Friday, 31 May 1912

Amundsen

Amundsen arrives in Buenos Aires, May 1912. The man immediately to his right is probably Don Pedro Christophersen. [1]

Having recently arrived in Buenos Aires after his lecture tour in Australia, Amundsen met Don Pedro Christophersen for the first time, and the Norwegian community in Buenos Aires gave a banquet for Amundsen and the crew of the Fram. Amundsen presented Christophersen with a large photograph of the mountain he had named after his patron, and made a speech.

He admitted, Hassel wrote of the speech, that "he was an unpleasant man to work with. He's right about that. At the same time, it is remarkable how a frank admission of a fault helps to appease the resentment it causes. Amundsen spoke well. All of it was apparently improvised." [1]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Sverre Hassel, diary, [31 May?, 1912], in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen, (Skien: Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.13.

Friday, 15 March 1912

Amundsen

"Johansen is beginning to go 'boozing'," Hassel had recorded in his diary a few days earlier. "Now he wants to go home from here. He spoke to Amundsen this morning about it. It appears that he got permission to go." [1]

Amundsen noted tersely, "Paid off Johansen today who could not possibly remain on board any longer." [2]


Notes:

[1] Sverre Hassel, diary, 12 March, 1912, in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.11.
[2] Roald Amundsen, diary, 15 March, 1912, quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.113.

Friday, 8 March 1912

Scott

"Worse and worse in morning," Scott wrote, "poor Oates' left foot can never last out, and time over foot gear something awful.... We did 4 1/2 miles this morning and are now 8 1/2 miles from the depot -- a ridiculously small distance to feel in difficulties, yet on this surface we know we cannot equal half our old marches, and that for that effort we expend nearly double the energy. The great question is, What shall we find at the depot? If the dogs have visited it we may get along a good distance, but if there is another short allowance of fuel, God help us indeed. We are in a very bad way, I fear, in any case." [1]

The weather at One Ton remained bad, with a "good day" at -10° F (-23 C), and blowing most of the time. Cherry wrote in his diary, "-28 when we turned in & must have been -40 at least last night. This morning -28 & wind 4. It is a very cold wait -- waiting & thinking. I was so sure I saw them coming last night I nearly started to walk to them." [2]


Amundsen

Fram's crew upon arrival in Hobart. From left, in the back row, Hassel, Ludwig Hansen, Steller, Bjaaland, Kristensen, Rønne, Beck, Wisting, Halvorsen, Sundbeck; seated, Johansen, Prestrud, Amundsen, Nilsen, Gjertsen, Helmer Hanssen; in front, Lindstrøm, Stubberud, Karenius Olsen, A. Olsen. "Beattie's studios Hobart Tas." [3]

Helmer Hanssen, Amundsen, and Lindstrøm.

Hassel, Wisting, Amundsen, Bjaaland, and Helmer Hanssen. [4]

"Pole Attained Fourteenth-Seventeenth December 1911. All Well" ran headlines everywhere. "The whole world," said the New York Times, "has now been discovered." [5]

"On a day like this," exulted Aftenposten, a leading Christiania newspaper, "everything is changed.... It is more warmth and pride that we feel that we are all children of the same, happy country. Smiles are more frequent -- in bold mens' deeds we are richer and more united and happier. Ah yes -- at one blow, we are far forwards!" [6]

Helland-Hansen, though, wrote to Nansen that he could not understand "why people don't show more pleasure than they do." [7] Many Norwegians, it seemed, felt that Amundsen's accomplishment was a political mistake; one paper wrote, "We are glad that Roald Amundsen chose a new route to the South Pole, so that he avoided going directly in Scott's path. The English had the exclusive right to the route from McMurdo Sound. That was their opinion at any rate." [8] The Times, indeed, wrote a day later that the Norwegian expedition was "a mere dash for the Pole, designed to forestall the British expedition in the most spectacular, though not the most valuable part of the work." [9]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 8 March, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, diary, 8 March, 1912, Scott Polar Research Institute.
[3] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[4] "Tasmanian views, Edward Searle's album of photographs of Australia, Antarctica and the Pacific, 1911-1915", National Library of Australia.
[5] New York Times, 8 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.546.
[6] Aftenposten, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[7] Bjørn Helland-Hansen, letter to Fridtjof Nansen, [date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[8] Norges Handels- og Sjøfartstidende, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[9] The Times, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.

Wednesday, 21 February 1912

Scott

"Gloomy and overcast when we started; a good deal warmer," wrote Scott, noting a lunch-time temperature of -9 1/2°, and a few degrees less in the evening. "The marching almost as bad as yesterday. Heavy toiling all day, inspiring gloomiest thoughts at times. Rays of comfort when we picked up tracks and cairns. At lunch we seemed to have missed the way, but an hour or two after we passed the last pony walls, and since, we struck a tent ring, ending the march actually on our old pony-tracks. There is a critical spot here with a long stretch between cairns. If we can tide that over we get on the regular cairn route, and with luck should stick to it; but everything depends on the weather. We never won a march of 8 1/2 miles with greater difficulty, but we can't go on like this. We are drawing away from the land and perhaps may get better things in a day or two. I devoutly hope so." [1]


Amundsen

Three weeks into their journey, Hassel wrote in his diary, "Amundsen today sent a list aft in which he asks every man to answer the question whether they will go north, yes or no. Everyone answered no, except Beck (the ice pilot)." A few days later, after Amundsen had sounded out each man individually, Hassel added, "Amundsen has now spoken to everyone and asked who will go north, with the exception of Ludwig Hansen. All have said yes (!) except Bjaaland." [2]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 21 February, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] Sverre Hassel, diary, 21 and 24 February, 1912, in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.10-11.

Monday, 29 January 1912

Scott

After a march of nearly twenty miles, Wilson found that his leg was overstrained, and for several days he could only hobble alongside the sledge without pulling. "400 miles about to go," he wrote, "before meeting the dogs with ship's news." [1]


Amundsen

In the evening, Amundsen closed the door of the hut behind him and went down to the ship. "It was a heavy moment to leave Framheim," he wrote in his diary. "A more splendid or cosy winter quarters no one has had. When we departed, Lindstrøm had scoured it from top to bottom and it was shining like a new pin. We don't want to be accused of untidiness or dirt if anyone should happen to go there and look." [2]

"It was quite curious," he wrote later, "to see how several of the old veterans seemed at home again on the Fram’s deck. Wisting’s brave dog, the old Colonel, with his two adjutants, Suggen and Arne, at once took possession of the places where they had stood for so many a long day on the voyage south -- on the starboard side of the mainmast; the two twins, Mylius and Ring, Helmer Hanssen’s special favourites, began their games away in the corner of the fore-deck to port, as though nothing had happened. To look at those two merry rascals no one would have thought they had trotted at the head of the whole caravan both to and from the Pole. One solitary dog could be seen stalking about, lonely and reserved, in a continual uneasy search. This was the boss of Bjaaland’s team. He was unaffected by any advances; no one could take the place of his fallen comrade and friend, Frithjof, who had long ago found a grave in the stomachs of his companions many hundreds of miles across the Barrier." [3]

Fram cast off in a fog, leaving, as Bjaaland put it, "these regions and Framheim with all their splendour to anyone who wants them.... Farewell then, Framheim, your ice and snow and seal and crows and everything. You were temperamental and unpleasant and cold now and then but better than I expected." [4]

"The place that had been our residence for a year we left without a backwards glance," wrote Hassel. "The fog was too dense. But I doubt if any of us regretted that." [5]


Notes:

[1] E.A. Wilson, diary, 29 January, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.521.
[2] Roald Amundsen, diary, 30 January, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.267.
[3] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.14.
[4] Olav Bjaaland, diary, [30 January, 1912?], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.529.
[5] Sverre Hassel, diary, 31 January, 1912, quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.110.

Saturday, 20 January 1912

Amundsen

Amundsen at Framheim, undated. [1]

Before the polar party had left Framheim, Prestrud had remarked that it didn't really matter whether the Norwegians got to the Pole before or after Scott. Amundsen, Hassel remembered, had "taken Prestrud to task several times and reproached him severely." Amundsen's thoughts apparently returned to it now. "He was at it again this evening," Hassel wrote in his diary. "He would not have wanted to be Number Two for all the tea in China." [2]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Sverre Hassel, "return-journey diary" [date not given], quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.109. Most of this return-journey period is for some reason not included in the transcription of Hassel's diary published by Vågemot Miniforlag in 2007.

Thursday, 18 January 1912

Scott

Having decided now that they had come too far, they set off back in a southeasterly direction for a little over three miles.

The sharp-eyed Bowers soon saw the Norwegian tent about two miles off, with a list inside of the five men who had made up the Polar party: "Roald Amundsen, Olav Olavson Bjaaland, Hilmer Hanssen [sic], Sverre H. Hassel, Oscar Wisting, 16 Dec. 1911. The tent is fine," Scott admitted, "a small compact affair supported by a single bamboo. A note from Amundsen, which I keep, asks me to forward a letter to King Haakon!" [1]

Scott, Oates, Wilson, and Evans at the Norwegians' tent. [2]

"Dear Captain Scott," Amundsen's note ran, "As you are probably the first to reach this area after us, I will ask you kindly to forward this letter to King Haakon VII. If you can use any of the articles left in the tent please do not hesitate to do so. With kind regards I wish you a safe return. Yours truly, Roald Amundsen." [3] "I am puzzled at the object," Scott wrote, in a remark edited out of his journals before publication. [4]

Wilson listed the "considerable amount of gear" the Norwegians had left in the tent: "half reindeer sleeping-bags, sleeping-socks, reinskin trousers [sic] 2 pair, a sextant, and artif[icial] horizon, a hypsometer with all the thermoms broken, etc. I took away the spirit-lamp of it, which I have wanted for sterilizing and making disinfectant lotions of snow." [5] Bowers was in fact glad to get a pair of reindeer mitts to replace the dogskin ones he had lost a few days earlier.

While Bowers photographed and Wilson sketched, Scott wrote a note to leave in the tent saying that they had been there, and went on another six miles. "We built a cairn, put up our poor slighted Union Jack, and photographed ourselves -- mighty cold work all of it." [6]

Scott and his men: from left, Wilson, Bowers and Evans (sitting), Scott, Oates. Bowers took most of the photographs at the Pole, here with a string (in his right hand) to the shutter release. [7]

A less well-known photograph, this time with Wilson pulling the shutter-release. From left, Wilson, Scott, Evans, Oates, and Bowers. [8]

Finding another of Amundsen's black flags about half a mile away, with the note in English, "The Norwegian Polheim is situated in 89 deg. 58' SE by E. (comp.) 8 Miles. 15 Decbr, 1911, Roald Amundsen" [9], they took it for the Norwegian Pole. (It was in fact the left-hand flag used to box the Pole.)

Wilson's sketch of one of Amundsen's pole markers, 18th January, 1912. [10]

"There is no doubt that our predecessors have made thoroughly sure of their mark and fully carried out their programme," wrote Scott. "I think the Pole is about 9500 feet in height; this is remarkable, considering that in Lat. 88° we were about 10,500. We carried the Union Jack about 3/4 of a mile north with us and left it on a piece of stick as near as we could fix it. I fancy the Norwegians arrived at the Pole on the 15th Dec. and left on the 17th, ahead of a date quoted by me in London as ideal, viz. Dec. 22. It looks as though the Norwegian party expected colder weather on the summit than they got; it could scarcely be otherwise from Shackleton's account. Well, we have turned our back now on the goal of our ambition and must face our 800 miles of solid dragging -- and good-bye to most of the daydreams!" [11]


Amundsen

On the first clear day they had had for a while, and having had poor visibility on the three previous visits to the area, the Norwegians were able to see, Bjaaland noted, "several rock and snowclad mountains which seemed to run in a N.E. direction ... 30 miles off." [12] Amundsen, however, conscious of the need to get home first with the news, refused to investigate. "I have contented myself," he wrote calmly later, "with giving the name of Carmen Land to the land between 86° and 84°, and have called the rest 'Appearance of Land.' It will be a profitable task for an explorer to investigate this district more closely." [13]

At the time, however, his anxiety made him short-tempered. "Hanssen has fallen into disgrace," Hassel noted in his diary. "He allowed himself to disagree with His Majesty Amundsen regarding Else [one of the dogs] which Hanssen insisted smelled, but Amundsen could not smell anything. For the time being they are not talking." [14]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 18 January, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] Source unknown.
[3] Roald Amundsen, letter to R.F. Scott, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.516.
[4] R.F. Scott, diary, [18 January, 1912], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.516. Scott's irritation is completely understandable.
[5] E.A. Wilson, diary, 18 January, 1912, quoted by Apsley Cherry-Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World, ch.13.
[6] R.F. Scott, diary, 18 January, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[7] Wikipedia.
[8] Encyclopedia Britannica Kids.
[9] Quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.518.
[10] "Amundsen's Original South Pole Station".
[11] R.F. Scott, diary, 18 January, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[12] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 19 January 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.507.
[13] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.13. This area near the Queen Maud Range was later found to be nonexistent, probably disturbances due to the Steers Head crevasse system.
[14] Sverre Hassel, diary, [date not given], quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.109.

Sunday, 17 December 1911

Scott

Mount Hope -- the centre peak -- discovered and photographed by Shackleton's party in December 1908. [1]

A good run in the afternoon up the centre of the glacier took them about 12 1/2 miles, to an altitude of about 3,500 ft. "This has put Mount Hope in the background and shows us more of the upper reaches," Scott wrote. "If we can keep up the pace, we gain on Shackleton, and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't, except that more pressure is showing up ahead. For once one can say 'sufficient for the day is the good thereof.' Our luck may be on the turn -- I think we deserve it." [2]


Amundsen

Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Hassel, and Wisting taking leave of Polheim, 18 December, 1911, photographed by Bjaaland. The sloping edge of the tent was a special construction to reduce wind resistance. [3]

The Norwegians boxed the "remaining few minutes of arc" by putting pennants a few miles in each direction. "We have done what we can," wrote Amundsen. "I think our observations will be of great interest for the experts." [4] Polheim was within 2,500 yards of the mathematical point.

Work finished at midday, and they began to prepare for the return journey. At the Pole mark, Amundsen raised the reserve tent made by Rønne on the Fram, revealing two yellow leather labels sewn to it, one reading "Bon Voyage" and the other "Welcome to 90 degrees", signed by Rønne and Beck. To the top of the tent was lashed a long bamboo pole onto which was fixed the Norwegian flag and a pennant reading "Fram".

Inside the tent, Amundsen left some superfluous equipment, a few items of reindeer-skin clothing they didn't need, and a letter to King Haakon. "Your Majesty," it read, "We have determined the Southernmost extremity of the great 'Ross Ice Barrier', together with the junction of Victoria Land and King Edward VII Land at the same place. We have discovered a mighty mountain range with peaks up to 22,000 ft. a.s.l., which I have taken the liberty of calling -- with permission, I hope -- 'Queen Maud's Range'. We found that the great inland plateau ... began to slope gently downwards from 89°.... We have called this gently sloping plain on which we have succeeded in establishing the position of the Geographic South Pole -- with I hope Your Majesty's permission -- 'King Haakon VII's Plateau'...." [5]

The envelope and a covering letter were addressed to Scott, who, Amundsen wrote in his diary, "I must assume will be the first to visit the place after us." [6] "The way home was a long one," he explained later, "and so many things might happen to make it impossible for us to give an account of our expedition." [7] His explanation was certainly logical, but, as Hassel put it, "It won't be nice for Scott, if he gets here now, to arrive and see the tent with the Norwegian flag and the burgee with Fram on it." [8]

At half past seven in the evening, they turned again to the North. "And so, farewell, dear Pole," wrote Amundsen. "I don't think we'll meet again." [9]

Back at the Bay of Whales, Prestrud, Johansen, and Stubberud departed Framheim again for a five-day journey to explore the long eastern arm of the bay. "Although we came across no bare rock," Prestrud wrote later, "and in that respect the journey was a disappointment, it was nevertheless very interesting to observe the effects of the mighty forces that had here been at work, the disruption of the solid ice-sheath by the still more solid rock." [10]


Notes:

[1] Wikipedia.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 17 December 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[3] National Library of Australia.
[4] Roald Amundsen, diary, 18 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.493.
[5] Roald Amundsen, letter to King Haakon VII, 15 December 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.494.
[6] Roald Amundsen, diary, 18 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.494.
[7] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.12.
[8] Sverre Hassel, diary, [18 December, 1911], quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.109.
[9] Roald Amundsen, diary, [18 December, 1911], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.495.
[10] Kristian Prestrud, "The Eastern Sledge Journey", in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole, ch.15. Note that the date is given as 18th December; see Hinks' note on dates in "The Observations of Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole" (The Geographical Journal, April 1944, p.169).

Thursday, 14 December 1911

Scott

"Indigestion and the soggy condition of my clothes kept me awake for some time last night," Scott noted in his diary, "and the exceptional exercise gives bad attacks of cramp. Our lips are getting raw and blistered. The eyes of the party are improving, I am glad to say. We are just starting our march with no very hopeful outlook. (T. + 13°.)" [1]

"Evans' party started first this morning; for an hour they found the hauling stiff, but after that, to my great surprise, they went on easily. Bowers followed without getting over the ground so easily. After the first 200 yards my own party came on with a swing that told me at once that all would be well. We soon caught the others and offered to take on more weight, but Evans' pride wouldn't allow such help. Later in the morning we exchanged sledges with Bowers, pulled theirs easily, whilst they made quite heavy work with ours."

They camped in the evening after climbing eleven or twelve miles, up to 2500 ft. and lat. about 84° 8'.

Man-hauling, Bowers wrote, was "the most back-breaking work I have ever come up against.... The starting was worse than pulling as it required from ten to fifteen desperate jerks on the harness to move the sledge at all.... I have never pulled so hard, or so nearly crushed my inside into my backbone by the everlasting jerking with all my strength on the canvas band round my unfortunate tummy." [2]


Amundsen

At the South Pole: Amundsen, Hassel, Bjaaland, and Wisting. Helmer Hanssen took this photograph with Bjaaland's camera. [3]

Wisting with his team. [4]

Bjaaland with his team, 14th December, 1911. [5]

Helmer Hanssen with his team, 14th December, 1911. Some of these images are apparently reversed, but it is difficult to tell which. [6]

"Friday 15 December (really 14th). So we arrived, and planted our flag at the geographical South Pole. Thanks be to God!"

"The time was 3 p.m. when it happened," Amundsen went on. "The weather was of the finest sort when we started this morning, but around 10 a.m., it became overcast. Fresh breeze from SE. The going has been partly good, partly bad. The plain -- King Haakon VII's Plateau -- has had the same appearance -- quite flat and without what one can call sastrugi. The sun came out again during the afternoon, and we ought to get a midnight observation.... We arrived here with 3 sledges and 17 dogs. Helmer Hanssen put one down immediately after arrival. 'Helgi' was worn out. Tomorrow we will go out in 3 directions to ring in the polar area. We have eaten our celebratory meal -- a little piece of seal meat each." [7]

Helmer Hanssen had been leading as usual -- he was the best dog-driver and the best navigator. With eight miles to go, he had called back to Amundsen to take the lead. "I can't get the dogs to run if nobody runs in front." But Hanssen felt that of course the honour of being first at the Pole belonged to Amundsen.

"The goal was reached, the journey ended," Amundsen wrote later. "I cannot say -- though I know it would sound much more effective -- that the object of my life was attained. That would be romancing rather too bare-facedly. I had better be honest and admit straight out that I have never known any man to be placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his desires as I was at that moment. The regions around the North Pole -- well, yes, the North Pole itself -- had attracted me from childhood, and here I was at the South Pole. Can anything more topsy-turvy be imagined?" [8]

It later turned out that Amundsen's camera was damaged. Bjaaland had brought a smaller one of his own, and his photographs would be the only record of the journey.

Wisting's flag. [9]

"Roald Amundsen," Wisting recalled, "asked us to gather round to plant the flag. 'It is not the privilege of one man alone to carry out this ceremony. It is the privilege of all those,' he said, 'who have risked their lives for this cause.' Each man gripped the flagpole, and together we planted Norway's flag at the South Pole, where no human being had yet set foot." [10]

Amundsen described the scene with more detail in his later account: "Pride and affection shone in the five pairs of eyes that gazed upon the flag, as it unfurled itself with a sharp crack, and waved over the Pole. I had determined that the act of planting it -- the historic event -- should be equally divided among us all. It was not for one man to do this; it was for all who had staked their lives in the struggle, and held together through thick and thin. This was the only way in which I could show my gratitude to my comrades in this desolate spot. I could see that they understood and accepted it in the spirit in which it was offered. Five weather-beaten, frost-bitten fists they were that grasped the pole, raised the waving flag in the air, and planted it as the first at the geographical South Pole. 'Thus we plant thee, beloved flag, at the South Pole, and give to the plain on which it lies the name of King Haakon VII.'s Plateau.' That moment will certainly be remembered by all of us who stood there."

"So now," Bjaaland wrote in his diary, "we have attained the goal of our desires, and the great thing is that we are here as the first men, no English flag waves, but a 3 coloured Norwegian. We have now eaten and drunk our fill of what we can manage; seal steak, and biscuits and pemmican and chocolate." [11]

Hanssen, on the other hand, felt only "relieved that I no longer should have to stare down at the compass in the biting wind which constantly blew against us while we drove Southwards, but which we now would have behind us." [12]

"One gets out of the way of protracted ceremonies in those regions," Amundsen said dryly, "the shorter they are the better. Everyday life began again at once." [13]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 14 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] H.R. Bowers, diary, 14 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.466.
[3] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[4] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[5] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[6] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[7] Roald Amundsen, diary, 14 December 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London: Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.130. Amundsen had neglected to drop a day on his calendar when the Fram had crossed the International Date Line, but for this entry he made sure to note the fact.
[8] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.12.
[9] "In pictures: UK's first Roald Amundsen exhibition", BBC News Cambridgeshire, 16 September 2011. The flag was loaned from the Fram Museum in Oslo to the Polar Museum (SPRI) in Cambridge for the exhibit.
[10] Oscar Wisting, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987, p.131.
[11] Olav Bjaaland, diary, [14 December 1911], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.487.
[12] Helmer Hanssen, Gjennem Isbaksen, p.94, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.487.
[13] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.12.

Monday, 11 December 1911

Scott

The Beardmore Glacier, discovered by Shackleton on his Nimrod expedition in 1908. This aerial photograph was taken in 1956. [1]

"[Lt. Evans's team] started quite well," wrote Scott, "but got into difficulties, did just the wrong thing by straining again and again, and so, tiring themselves, went from bad to worse. Their ski shoes, too, are out of trim. Just as I thought we were in for making a great score, this difficulty overtakes us -- it is dreadfully trying. The snow around us to-night is terribly soft, one sinks to the knee at every step; it would be impossible to drag sledges on foot and very difficult for dogs. Ski are the thing, and here are my tiresome fellow-countrymen too prejudiced to have prepared themselves for the event." [2]

Wright, with Atkinson and Lashly on Lt. Evans's team, wrote somewhat testily in his diary, "Scott came back to wonder why we were behind the other teams. I was in front with Evans and had found one could do better by pulling at an angle of about 15° to the side and thus get a grip on the surface without my ski sliding back. Scott then said to Birdie, 'See that's the way to do it,' to which Birdie unthinkingly replied, 'Yes, but look at the loss of pull due to the angle.' I felt like reminding Birdie that the cosine at 15° would not lose more than 1 per cent effort of the straight pull.... However I kept my peace, for conditions were then at their worst and any argument ... should be avoided." [3]

The camp at Lower Glacier Depot, 11th December, 1911, photographed by Scott. [4]

In the afternoon, Meares and Dimitri finally turned for home with the dog teams. "They have done splendidly," Cherry wrote in his diary. "It looks as if Amundsen may have hit off the right thing." [5]

"The dogs should get back quite easily," Scott added, "there is food all along the line." There were in fact only two depots between the foot of the Beardmore and 80° (to Amundsen's seven), the Mid-Barrier depot and One Ton, 120 miles apart.

The dogs were supposed to have turned back two days earlier. In order to provide Meares with two days' more food, everyone else in the party gave up one biscuit daily, almost five percent of an already-low ration. [6]


Amundsen

At 89° 15', they started now to go downhill, sinking gently from the summit.

"[The] same fine terrain and going," Amundsen wrote in his diary. [7] In sunshine and clear skies, the men had done seventeen miles instead of their stipulated fifteen.

"The Pole is in sight," Bjaaland wrote. "Hope and pray to my God that the weather may continue fine. I whipped the dogs on to keep level with Helmer Hanssen's." [8]

With the goal fast approaching, nerves were tight. Hassel found Amundsen "distant and cantankerous", writing in his diary, "One would think the man has a screw loose. He has many times in the last few days actually initiated quarrels, an extraordinary stand to take for a Governor and leader for whom peace and good camaraderie should be the main target." [9]

In King Edward VII Land, Prestrud's Eastern Party had their first day of real sunshine. "At our midday rest we found ourselves abreast of the bay, where, on the outward journey, we had laid down our depot of seals' flesh. I had intended to turn aside to the depot and replenish our supply of meat as a precaution, but Johansen suggested leaving out this detour and going straight on. We might thereby run the risk of having to go on short rations; but Johansen thought it a greater risk to cross the treacherous ground about the bay, and, after some deliberation, I saw he was right. It was better to go on while we were about it." [10]


Notes:

[1] Wikipedia.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 11 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[3] Charles Wright, diary, 11 December, 1911, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.472.
[4] Henry Fountain, "Antarctic Odyssey, Through the Eyes of a Polar Pioneer", New York Times, October 17, 2011.
[5] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, diary, 11 December 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.465.
[6] R.F. Scott, diary, 11 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[7] Roald Amundsen, diary, 12 December ,1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.484.
[8] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 12 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.484.
[9] Sverre Hassel, diary, [12 December, 1911], quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.108.
[10] Kristian Prestrud, "The Eastern Sledge Journey", in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole, ch.15. Note that the date is given as 12th December; see Hinks' note on dates in "The Observations of Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole" (The Geographical Journal, April 1944, p.169).

Saturday, 18 November 1911

Scott

Wright with Chinaman, in earlier days at Cape Evans, photographed by Ponting. [1]

Scott, Oates reported, "had a breeze up with Bowers ... about the loads," accusing Bowers of deliberately overloading Scott's pony in order to save his own. Oates, too, had "had words with Scott" that day. "He's a very difficult man to get on with," Oates added. [2] "Scott now realises what awful cripples our ponies are and carries a face like a tired seaboot in consequence."

Scott himself admitted, "I had a panic that we were carrying too much food and this morning we have discussed the matter and decided we can leave a sack." [3]

Scott, Cherry thought, "had begun to feel very doubtful whether the ponies will do their job & evidently thinks Amundsen with his dogs may be doing much better." [4]

"Oates gives Chinaman at least three days," noted Scott, "and Wright says he may go for a week. This is slightly inspiriting, but how much better would it have been to have had ten really reliable beasts! It's touch and go whether we scrape up to the Glacier, meanwhile we get along somehow. At any rate the bright sunshine makes everything look more hopeful."


Amundsen

The Axel Heiberg Glacier. This aerial photograph was taken during the summer of 1956-57. [5]

The dogs climbed the pass easily. On the other side was a descent of about 800 feet, and the sledges had to be braked with ropes around the runners. Then came a small glacier, and another climb so steep that they had to relay and "harness all [42] dogs before two sledges at a time," wrote Amundsen, "and still they found it hard." [6] At the top was another pass; the run down from this, Bjaaland wrote, was "more violent than the first, so dogs and sledges ran into each other. Broke the bow of my sledge and the stern of Hassel's." [7]

They now turned slightly westwards, towards a mountain which Amundsen first called Haakonshallen but later changed to Mount Don Pedro Christophersen after his benefactor. Running suddenly out of the pass, the ground seemed to open up at their feet, revealing "a huge, mighty glacier, absolutely fjord-like, running East-West." [8] It would not be an easy way up, after all.

Mount Pedro Christophersen, 1911. [9]

In the evening, they had difficulty finding a place to camp; when they found a place big enough, they had to tramp down the loose snow before they could pitch their tent, under Haakonshallen with its "mighty ridges," as Bjaaland put it, "that stretched their 15,000 feet up to God." [10]

If only he had listened to the dogs, Amundsen thought, they could have "followed this glacier right up to the tent site we have this evening. Ah, well, we couldn't have done it that way under two days either. [But] this is the glacier that will be our way back when we come down from the plateau." [11]

Amundsen wrote little about the English, but Scott must have been on his mind. Hassel wrote in his diary of bickering between Amundsen and Bjaaland, what Hassel called "a small settling of accounts". Apparently things got to such a pitch that Bjaaland was ordered to leave the polar party, and Hassel to accompany him back to Framheim, as Bjaaland could not navigate. Bjaaland then, Hassel wrote, "ate humble pie and pleaded with the Captain to reverse his decision, which Amundsen then did. However, he reiterated that he would not stand being contradicted." [12]


Notes:

[1] Scott Polar Research Institute.
[2] L.E.G. Oates, diary, 18 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.424.
[3] R.F. Scott, diary, 18 November, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[4] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, ch.IX.
[5] Wikipedia.
[6] Roald Amundsen, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.442.
[7] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.442.
[8] Roald Amundsen, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.442.
[9] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[10] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.445.
[11] Roald Amundsen, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.446.
[12] Sverre Hassel, diary, 19 November, 1911, quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.107. Note that Huntford does not mention this episode in either Scott and Amundsen or Race for the South Pole, nor does it appear in the Vågemot transcription of Hassel's diary.

Thursday, 19 October 1911

Amundsen

The loaded sledges ready to start. [1]

Amundsen, Bjaaland, Wisting, Hassel, and Helmer Hanssen set off for the Pole.

"The departure took place without much ceremony," Prestrud recalled, "and with the smallest possible expenditure of words. A hearty grasp of the hand serves the purpose quite as well on such occasions. I accompanied them to the place we called the starting-point, on the south side of the bay. After a final 'Good luck' to our Chief and comrades -- as sincere a wish as I have ever bestowed upon anyone -- I cinematographed the caravan, and very soon after it was out of sight. Those fellows went southward at a great pace, Helmer Hanssen’s quick-footed team leading as usual." [2]

"At long last we managed to get off," Amundsen wrote with relief in his diary.

A still from the cinematograph of the departure for the Pole. [3]

"-- Yes, we'll see!" Johansen wrote the next day. "The Chief said goodbye to me, and I wished him good luck. I have told him the truth, and that is not always the easiest thing to hear. That is why I am in disgrace, but I must bear it."

Johansen thought that the loads were too heavy, with a resulting decrease in the dogs' pulling power, and that it would be a smaller party of three or even two men that would make it to the Pole. "It wouldn't surprise me if we saw Hassel and Bjaaland here in a couple of months. Maybe Wisting too." [4]

"The fog came down after we had covered a little ground," Amundsen continued. "HH [Helmer Hanssen] ran first and set a course with his compass. For some reason we ran too far East, and into an unknown maze of cracks and crevasses. I sat together with W [Wisting]. His sledge was last. Suddenly a large piece of the surface fell away next to the sledge and exposed a gruesome abyss -- big enough to swallow us all. Luckily we were so far to the side that we were saved. We understood from the surroundings that we had strayed too far to the East, and therefore set a course directly East by the compass (S. by W. true). That soon brought us within sight of some flags, and a short time afterwards reached the place where we shot 'Kaisa' on our last trip [8 September] -- 20.2 nautical miles. We managed splendidly in our improved tent. Although we were five, there is plenty of space." [5]

At Framheim, Prestrud almost immediately began his task of mapping the Bay of Whales, but he was much-delayed by bad weather.


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkivet, Nasjonalbiblioteket. This photograph is dated "20-10-1911" by the NB. See note [3] below.
[2] Kristian Prestrud, "The Eastern Sledge Journey", in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole, ch.15. Note that the date here is given as 20th October; Hinks in "The Observations of Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole (The Geographical Journal, April 1944, p.169) states that it should be the 19th.
[3] Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway). The caption notes that no photographs were taken of the departure; the photo in note [1] may have been earlier in the day.
[4] Hjalmar Johansen, diary, 21 October, 1911, published as Dagbok fra Sydpolen (Vågemot Miniforlag, 2007), p.28.
[5] Roald Amundsen, diary, 20 October, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.79.

Saturday, 14 October 1911

Amundsen

"Now we are ready again," wrote Bjaaland. "I hope it won't be a fiasco like the last time. I think that the prospects are better now than on the previous occasion. The dog teams are strong and the equipment is very good. We ought to go far in 100 days. If I emerge unscathed from this journey, I must see that I get out of polar exploration. It's hardly worth the trouble. So farewell Framheim and people and an easy life and if I should be caught out there, well, my tenderest wishes to friends and acquaintances, my fellow-countrymen and the Fatherland." [1]

Gales and fog the following afternoon, however, delayed the start still longer.

"Amundsen," Hassel noted, "has not spoken a word to Johansen since the big day of reckoning, with the exception of their one-on-one talks on the matter." [2]


Notes:

[1] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 15 October, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.75.
[2] Sverre Hassel, diary, 15 October, 1911, in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.8.

Monday, 18 September 1911

Amundsen

In a formal reply to Amundsen's order, Johansen wrote bitterly, "When the expedition's leader decides to put me under the command of a younger man, who is out for the first time on this kind of work, it should be obvious that this is offensive and hurtful for me, who has given a part of my life to the ice, and even more offensive because, according to those I have worked with, I have done what was assigned to me in a satisfactory manner." [1]

"Amundsen came to me," Stubberud later said, "and asked if I would be willing to go with Prestrud. 'If I am to choose,' I said, 'naturally I want to take part in the journey to the South Pole, but I have no alternative but to comply with the Captain's orders.'... Then he shook me by the hand, and thanked me." [2]

Prestrud had realised that he was not up to the Polar journey, and accepted the change without much regret; he apologised to Amundsen for his stand during the argument. Amundsen, Hassel wrote, "took the opportunity to say that he personally had nothing against Prestrud, would have liked to have had him with them on the trip south." [3]

In the end, Johansen, who had regretted his harsh words almost immediately but by this point was neither willing nor able to take them back, agreed also.


Notes:

[1] Hjalmar Johansen, letter to Roald Amundsen, 19 September, 1911, in Johansen's Dagbok fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemot Miniforlag, 2007), p.22.
[2] Jørgen Stubberud, interview with Roland Huntford, April 1977, quoted by Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.412.
[3] Sverre Hassel, diary, 24 September, 1911, quoted in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.7.

Friday, 15 September 1911

Scott

Scott, P.O. Evans, Simpson, and Bowers leaving on "a remarkably pleasant and instructive little spring journey" to the Western Mountains on 15th September 1911. [1]

"Bowers, Simpson, Petty Officer Evans, and I are off to the west," wrote Scott. "I want to have another look at the Ferrar Glacier, to measure the stakes put out by Wright last year, to bring my sledging impressions up to date (one loses details of technique very easily), and finally to see what we can do with our cameras. I haven't decided how long we shall stay away or precisely where we shall go; such vague arrangements have an attractive side," he added. [2]

"It is not quite clear," Debenham wrote in his diary, "why they are going or what they are going to do." [3]


Amundsen

Framheim, unknown date. [4]

The temperature rose to -44° C. With only forty miles to Framheim, and the going suddenly good, Amundsen ordered the distance to be done at a single stretch, and they set off at seven in the morning.

Amundsen was forerunner for the journey, and thus had no sledge; he flung himself on Wisting's sledge, and with Helmer Hanssen, they set off so quickly that soon they were to Bjaaland "just a white dot far away." [5] They reached Framheim at four in the afternoon.

"Our reception was so-so," Helmer Hanssen recorded. "The first Lindstrøm said to us was: 'I told you so!' and we each had a wigging [for starting on a Friday]." [6]

The others were still out on the Barrier. Those dogs that weakened were loosed from their harness and left to make their own way home.

With no forerunner, Stubberud's dogs slowed down. His feet were frostbitten and he had to sit on his sledge. "[I was] quite alone," he recalled later. "And if there had been a blizzard ... the situation would have been precarious. I had no fuel, Primus or tent and little food, only a few biscuits. There was nothing to be done but wait for those behind me, and that took a fairly long time." [7]

As Bjaaland took the lead, Stubberud's team picked up; they reached Framheim at about six o'clock in the evening. Amundsen, hearing that they had seen nothing of the other three, "[hoped that] since the weather was turning thick Johansen, as an old experienced Polar traveller, would make camp and wait until the next day." [8] Hassel, though, arriving a little later, said that the other two had no fuel or food.

Prestrud's dogs, still out on the Barrier, could barely pull the empty sledge; Johansen's were also failing, but he managed to race on ahead and early in the afternoon had overtaken Hassel. Johansen, Hassel noted, was "very bitter over the inconsideration shown by Amundsen, thus racing away from them.... He wanted me to wait, but I preferred to continue, as we were still 16 miles from Framheim and had neither Primus, petroleum nor pans, and the need would be just as great whether we were two to share it [or three]." [9] Hassel gave Johansen his tent and went on.

Johansen waited for Prestrud, who arrived after another two hours, his feet badly frostbitten. Johansen, experienced as he was with cold and ice, realised that Prestrud had to be got warm as soon as possible and pressed on, reaching Framheim at half past midnight, guided in the dark and fog only by the barking of the dogs. The temperature was -51° C.

It was, Johansen wrote the next day, "a woeful aftermath. A profound gloom and misfortune has arisen among us, and no more are we happy and content." [10]


Notes:

[1] