Wednesday, 20 March 1912

Amundsen

Albert Armitage, who had been Scott's second-in-command on the Discovery expedition, wrote to Nansen, with "heartiest congratulations" on Amundsen's success. "It proves once more the value of practical experience & logical reasoning.... I fear that Scott, with his dislike for Ski, to say nothing else, will find great difficulty in reaching his goal.... I see that Amundsen intends making the Bering Sea passage across the North Pole, and I sincerely hope that he will be as fully successful as in the South." [1]

The Fram left Hobart for Buenos Aires to be refitted for the Arctic drift, set to begin in 1913.


Notes:

[1] Albert Armitage, letter to Fridtjof Nansen, 20 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.542.