July 1911

Amundsen

On 4th July, Amundsen presented his "improved plan" for the attack on the Pole. They would start in the middle of September, instead of 1st November as originally planned, all eight men taking eighty-four dogs to the depot at 83°. They would build igloos and wait there until the middle of October, when the midnight sun would return, and then set off for the Pole.

A few weeks later, towards the end of the month, he revised this, suggesting a preliminary trip into King Edward VII Land to test equipment. He put this to the vote and was twice voted down, accepted the result, and proposed heading straight for the Pole on 24 August.

"The thought of the English gave him no peace," Hassel wrote later. "For if we were not first at the Pole, we might just as well stay home." [1]


Sources:

[1] Sverre Hassel, diary, 13 August, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.393.