Roald Amundsen years of life. Roald amundsen

Amundsen, Roald is a Norwegian polar traveler and explorer. Born in Borg on July 16, 1872, since June 1928 he has been missing. He was the greatest discoverer of modern times. Within almost 30 years, Amundsen achieved all the goals that polar explorers have been striving for for over 300 years.

In 1897-99. Amundsen participated as a navigator in Antarctic expedition A. Gerlache on the ship "Belgica". The expedition explored Graham's Land.

In order to prepare his own expedition to determine the exact location of the North Magnetic Pole, he improved his knowledge at a German observatory.

After a trial voyage in the Northern Arctic Ocean Amundsen, in mid-June 1903, set off on a 47-ton displacement ship, the Joa, with six Norwegian companions, and passed in the direction of the Canadian-Arctic islands through the Lancaster and Peel Straits to the southeast coast of King William Island. There he spent two polar winters and made valuable geomagnetic observations. In 1904 he explored the Northern magnetic pole on the west coast of the Boothia Felix Peninsula and undertook daring boat and sleigh rides through the ice-covered sea straits between King William and Victoria Lands. At the same time, over 100 islands were put on the map by him and his companions. On August 13, 1905, the Gyoa finally continued its journey and through the straits between the islands of King William, Victoria and the Canadian mainland reached the Beaufort Sea, and then, after a second wintering in the ice near the mouth of the Mackenzie on August 31, 1906, reached the Bering Strait. Thus, for the first time, it was possible to pass the Northwest Passage on one ship, but not those straits that were explored by the expeditions looking for Franklin.

Amundsen's other great achievement was the discovery South Pole which he succeeded on the first try. In 1909, Amundsen was preparing for a long drift in the ice of the Polar Basin and exploration of the North Pole region on the Fram ship, formerly owned by Nansen, but, having learned about the discovery of the North Pole by the American Robert Peary, he changed his plan and set the goal of reaching the South Pole. On January 13, 1911, he landed from the Fram in the Bay of Whales in the eastern part of the Ross Ice Barrier, from where next summer October 20, accompanied by four people on a sleigh pulled by dogs. After a successful trip across the ice plateau, a tiring climb through mountain glaciers at an altitude of about 3 thousand m (Devil's Glacier, Axel-Heiberg glacier) and further successful progress on the ice of the inner plateau of Antarctica, Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole on December 15, 1911, four weeks earlier than the less successful expedition of R. F. Scott, who made his way to the pole west of the way Amundsen. On way back, which began on December 17, Amundsen discovered the Queen Maud Mountains up to 4500 m high and on January 25, 1912, after a 99-day absence, returned to the landing site again.

Upon his return from Antarctica, Amundsen tried to repeat the drift of F. Nansen through the Arctic Ocean, but much further north, possibly through the North Pole, having previously passed through the northeast passage - along northern shores Eurasia (but his next northern expeditions were delayed by the First World War). For this expedition, a new ship, Maud, was built. In the summer of 1918, the expedition left Norway, but could not pass around the Taimyr Peninsula and wintered near Cape Chelyuskin. In the navigation of 1919, Amundsen managed to go east to about. Aion, where the ship "Maud" stood up for the second winter. In 1920 the expedition entered the Bering Strait. In the future, the expedition carried out work in the Arctic Ocean, while Amundsen himself for a number of years was engaged in raising funds and preparing flights for North Pole.

The second attempt was made on the "Maud" in 1922 from Cape Hop (Alaska), but Amundsen himself did not take part in the voyage of his ship. After a two-year ice drift, the Maud only reached the New Siberian Islands, the Fram's starting point in 1893. Since the further direction of the drift was already known thanks to the Fram, the Maud freed itself from the ice and returned to Alaska.

Meanwhile, Amundsen was trying to make a way to the North Pole by plane, but during the first test flight in May 1923 from Wainwright (Alaska), his car went bad. On May 21, 1925, he, along with five companions, incl. Ellsworth took off on two planes from Svalbard. And again he did not reach the goal. At 870 43/s. sh. and 10020/z. D., 250 km from the Pole, he had to make an emergency landing. Here the members of the expedition spent more than 3 weeks, preparing the airfield for takeoff; in June they managed to return to Svalbard on the same plane.

