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Amundsen's Polar Conquest N.S. ARUN KUMAR Story 100th ANNIVERSARY OF REACHING THE SOUTH POLE Cover Amundsen’s Polar Conquest The story of the race to reach the South Pole is a tribute to Roald Amundsen’s grasp of the prevailing conditions in the icy continent and his sense of intricate planning. The year 2011 celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the conquest of the South Pole. IS life was as much adventurous and It was 14 December 1911 when And enthrallingly enough it was true. mysterious as his death. While alive, Amundsen achieved this, putting to great During his entire preparation for the Hhe never let anyone on his plans shame the British Empire by defeating their expedition, Amundsen kept saying that he and eventually became the first human imperialistic naval explorer Captain Scott. was going to the North Pole. Only on the ever to reach the barren icy continent of The British team reached there on 17 deck of his ship, he disclosed his real Antarctica. His death was equally January 1912 only to find that Amundsen destination to his shipmates. But he did mysterious. He just disappeared while flying had preceded them by 33 days. More send a telegraphic message to Scott that a rescue mission over the Barents Sea on humiliating was the death of all the team, he was moving to the South Pole. 18 June 1928. It is believed that his plane including Scott, starving and dying in bad Many, however, believed that nobody crashed and he died. But his body was weather. It was a great shame, rather than reached the South Pole other than Scott never found. a matter of sorrow to the English world who owing to some very bad luck lost his Even a hundred years after his which they avenged through demoralizing way home. Only after the collapse of the amazing exploits, Roald Amundsen still and defaming Amundsen. Their point was British Empire did the iron-curtain over remains a symbol of the heroic age of Amundsen won the race by keeping his Amundsen’s achievement fall apart, Antarctic exploration that can never be plans secret, never revealing his intention revealing him to be an unsung hero. Sadly, forgotten. The UNESCO is celebrating the to reach the South Pole. it came after the death of Amundsen who year 2011 as the 100th anniversary of “the first man on the South Pole”. The Norwegian government has also Amundsen, the first man standing on the South Pole declared 2011 as the “Amundsen Year” as an honour to their great national hero. Amundsen always wanted to be the first man standing at the 900 S latitude, literally the south Pole, and he did it, beating the much celebrated British rival—Robert Falcon Scott. Even in the midst of howling blizzards and thermometers reading fourties below zero, it was a moment of excitement when he held the Norwegian Flag in his frost-bitten hands securing the pride of his nation, in that faraway land. SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2011 8 Cover Story Stamps in honour of Amundsen led a painful life troubled by many falsified returned to his dreams once again, this local Netsilik people, about how to use accusations. time with the map of the “Northwest sled dogs, wearing animal skin to sustain Passage” charting which he disappeared body heat and how to remain healthy Born Voyager during his historic mission in 1849. That was with the minimum amount of available Amundsen was born to a family of how the word “Northwest Passage” caught food. And probably, he might have also merchant sea captains and ship owners, Amundsen’s mind, which he traversed in learned that it was important to leave an in Christinia near Oslo, Norway on 16 July 1903. official acknowledgement always: he 1872. Even from his childhood he wanted He did it with a small seal-hunting sent a message to the new king of to become an explorer of the high seas, vessel Gjoa outfitted with a small gasoline Norway, Haakon VII, stating what he had fascinated by the adventures of John engine. The passage between the Atlantic done was “a great achievement for Franklin. While in his teens, he insisted on and Pacific Oceans remained historic as Norway”. sleeping with the windows open, even it was unsuccessfully attempted earlier by during winter time, to condition himself for most famous explorers like Christopher Antarctica! Antarctica! the climate at the Poles. No wonder, he Columbus. This was a passage linking Though the discovery of the Northwest would later become the first man to reach Europe to Asia, but no ship had Passage brought great fame to both the North and South Pole, but his succeeded in sailing its entire length for Amundsen, it was the “first mate” to the mother couldn’t imagine him to be a the past 300 years. The place