The North West Passage

THE "GJOA" expedition, 1903-1907. THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE BY ROALD AMUNDSEN. Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com ROALD AMUNDSEN'S THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE" BEING THE RECORD OF A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION OF THE SHIP "GJOA" 1903-1907 BY ROALD AMUNDSEN WITH A SUPPLEMENT BY FIRST LIEUTENANT HANSEN VICE-COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION WITH ABOUT ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS AND THREE MAPS Vol. I E. p. BUTTON AND COMPANY 1908 5 Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com '/-/ Q VJ.\ Published November 23rd, 1907. Privilege of Copyright in the United States reserved, under the Act approved March 3rd, 1905, by H. Aschehoug and Co. Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com 2)eC)icatcb TO H.E. Dr. FRIDTJOF NANSEN, G.C.V.O., NORWEGIAN MINISTER TO THE COURT OF ST. JAMES, WITH THE DEEPEST GRATITUDE FROM KOALD AMUNDSEN. Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com PREFACE. I TENDER my warmest and most heartfelt thanks to the small party of brave men who followed me through the North West Passage and risked their lives to ensure the success of my undertaking. A loving thought will again and again travel back to the lonely grave looking out on the boundless ice-desert, and grateful memories will arise of him who laid down his young life on the field of action. I tender my best thanks to Mr. Axel Steen, meteoro- logist, to His Excellency Professor Dr. G. von Neumayer, to Professor Ad. Schmidt, and to Professor Johannes Edler for the valuable assistance they rendered me with reference to the difficult magnetic problem connected with the Expedition. The complicated financial accounts of the Expedition, as well as its voluminous correspondence, have been gratuitously attended to by Mr. Alex. Nansen, barrister, and my heartiest thanks are due to him for his valued services. In conclusion, I beg to express my sincerest thanks to the Committee, who, on the initiative of Consul Axel Heiberg, and under his and Mr. Alex. Nansen's direction, have collected the necessary funds for meeting the liabilities of the Expedition. I feel bound to add that Mr. Bernt Lie has very kindly revised my manuscript. RoALD Amundsen. Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Introduction i CHAPTER II. I\[aking for the Polar Sea 14 CHAPTER III. In Virgin Water . -55 CHAPTER IV. The First Winter . loi CHAPTER V. Towards the Pole . -149 CHAPTER VI. Summer 188 CHAPTER VII. The Second Winter 237 CHAPTER VIII. PART I. The Inhabitants at the Magnetic North Pole . 291 Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com — ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Roald Amundsen ...... Frontispiece The " Gjoa " 7 The Deck of the " Gjoa " 7 Members the " " of Gjoa Expedition . II An Iceberg in Baffin's Bay 21 Airing Mouldy Bread 24 Godhavn, with Disco Island in the Background . 27 Eskimo Beauties from Godhavn .... 31 The Danish Literary Greenland Expedition . 40 Eskimo from North Greenland .... 43 Ruins of the Franklin Depot on Beechey Island . 50 The "Franklin, Bellot, and Belcher" Memorial, Beechey Island ........ 52 Fire ......... 65 " " Gjoa Aground ...... 71 " Gjoa " at Anchor in Gjoahavn. (Summer, 1904) 81 Gjoahavn and its Environs ..... facing 84 Magnetic Meridian.^ 1885 86 Magnetic Inclination Lines. 1885 .... 87 Lines through Places having identical Horizontal Intensity 89 Self-registering Magnetic Variation Apparatus 90 Magnetic Variation Curves for 24 Hours under Quiescent Magnetic Conditions ..... 92 Magnetic Variation Curves for 24 Hours during Magnetic Disturbances ..... 92 " Gjoa'' discharging by Aerial Ropeway. Gjoahavn, 1903 94 Building of the Store Shed. Gjoahavn, 1903 96 Building of the Magnetic Variation House. Gjoahavn, 1903 98 Observatory for the Absolute Magnetic Observations. 1904 i9°5 108 Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com . Illustrations. PAGE ' no Villa " Magnet " Uranienborg." The Astronomical Observatory in Summer Time 112 Ivayarra. Ogluli Eskimo . 114 Festivities among the Nechilli Eskimo . 118 " The Interior of the Villa Magnet " . 119 Wiik at the entrance to the Observatory for the Magnetic Variation Instruments. Gjoahavn 123 The First Christmas Eve on Board 129 A Visit to the Cabin .... The First Sledge Expedition Members of the Expedition, front view. (Winter, 1903 — 1904) Members of the Expedition, back view. (Winter, 1903— 1904) 153 Kagoptinner in his son Poieta's Hut . 161 Nechilli Eskimo in their Snow Hut i6s Eskimo Removing .... 17s Our Tent near the Magnetic North Pole 185 The " Owl " as Archer 191 Kabloka ... 193 Umiktuallu. ..... 194 Onaller and Son 19s Talurnakto 197 Summer Scene on Deck. Gjoahavn, 1904 204 Summer on King William Land . 207 Umiktuallu Kills his Foster-son . 213 Adolf Lindstrom with Samples of Fish on King William Land 217 (Autumn, 1904) . Closed Nechilli Grave 220 Open Nechilli Grave 221 Boat Expedition to investigate the Magnetic Conditions on King Wilham Land ..... 