Brief chronology

B - studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Christiania.
He sailed as a sailor and navigator on various ships. Starting with, he made a number of expeditions that became widely known.
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 in the Bay of Whales and reached the South Pole on dogs on December 14, a month ahead of the English expedition of R. Scott.
In the summer, the expedition left Norway on the ship Maud and reached the Bering Strait.
He headed the 1st transarctic flight on the airship "Norway" along the route: Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska.
In 1928, during an attempt to find the Italian expedition of Umberto Nobile, who crashed in the Arctic Ocean on the Italia airship, and to help her, Amundsen, who took off on June 18 on the Latham seaplane, died in the Barents Sea.

Life

Youth and first expeditions

Roald was born in 1872 in the southeast of Norway (Borg, 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). Roal went to study at Faculty of Medicine university, but when he was 21, his mother dies, and Roald leaves the university. He wrote afterwards:

“It was with unspeakable relief that I left the university to give myself to the only dream of my life with all my heart”.

Northwest Sea Route

Map of Amundsen's Arctic expeditions

In 1903, he buys a used 47-ton sailing and motor yacht "Joa" ("Gjøa"), "the same age" as Amundsen himself (built in 1872) and goes to 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 earth magnetism, ethnographer.
Godfried Hansen, Dane by nationality - navigator, astronomer, geologist and photographer of the expedition. Senior lieutenant in the Danish Navy, participated in expeditions to Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Anton Lund- skipper and harpooner.
Peder Ristvedt- Senior machinist and meteorologist.
Helmer Hansen- the second navigator.
Gustav Yul Vic- second driver, assistant for magnetic observations. He died of an unexplained disease on March 30, 1906.
Adolf Henrik Lindström- cook and clerk. Member of the Sverdrup expedition in 1898-1902.

Amundsen passed through the North Atlantic, Baffin Bay, the Straits of Lancaster, Barrow, Peel, Franklin, James Ross, and in early September stopped for wintering off the southeast coast of King William Island. In the summer of 1904, the bay was not free of ice, and the "Joa" remained for the second wintering.

Last years and death

Amundsen spent his last years at his home in 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 in the year:

“I get the impression that Amundsen has completely lost peace of mind and is not fully responsible for his actions.

Relations with Umberto Nobile also developed poorly, whom Roal called "an arrogant, childish, selfish upstart", "a ridiculous officer", "a man of a wild, semi-tropical race."

Nobile became a 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 drifting ice, radio communication with them was interrupted.

At the request of the Minister of War of Norway, Amundsen joined the many rescuers who went in search of Nobile. On June 18 of the year, he took off on a Latham-47 seaplane 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 taking place in thick fog and requested a radio bearing, after which the connection was cut off. On the night of August 31 to September 1, a Latama-47 float was found near Tromsø. The exact circumstances of Amundsen's death are unknown.

To an Italian journalist who asked what fascinated him about the polar regions, Amundsen replied:

"Oh, if you ever had a chance to see with your own eyes how wonderful it is - there I would like to die."

Umberto Nobile and seven other surviving companions were discovered five days after the death of Roald Amundsen.

Amundsen (Amundsen) Roald (1872-1928), Norwegian polar traveler and explorer. He was the first to pass the Northwest Passage on the ship "Joa" from Greenland to Alaska (1903-06). Led an expedition to the Antarctic 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 led the first flight over the North Pole on the airship "Norway". He died in the Barents Sea during the search for the Italian expedition of U. Nobile.

Amundsen Rual. He was the first to pass through the Northwest Passage on the ship "Yoa" from Greenland to Alaska (1903-1906). Led an expedition to the Antarctic on the ship "Fram" (1910-1912). He was the first to reach the South Pole (December 14, 1911). In 1918-1920 he sailed along the northern shores of Eurasia on the Maud ship. In 1926, he led the first flight over the North Pole on the airship "Norway". He died in the Barents Sea during the search for the Italian expedition of U. Nobile.

Amundsen said that he decided to become a polar traveler at the age of fifteen when he read D. Franklin's book about the expedition of 1819-1822, the purpose of which was to find a way from Atlantic Ocean in the Pacific around the northern coasts of North America. But only at the age of twenty-two, cabin boy Amundsen first stepped on board the ship. At twenty-six he wintered for the first time in high latitudes.

He was a member of the Belgian Antarctic expedition. Forced, unprepared wintering lasted 13 months. Amundsen remembered this lesson for the rest of his life.

