America and was the first to sail along the entire coast of the Arctic Ocean, after on the ship "Mod" in 1918-1920 he circled Europe and Asia from the north.