Roald Amundsen's journey to the South Pole. Captain Roald Amundsen - Conqueror of the Earth's Poles

By the end of 1944, the Japanese fleet, having suffered several defeats, was a pitiful shadow of the formidable imperial fleet. The strength was weakened naval aviation, which was entrusted with air cover for the Philippines. And although Japanese industry produced sufficient quantity aircraft, the army and navy did not have time to train pilots. This led to complete American air supremacy. Then the commander first air fleet in the Philippines, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi proposed the creation of groups of suicide pilots. Enisi saw that because of poor preparation Japanese pilots They die in hundreds, without causing significant damage to the enemy.

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen born (16 July 1872 – 18 June 1928) - Norwegian polar explorer and record holder, "Napoleon polar countries"in the words of R. Huntford.
First man to reach the South Pole (December 14, 1911). First person (together with Oskar Wisting) to attend both geographic poles planets. The first traveler to make a sea crossing Northwest Passage(along the straits of the Canadian archipelago), later made the passage by the North-Eastern route (along the coast of Siberia), completing the round-the-world distance for the first time beyond the Arctic Circle. One of the pioneers of the use of aviation - seaplanes and airships - in Arctic travel. He died in 1928 during the search for the missing expedition of Umberto Nobile. He received awards from many countries around the world, including highest award USA - Gold medal Congress, numerous geographical and other objects are named after him.

Oranienburg, 1910

Unfortunately, his dream is to conquer North Pole- was not allowed to come true, since Frederick Cook was ahead of him. This American polar explorer was the first to conquer the North Pole on April 21, 1908. After this, Roald Amundsen radically changed his plan and decided to direct all his efforts to conquer the South Pole. In 1910, he headed to Antarctica on the ship Fram.

Alaska, 1906

But still, on December 14, 1911, after a long polar winter and an unsuccessful exit in September 1911, the expedition of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. Having made the necessary measurements, on December 17 Amundsen became convinced that he was indeed in the very midpoint poles, and 24 hours later, the team headed back.

Spitsbergen, 1925

So the dream Norwegian traveler in a sense, it came true. Although Amundsen himself could not say that he had achieved the goal of his life. This would not be entirely true. But, if you think about it, no one has ever been so diametrically opposed to their dream, in literally words. All his life he wanted to conquer the North Pole, but he turned out to be a pioneer to the South Pole. Life sometimes turns everything inside out.

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 expeditions that have become widely known.
• For the first time I passed (-) on a small fishing vessel “Gjoa” through the Northwest Passage from East to West from Greenland to Alaska.
• The Fram sailed to Antarctica; landed in Whale Bay and on December 14 reached the South Pole on dogs, 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 led the 1st trans-Arctic flight on the airship “Norway” along the route: Spitsbergen - North Pole - Alaska.
• In 1928, during an attempt to find the Italian expedition of Umberto Nobile, which suffered a disaster in the North Arctic Ocean on the airship "Italy", and to help her, Amundsen, who flew on June 18 on the seaplane "Latham", died in the Barents Sea.

Life

Youth and first expeditions

Roald was born in 1872 in southeastern 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). Rual entered to study at Faculty of Medicine university, but when he was 21 years old, his mother dies and Roald leaves the university. He subsequently wrote:

Northwestern Sea Route

Amundsen's Arctic Expeditions Map

In 1903, he bought a used 47-ton motor-sailing yacht “Gjøa”, “the same age” as Amundsen himself (built in 1872) and went to Arctic expedition. The schooner was equipped with a 13 hp diesel engine. The expedition personnel included:

1. Roald Amundsen- head of the expedition, glaciologist, specialist in earth magnetism, ethnographer.
2. Godfried Hansen, Danish by nationality, is a navigator, astronomer, geologist and expedition photographer. Senior Lieutenant in the Danish Navy, participated in expeditions to Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
3. Anton Lund- skipper and harpooner.
4. Peder Ristvedt- senior driver and meteorologist.
5. Helmer Hansen- second navigator.
6. Gustav Yule Wik- second driver, assistant during magnetic observations. Died of an unexplained illness on March 30, 1906.
7. Adolf Henrik Lindström- cook and provisions master. Member of the Sverdrup expedition in 1898-1902.

Amundsen passed through 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 the Gjoa remained for a second winter.

Last years and death

Recent years Amundsen spent his time at his home in Bunnefjord, near Oslo. His life was called Spartan. He sold all the orders and openly quarreled with many former comrades. Fridtjof Nansen wrote to one of his friends this year:

Relations with Umberto Nobile, whom Rual called “an arrogant, childish, selfish upstart,” “a ridiculous officer,” “a man of a wild, semi-tropical race,” also went poorly.