Returning to Europe in 1899, he passed the captain's examination, then enlisted the support of Nansen, bought a small yacht "Joa" and set about preparing his own expedition. He wanted to do what Franklin hadn't been able to do, what no one had been able to do until now - go through the Northwest Passage. And for three years he carefully prepared for this journey. He invited people from thirty years of age on his travels, and everyone who went with him knew and could do a lot. There were seven of them on Gyoa, and in 1903-1906 they accomplished in three years what mankind had been dreaming of for three centuries.

Fifty years after McClure's so-called discovery of the Northwest Passage, Amundsen was the first to sail around North America. From West Greenland, following the directions of McClintock's book, he first repeated the path of the unfortunate Franklin expedition. From Barrow Strait, he headed south through the Peel and Franklin Straits to the northern tip of King William Island. But, taking into account Franklin's disastrous mistake, Amundsen rounded the island not from the west, but from the east - by the straits of James Ross and Rey - and spent two winters in the harbor of Yeoa, off the southeast coast of King William Island. From there, in the autumn of 1904, he examined the most narrow part Simpson Strait, and at the end of the summer of 1905 moved due west along the coast of the mainland, leaving the Canadian Arctic archipelago to the north. He passed a series of shallow, island-studded straits and inlets, and finally met whaling ships that arrived from the Pacific Ocean to the northwestern shores of Canada. After wintering here for the third time, Amundsen in the summer of 1906 passed through the Bering Strait in Pacific Ocean and finished sailing in 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 at higher latitudes, the famous Fram drift. Nansen lent him his ship. While walking expedition preparation, Cook and Peary announced that the North Pole has already been conquered ...

“In order 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. they agreed with delight ... "On the spring day of October 19, 1911, the polar party, consisting of five people on four sledges pulled by 52 dogs, set off. At first, the path passed through the snow rolling plain Ross Ice Shelf. At the 85th parallel, the surface went up steeply - the ice shelf ended. The ascent began on steep snow-covered slopes. At the beginning of the ascent, the travelers arranged the main food warehouse with a supply of 30 days. For the whole further way Amundsen left food at the rate of 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 river of ice, cascaded down between the mountains from above. This glacier was named after Axel Heiberg, the patron of the expedition, who donated a large amount. The higher the travelers climbed, the worse the weather became. The mountain peaks that appeared in front of them during clear hours, they called the names of the Norwegians: friends, relatives, patrons. The most high 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 party of the Englishman Shackleton reached a latitude of 88 ° 23 ", but, under the threat of starvation, was forced to turn back, not having reached the pole, only 180 kilometers.

On December 17, they reached the point where, according to their calculations, the South Pole should have been. They left a small gray-brown tent, above the tent on a pole they fixed the Norwegian flag, and under it a pennant with the inscription "Fram". In the tent, Amundsen left a letter to the Norwegian king with a brief report on the campaign and a message to his rival, Scott. Amundsen's entire journey to the South Pole and back took 99 days. Here are the names of the South Pole discoverers: 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 flight to the North Pole from Svalbard. If the flight was successful, then 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 air expeditions of the famous Norwegian, but also participated in them himself. Two seaplanes of the Dornier-Val type were purchased. The well-known Norwegian pilots Riiser-Larsen and Dietrichson were invited as pilots, and Feucht and Omdal were invited as mechanics. Amundsen and Ellsworth took over as navigators. In April 1925, the expedition members, aircraft and equipment arrived by steamboat at Kingsbay in Svalbard.

On May 21, 1925, both aircraft took off and headed for the North Pole. Ellsworth, Dietrichson and Omdal were on one plane, Amundsen, Riiser-Larsen and Voigt were on the other. Approximately 1000 kilometers from Svalbard, the engine of Amundsen's plane began to intermittently. Fortunately, there were polynyas in this place among the ice. I had to go to the landing. They sat down relatively safely, but could not take off. The situation seemed hopeless. Immediately after the accident, Amundsen carefully counted everything they had and set up a hard 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 nearest 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, which was named "Norge" ("Norway"). The leaders of the expedition to the North Pole were Amundsen and Ellsworth. The creator of the airship, Italian Umberto Nobile, was invited to the post of captain. The team was formed from Italians and Norwegians.

On May 8, 1926, the Americans launched to the North Pole. On board the plane, named "Josephine Ford", probably in honor of his wife Ford who financed the expedition, there were only two: Floyd Bennett as a pilot and Richard Byrd as a navigator. After 15 hours, they returned safely, flying to the Pole and back. Amundsen congratulated the Americans on the happy completion of the flight.

At 09:55 on May 11, 1926, in calm, clear weather, the Norge 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 boat in Norway, in Bergen.