223 G. Hansen and H. Hansen on the Boat Expedition 227 Winter in Gjoahavn ...... 234 Nechilli Eskimo on a Visit . 239' The " Owl's " Ice Palace on King AViUiam Land . 24s Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com Illustrations. Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE BEING THE RECORD OF A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION OF THE SHIP "GJOA" 1903 — 1907 BY ROALD AMUNDSEN WITH A SUPPLEMENT BY FIRST LIEUTENANT HANSEN VICE-COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. CHAPTER I. Introduction. From the days when the Phoenician sailors groped along the coasts of the Mediterranean, in the early dawn of civilisation, up to the present time, explorers have ever forged their way across unknown seas and through dark forests — sometimes slowly, and with centuries of intermission, at other times with o-Jant strides, as when the discovery of America and the great voyages round the world dispersed clouds of ignorance and prejudice even in reference to the globe itself. We all know that many explorers have been impelled by the desire for riches which they thought awaited them in unknown lands and seas ; in fact, it may be said of the majority of expeditions, that they would never have been undertaken had it not been for the Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com Chapter I. stimulus of some purely material object or expecta- tion. But the history of that branch of exploration, whose goal has been the eternal ice under the poles, shines forth with a bright and pure splendour of its own, not only with the lustre of the white snow-fields and strange celestial signs of the Arctic Region, but also with that of true and untainted idealism. If we except fishing or hunting expeditions pure and simple (to which, in fact, polar exploration owes a very great debt of gratitude), we may safely assume that even the most extravagant flight of imagination has never led anyone to penetrate the Arctic Regions in the hope of finding "gold, and green woods." It is in the service of science that these numerous and incessant assaults have been made upon what is perhaps the most formidable obstacle ever encountered by the inquisitive human spirit, that barrier of millennial, if not primaeval ice which, in a wide and compact wall, enshrouds the mysteries of the North Pole. In spite of all the tragic calamities, the sad failures and bitter disappointments, these assaults have been repeatedly waged and as repeatedly renewed, and are still being renewed to this day. And this dogged perseverance, if it has not yet quite reduced the fortress, has at least forced its gates ajar and gained a glimpse into the far-distant mysteries lying beyond them. A mighty breach was made in the ice rampart when Nordenskjold achieved the North East Passage, and wrenched the Asiatic continent from its grasp. A generation earlier, Franklin, and the Franklin Expedi- Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com Introduction. tions, had proved that a strip of open sea bathed the whole coast of North America, and many are the other breaches made by skilled and hardy Polar explorers who have essayed to tear away the dark veil of mystery enshrouding the North ; heavy have been the sacrifices made to achieve this end, and none more heroic than those made on the North West Passage. Perhaps no tragedy of the Polar ice has so deeply stirred mankind as that of Franklin and his crew, stirred them not simply to sorrow, but also to stubborn resump- tion of the struggle. We knew there was a sea passage round Northern America, but we did not know whether this passage was practicable for ships, and no one had ever yet navigated it throughout. This unsolved question agitated above all the minds of those who, from their childhood, had been impressed by the profound tragedy of the Franklin Expedition. Just as the "Vega" had to navigate the entire passage to the East, so our know- ledge as to this strip of open sea to the West must remain inadequate until this passage also had been traced from end to end by one ship's keel. task fell was the The litrie ship to whose lot this built, " was it dreamt when she was being Gjoa." , Litde ship-yard on the for a herring-boat, in the Rosendal Hardanger, that she was to achieve this triumph, do not dream of up though it is hard to say what they such dream ever there in the Fjords. Nor did any the story enter the mind of her future skipper when imagination as a of John Franklin first captivated his f B 2 Downloaded from www.greatestedventurers.com Chapter I. imagination of a boy boy of 8 or 9 years old. Yet the offers a very wide scope. May 30th, 1889, was a red-letter day in many a Scandinavian boy's life. Certainly it was in mine. It was the day when Fridtjof Nansen returned from his Greenland Expedition. The young Norwegian ski- runner came up the Christiania Fjord, on that bright sunny day, his erect form surrounded by the halo of universal admiration at the deed he had accomplished, the miracle, the impossible.

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