Nobile became a general under Mussolini. On May 23, 1928, he decided to repeat the flight to the North Pole. Starting from Spitsbergen, 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, and radio contact with them was interrupted.

At the request of the Norwegian Minister of War, 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 towards Spitsbergen. 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 dense fog and requested a radio bearing, after which the connection was lost. On the night of August 31 to September 1, the 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 so much about polar regions, Amundsen replied:

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

Amundsen, Roald - Norwegian polar traveler and explorer. Born in Borg on July 16, 1872, he has been missing since June 1928. He was the greatest discoverer of modern times. Over the course of almost 30 years, Amundsen achieved all the goals that polar explorers had been striving for for more than 300 years.

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

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 Arctic Ocean, Amundsen set off in mid-June 1903 on the ship Gjoa with a displacement of 47 tons with six Norwegian companions and sailed towards the Canadian-Arctic islands through the Lancaster and Peel Straits to the southeastern coast of King Island -William. There he spent two polar winters and made valuable geomagnetic observations. In 1904 he explored the Northern magnetic pole on west coast Boutia Felix Peninsula and undertook daring boat and sleigh rides through the ice-covered sea straits between King William Land and Victoria Land. At the same time, he and his companions mapped over 100 islands. On August 13, 1905, Gjoa finally continued her journey and through the straits between King William and Victoria Islands and the Canadian mainland reached the Beaufort Sea, and then, after a second winter in the ice near the mouth of the Mackenzie on August 31, 1906, the Bering Strait. Thus, for the first time, it was possible to navigate the Northwest Passage on one ship, but not through the straits that were explored by the expeditions looking for Franklin.

Another great achievement of Amundsen was the discovery of the South Pole, which he managed to accomplish on his first try. In 1909, Amundsen was preparing for a long drift in the ice of the Polar Basin and exploring the North Pole region on the ship Fram, previously 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 disembarked from the Fram at Whale Bay in the eastern part of the Ross Ice Barrier, from where he set out the following summer on October 20, accompanied by four men on a dog-drawn sleigh. 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 advancement along 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 path Amundsen. On the return journey, which began on December 17, Amundsen discovered the Queen Maud Mountains, up to 4,500 m high, and on January 25, 1912, after a 99-day absence, he returned to the landing site.

Upon returning from Antarctica, Amundsen tried to repeat F. Nansen's drift through the Arctic Ocean, but much further north, possibly through the North Pole, having previously passed along the northeastern passage - along northern shores Eurasia (but his next northern expeditions were delayed by the First World War). For this expedition, a new ship, the Maud, was built. In the summer of 1918, the expedition left Norway, but was unable to pass around the Taimyr Peninsula and wintered at Cape Chelyuskin. During the navigation of 1919, Amundsen managed to go east to about. Aion, where the Maud vessel stopped for the second winter. In 1920, the expedition entered the Bering Strait. Subsequently, the expedition carried out work in the Arctic Ocean, and Amundsen himself for a number of years was involved in raising funds and preparing flights to the North Pole.

The second attempt was made on the Maud in 1922 from Cape Hope (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 starting point of the Fram in 1893. Since the further direction of the drift thanks to the Fram was already known, the Maud freed itself from the ice and returned to Alaska.

Meanwhile, Amundsen tried to pave the way to the North Pole by plane, but during his first test flight in May 1923 from Wainwright (Alaska), his machine broke down. On May 21, 1925, he, along with five companions, incl. Ellsworth took off on two planes from Spitsbergen. And again he did not achieve his goal. At 870 43/s. w. and 10020/z. d., 250 km from the pole, he had to make an emergency landing. Here the expedition members spent over 3 weeks preparing the airfield for takeoff; in June they managed to return to Spitsbergen on the same plane.

Every traveler-researcher deeply believes that there is nothing insurmountable or impossible in the world. He refuses to accept defeat, even if it is already obvious, and relentlessly continues to move towards his goal. Antarctica more than once showed man “his place,” until the fearless Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, appeared in front of it. He discovered that true courage and heroism can conquer ice and severe frosts.

Uncontrollable attraction

The years of Roald Amundsen's life were eventful. He was born in 1872 in the family of a hereditary navigator and merchant. At the age of fifteen, D. Franklin's book about the expedition to Atlantic Ocean, which determines his entire subsequent life. His parents had their own plans for youngest child, deciding not to introduce him to the family craft. His mother diligently predicted a place for him in intellectual elite society, having sent it to the Faculty of Medicine after high school. But the future polar explorer was preparing for something else: he diligently played sports, hardened his body in every possible way, accustoming himself to cold temperatures. He knew that medicine was not his life's work. Therefore, two years later, Roual leaves his studies with relief, returning to his dream of adventure.