May 24, 1928 Nobile on the airship "Italia" reached the North Pole and spent two hours above it. On the way back, he crashed. On June 18, Amundsen flew out of Bergen to rescue the crew of the Italia. 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 "Yoa" to circumnavigate America from the north and the first to follow the entire coast of the Arctic Ocean, after he sailed around Europe and Asia from the north on the ship "Maud" in 1918-1920.

Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) - Norwegian polar explorer and explorer. Born in the province of Østfold (in Borg) in a family of hereditary sailors. After the gymnasium, he entered the medical faculty of the University of Christiania, but two years later he left the university and was hired as a sailor on a sailing schooner that was going to fish for seals in the Greenland Sea. Having sailed for two years, he passed the exam for a long-distance navigation navigator. In 1897-1899, as a navigator, he participated in the Belgian Antarctic expedition on the Belgica ship. Upon his return, he again took the exam and received a diploma as a sea captain.

Both prudence and caution are equally important: prudence - in order to notice difficulties in time, and caution - in order to most carefully prepare for the meeting.

Amundsen Roald

In 1900, Amundsen purchased the large sailing schooner Joa. With a crew of seven, for the first time in the history of navigation, she sailed on it in 1903-1906 from Greenland to Alaska through the seas and straits of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, opening the Northwest Passage from east to west, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. During the expedition, he made valuable geomagnetic observations in the area of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, mapped more than 100 islands.

In 1910-1912, he led an expedition to Antarctica with the aim of discovering the South Pole on the Fram ship, owned by F. Nansen, who at that time was Norway's ambassador to Great Britain. The only non-Norwegian in the crew of the Fram was the Russian sailor and oceanographer Alexander Stepanovich Kuchin. In January, Amundsen and his companions landed in the Bay of Whales on the Ross Glacier, set up a base and began to prepare for a trip to the South Pole. In October of the same year, the group, which, in addition to Amundsen, included O. Wisting, S. Hassel, H. Hansen and W. Bieland, started on four dog sleds and on December 17, 1911 reached the South Pole a month ahead of the expedition of the Englishman R. Scott. In Antarctica, Amundsen discovered the Queen Maud Mountains.

Victory awaits the one who is doing well, and this is called luck.

Amundsen Roald

In 1918-1921, he built the Maud ship with his own money and sailed on it from west to east along the northern coasts of Eurasia, repeating Nansen's drift on the Fram. With two winterings he passed from Norway to the Bering Strait, which he entered in 1920.

In 1923-1925 he tried several times to reach the North Pole. In May 1926 he led the first transatlantic flight over the North Pole on the airship "Norway". Two years later, Amundsen, on a French twin-engine hydroplane Latham-47, flew from Tromsø in search of the expedition of General U. Nobile. This flight was the last in the life of the Norwegian explorer: during the flight from Norway to Svalbard, he crashed and died in the Barents Sea. The only thing that was found was a float with the inscription "Latham-47", caught by fishermen near Bear Island.

Foresight and caution are equally important: forethought - in order to notice difficulties in time, and caution - in order to prepare in the most thorough way for their meeting.

Amundsen Roald

A mountain in the eastern part of Antarctica, a bay in the Arctic Ocean, a sea off the coast are named after Amundsen southern continent and American polar station Amundsen Scott. His works "Flight across the Arctic Ocean", "On the ship "Maud", "Expedition along the northern coast of Asia", "South Pole" and a five-volume collection of works have been translated into Russian.

"He will forever take special place in the history of geographical exploration ... Some kind of explosive force lived in him. In the foggy sky of the Norwegian people, he ascended as a shining star. How many times did it light up with bright flashes! And suddenly it immediately went out, and we cannot take our eyes off the empty place in the sky. "F. Nansen.

en.wikipedia.org

Ru?al A?mundsen (Norwegian Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen; July 16, 1872 - probably June 18, 1928) was a Norwegian polar explorer and explorer. First person to reach the South Pole (December 14, 1911). The first researcher to sea crossing and the North-Eastern (along the coast of Siberia), and the North-Western Sea Route (along the straits of the Canadian Archipelago). He died in 1928 during the search for the expedition of Umberto Nobile.

A sea, a mountain, the American research station Amundsen-Scott in Antarctica, as well as a bay and a basin in the Arctic Ocean, and a lunar crater are named after the traveler.

Brief chronology

In 1890-1892 he studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Christiania.