where Gjoa Belgian Expedition to Antarctica which was maritime traveler. spent her two winters has been named specifically scientific in its objectives. His mother wanted Amundsen to be ‘Gjoa Haven’ which is near King William Antarctica was a prevailing fascination a doctor and he dutifully pursued the study Island today. among the explorers due to its incredible of medicine at a university there. When he Traversing the “Northwest Passage” beauty in view as evident from the was 21, his mother died leaving Amundsen gave Amundsen great confidence in expeditions by James Clark Ross. Ross’s on his own. He had no other choice now tackling Arctic hardships and gathering exploration team was looking for the South than becoming an explorer. Franklin survival skills. He learned much from the Magnetic Pole for which they sailed eastward along the Amundsen’s team setting up their headquarters southern Antarctic coast. They saw two mountains encased in “eternal ice and snow”, to be named Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, after the ships under their command. According to the journal of Dr. Robert McCormick, the expedition’s surgeon, it was on 28 January 1841 that they saw it, soon to be followed by a perpendicular cliff of ice. It was about 36 to 70 meters 9 SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2011 Cover Story Amundsen’s ship Fram in a museum (left); a monument honouring Amundsen (right) high, flat on the top and made of solid toll on the explorers. The constant darkness the South Pole, made it an exploratory snow. Nothing could be seen beyond that and deep cold plunged in isolation left one with Robert Scott at the wheels. and not an inch could be moved ahead. many in a state of severe psychological Though they could reach only up to So, they retreated, naming it “Ross Ice instability. Only two could manage to the latitude of 820 17’S, 850 km away from Shelf” and placing the British flag there. maintain their high morale—Amundsen the Pole, it reflected the desire of the British But, Ross wrote in his diary: “(this and an officer by the name Frederick beauty).… would soon be made to Cook. This experience helped Amundsen contribute to the wealth of our country.” to harden himself as one among the most This statement and the presence of the successful polar explorers ever born. “Union Jack” at the “farthest end of the Belgica’s voyage marked the world” turned to be the real temptation for beginning of what become known as the many that came later. The Belgian ‘Heroic age of Antarctic exploration’. It Poster Expedition was one among those. It was created many heroes, iconising their announcing led by a young Belgian Navy Lieutenant, personal bravery and stoicism. Among Amundsen’s Andrian de Gerlache who was aboard them, the first that is worth mentioning is lecture on Belgica leaving Belgium in August 1897. Robert Falcon Scott, the all time rival of how he Upon reaching the Antarctic Peninsula in Roald Amundsen. He was appointed to reached the early 1898, Amundsen and other crew command the “British National Antarctic South Pole members were engaged in collecting Expedition” of 1901-1904 which was a joint specimens from the Antarctica shore for venture of the Royal Society and Royal about two months. Geographic Society. Initially, the expedition But, inevitably in March, winter crept was considered as a purely scientific one in, freezing the waters. Belgica was to with a scientist in overall command but the remain stuck for 347 days taking a terrible fascination for the “unknown treasures” of A Norwegian Airlines aircraft with Amundsen’s image on the tail SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2011 10 Cover Story The Legacy of Amundsen A number of places have been named after Amundsen, as an honour of his life as the most successful Polar explorer. The sea off the coast of Antarctica has been named ‘Amundsen Sea’. Similarly, there are ‘Amundsen glacier’, ‘Amundsen Bay’, and ‘Mount Amundsen’, all in Antarctica. ‘Amundsen Gulf’ is in the Arctic Ocean. There is a memorial of Amundsen on the Moon also – a crater on the Moon’s South Pole! Empire to be there in the Polar plateau. The Secret Plan It proved to be the best in fighting the Evidently, it had a political significance What Shackleton and Peary did was a harshest attributes of the polar climate. too. With the ‘Union Jack’ already put severe blow to Amundsen’s intentions. He Though the ship was under Nansen’s there by Ross, the British dreamed of wanted to be the first at either of the command, it was the property of the Antarctica becoming another of their Poles, but both the plans now seemed Norwegian government. And, if the colonies. What remained was useless.
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