In 1893, the future traveler Roald Amundsen meets the Norwegian explorer Astrup, and has a different fate than to be polar explorer, doesn't even consider it. He literally became obsessed with the idea of ​​conquering the poles. The young man set a goal to be the first to set foot on the South Pole.

Becoming a Leader

In 1894-1896, the life of Roald Amundsen changed dramatically. After completing the navigator's course, he ends up on the Belzhik ship, becoming a member of the Antarctic expedition team. This difficult journey has been deprived of the attention of historians, but it was then that people first wintered near the icy continent.

Huge ice floes of Antarctica squeezed the travelers' ship. Having no other choice, they were doomed to long months darkness and loneliness. Not everyone was able to endure the trials that befell the team; many went crazy from the difficulties and constant fear. The most persistent ones gave up. The captain of the ship, unable to cope with the situation, resigned and retired from business. It was during these days that Amundsen became a leader.

Despite his tough character, Roual was a fairly fair person, and first of all, he demanded from himself discipline, accountability and complete dedication to his work. The press often published unflattering reviews about him, portraying the polar explorer as quarrelsome and meticulous. But who can judge the winner, given that it was his team that survived in full force, without deaths?

On the way to a dream

There is an interesting fact in the biography of Roald Amundsen. It turns out that at first he intended to conquer the North Pole, but in the process of preparing for the expedition, news came that Frederick Cook was already ahead of him. A week later, similar news came from the expedition of Robert Peary. Amundsen understands that competition is being created between those who want to conquer the unknown. He quickly changes his plans, choosing the South Pole, and goes ahead of his rivals without telling anyone.

The schooner reached the shores of Antarctica in January 1911. In Whale Bay, the Norwegians built a house from brought materials. They began to carefully prepare for the future trip to the Pole: constant training of people and dogs, double-checking equipment, and bases with provisions were prepared up to 82° south latitude.

The first attempt to conquer the South Pole failed. The team of eight set out in early September but were forced to return due to rapidly dropping temperatures. It was such terrible frosts that even vodka got cold, and my skis wouldn’t go on the snow. But failure did not stop Amundsen.

South Pole

On October 20, 1911, a new attempt was made to reach the Pole. The Norwegians, a group of five people, approached the border ice shelf November 17 and began climbing the Polar Plateau. The most difficult three weeks lay ahead. There were 550 kilometers left.

It should be noted that in harsh conditions of cold and danger, people were constantly in under stress, and this could not but affect the relationships in the group. Conflicts occurred on any occasion.

The expedition was able to overcome a steep glacier at an altitude of 3030 meters above sea level. This section of the path was distinguished by deep cracks. Both dogs and people were exhausted, suffering mountain sickness. And on December 6 they conquered a height of 3260 meters. The expedition reached the South Pole on December 14 at 15:00. The polar explorers made several repeated calculations to dispel the slightest doubt. The target location was marked with flags, and then the tent was erected.

The Pole was conquered by unbending people, their tenacity and desire on the verge of madness. And we must pay tribute leadership qualities Roald Amundsen himself. He discovered that victory at the Pole, in addition to human determination and courage, is also the result of clear planning and calculations.

Traveler's achievements

Roald Amundsen is the greatest Norwegian polar explorer who forever left his name in history. He made many discoveries, and geographical objects were named in his honor. People called him the Last Viking, and he lived up to that nickname.

Not everyone knows, but the South Pole is not the only thing that Roald Amundsen discovered. He was the first to make the passage in 1903-1906 from Greenland to Alaska via the Northwest Passage on the small ship Gjoa. It was a risky undertaking in many ways, but Amundsen did a lot of preparation, which explains his subsequent success. And in 1918-1920, on the ship “Maud”, it passed along the northern shores of Eurasia.

In addition, Roald Amundsen is a recognized pioneer of polar aviation. In 1926, he made the first flight on the airship "Norway" across the North Pole. Subsequently, his passion for aviation cost him his life.

Last trip

The life of the legendary polar explorer was cut short tragically. The irrepressible nature could not help but react when on May 25, 1928, a distress signal was received from the expedition of the Italian Umberto Nobile in the Barents Sea region.

It was not possible to fly out to help right away. Despite all his achievements, Roald Amundsen (we discussed what he discovered above) still needed money. Therefore, only on June 18 from Tromso on the Latam-47 seaplane, thanks common efforts, the fearless Norwegian and his team flew out to help.

The last message received from Amundsen was information that they were over Bear Island. Afterwards the connection was lost. The next day it became obvious that Latham 47 was missing. Long searches yielded no results. A few months later, the seaplane's float and dented gas tank were discovered. The commission found that the plane crashed, causing tragic death teams.

Roald Amundsen was a man of great destiny. He will forever remain in people's memory as a true conqueror of Antarctica.