Amundsen, Roald

Amundsen, Roald (1872-1928), Norwegian explorer.

Roald Amundsen began his career as a soldier but later went to sea.

In 1903 he set out in a fishing smack, Gjoa, to sail through the North-West Passage. Men had been trying to do this for over three centuries. Amundsen was the first to succeed.

After three winters trapped in the ice, he reached the Pacific Ocean in 1906. Amundsen hoped to become the first man to reach the North Pole but, in 1909, he heard that Rear-Admiral Peary had already done this. So Amundsen set out for the South Pole instead.

He made a base at Framheim on the Ross Ice Shelf and, from there, set out across the ice with sledges pulled by husky dogs. With four companions, he reached the South Pole on 14 December, 1911. They had a run of 1,384km back to Framheim and they made it with ease in thirty-nine days.

Later Amundsen twice sailed through the North-East Passage to the north of Russia and in 1926 he flew over the North Pole in an airship.

Two years later, an Italian airship came down in the Arctic. Amundsen set out by aeroplane to help in the rescue but the aircraft crashed and he was killed.

In GERALD BOWMAN From Scott to Fuchs (Evans 1964)