From 1894 to 1899 he sailed as a sailor and navigator on various ships. Beginning in 1903, he made a number of expeditions that became widely known.

Passed for the first time (1903-1906) on a small fishing vessel "Joa" through the Northwest Passage from East to West from Greenland to Alaska.

On the ship "Fram" went to Antarctica; landed in the Bay of Whales and on December 14, 1911 reached the South Pole on dogs, a month ahead of the British expedition of R. Scott.

In the summer of 1918, the expedition left Norway on the ship Maud and in 1920 reached the Bering Strait.

In 1926, he headed the 1st transarctic flight on the airship "Norway" along the route: Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska.

In 1928, during an attempt to find the Italian expedition of Umberto Nobile, who crashed in the Arctic Ocean on the Italia airship, and to help her, Amundsen, who took off on June 18 on the Latham seaplane, died in the Barents Sea.

Youth and first expeditions

Roald was born in 1872 in the southeast of Norway (Borg, 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). Roal went to study at the medical faculty of the university, but when he was 21, his mother dies, and Roal leaves the university. He later wrote: "With inexpressible relief, I left the university in order to devote myself wholeheartedly to the only dream of my life."

In 1897-1899. took part in the Belgian Antarctic expedition on the ship "Belgica" ("Belgica") under the command of the Belgian polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache.

Northwest Sea Route

In 1903, he buys a used 47-ton sailing and motor yacht Gjoa, 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, a Dane by nationality, was the navigator, astronomer, geologist and photographer of the expedition. Senior lieutenant in the Danish Navy, participated in expeditions to Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Anton Lund - skipper and harpooner.

Peder Ristvedt is a senior machinist and meteorologist.

Helmer Hansen is the second navigator.

Gustav Yul Vik - second machinist, assistant for magnetic observations. He died of an unexplained disease on March 30, 1906.

Adolf Henrik Lindström - cook and food master. Member of the Sverdrup expedition in 1898-1902.

Amundsen passed through the North Atlantic, Baffin Bay, the Straits of Lancaster, Barrow, Peel, Franklin, James Ross, and in early September stopped for the winter near the southeast coast of King William Island. In the summer of 1904, the bay was not free of ice, and the "Joa" remained for the second wintering.

On August 13, 1905, the ship continues sailing and practically completes the North-Western Route, but still freezes into ice. Amundsen travels by dog sled to Eagle City, Alaska. He later recalled:

“When I returned, everyone determined my age between 59 and 75 years, although I was only 33”

Conquest of the South Pole

Amundsen takes the Fram vessel from Fridtjof Nansen and prepares to conquer the North Pole, but Frederick Cook's expedition (April 1908) is ahead of him. Then Roald decides to conquer the South Pole, for the conquest of which the race also began to unfold.

The personnel of the expedition was divided into two detachments: ship and coastal.

Coastal detachment

Roald Amundsen - head of the expedition, head of the sledge party on the march to the South Pole.

Olaf Olafsen Bjoland - participant in the campaign to the Pole.

Oscar Wisting - participant in the campaign to the Pole.

Jorgen Stuberrud - head of the sledge party to the Land of King Edward VII.

Prestrude - a member of the campaign to the Land of King Edward VII.

Frederik Hjalmar Johansen - a member of the Nansen expedition in 1893-1896, due to a conflict with Amundsen, did not enter the pole detachment.

Helmer Hansen - participant in the campaign to the Pole.

Sverre Hassel - a member of the campaign to the Pole.

Adolf Henrik Lindström - cook and food master.

Team "Fram" (ship squad)

T. Nielsen - commander of the "Fram"

Steller is a sailor, a German by nationality.

Ludwig Hansen - sailor.

Adolf Olsen - sailor.

Karenius Olsen - cook, cabin boy (the youngest member of the expedition, in 1910 he was 18 years old).

Rönne is a sailing master.

Christensen is the navigator.

Halvorsen.

Knut Sundbek is a Swede by nationality, a ship mechanic (the engineer who created the diesel engine for the Fram), an employee of Rudolf Diesel's company.

Ertsen - first assistant commander, lieutenant in the Norwegian Navy.

The twentieth member of the expedition was the biologist Alexander Stepanovich Kuchin, but in early 1912 he returned to Russia from Buenos Aires.

On January 13, 1911, Amundsen sailed to the Ross Ice Barrier in Antarctica. At the same time, the British expedition of Robert Scott set up camp in McMurdo Sound, at a distance of 650 kilometers from Amundsen.

Before going to the South Pole, both expeditions prepared for wintering, placed warehouses along the route. The Norwegians built the Framheim base 4 km from the coast, consisting of wooden house area of 16 sq.m. and numerous ancillary buildings and warehouses built from snow and ice, and deepened into the Antarctic glacier. The first attempt to march to the Pole was made as early as August 1911, but low temperatures prevented this (at? 56 C., the skis and runners of the sled did not slip, and the dogs could not sleep).

Amundsen's plan was worked out in detail back in Norway, in particular, a traffic schedule was drawn up, which modern researchers compared to a musical score. The polar team returned to the Fram on the day prescribed by the schedule 2 years earlier.

On October 19, 1911, five people, led by Amundsen, went to the South Pole on four dogsleds. On December 14, the expedition reached the South Pole, having traveled 1,500 km, and hoisted the flag of Norway. Expedition members: Oscar Wisting, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Olav Bjaaland, Roald Amundsen. The entire trip over a distance of 3000 km with extreme conditions(ascent and descent to a plateau 3000 m high at a constant temperature of over? 40 C. and strong winds) took 99 days.

Amundsen's plan was based on the use of intermediate warehouses built at each degree of latitude (1200 kg of provisions were delivered to 84 degrees S in March 1911, in particular, seal meat), as well as the use of sled dogs as draft power and food for other dogs and people. When starting from Framheim, Amundsen took 52 dogs, but 36 of them were killed before climbing the Polar Plateau (named King Haakon VII's Plain), the meat was buried in a glacier or fed to the remaining dogs. Only 12 dogs returned to the base. This caused violent protests from animal welfare societies around the world.

Each member of the polar team had two suits: an Eskimo suit made of deer skins (they were left before climbing the Polar Plateau) and a ski suit made from decommissioned army woolen blankets. Modern wind tunnel tests of dummies have shown that Amundsen's suits protected from cold and wind 25% better than those used by other expeditions.

Robert Scott's expedition set out in November 1911 and reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912, but died on the way back. The cause of death was the grossest miscalculations in the organization of the expedition, in particular, the selection of equipment and food.

In February 1913 Amundsen wrote:

I would sacrifice glory, absolutely everything, to bring him back to life ... My triumph is overshadowed by the thought of his tragedy, it haunts me.

Northeast Sea Route

In July 1918, Amundsen set off on an expedition along the coast of Siberia (Northern Sea Route) on a specially built ship "Maud" ("Maud")

In September, ice stopped the ship behind Cape Chelyuskin, and the expedition stopped for the winter. A year later, on September 12, 1919, the ship was able to continue its journey, but after 11 days it was again delayed by ice and stopped for a second wintering near Aion Island, which took ten months. In the summer of 1920, Amundsen arrived in Nome, Alaska.

Transarctic flights

With the money of the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth, Amundsen buys two large seaplanes and on May 21, 1925, sets off from Svalbard to Alaska via the North Pole. because of technical problems the planes landed on the ice 150 kilometers from the Pole. After repairs, the expedition was able to return to Svalbard. By that time, she was already considered dead.

Amundsen was given a rapturous welcome upon his return to Oslo. According to the Norwegian traveler, this was the happiest moment in his life.

On May 11, 1926, the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile expedition starts from Svalbard on an airship designed by Umberto Nobile, 106 m long, 19,000 m3 in volume, with three engines of 250 hp each. s., received the name "Norway" ("Norge"). Having flown over the Pole (piloted by the airship Nobile), the expedition landed in Alaska.

Last years and death

Amundsen spent his last years in his house in 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 in 1927:

“I get the impression that Amundsen has completely lost his mental balance and is not fully responsible for his actions.”

Relations with Umberto Nobile also developed poorly, whom Roal called "an arrogant, childish, selfish upstart", "a ridiculous officer", "a man of a wild, semi-tropical race."

At the request of the Minister of War of Norway, Amundsen joined the many rescuers who went in search of Nobile. On June 18, 1928, he took off on a Latham-47 seaplane 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 taking place in thick fog and requested a radio bearing, after which the connection was cut off. On the night of August 31 to September 1, a Latama-47 float was found near Tromsø. The exact circumstances of Amundsen's death are unknown.

To an Italian journalist who asked what fascinated him about the polar regions, Amundsen replied:

"Oh, if you ever had a chance to see with your own eyes how wonderful it is - there I would like to die."

Umberto Nobile and seven other surviving companions were discovered five days after the death of Roald Amundsen.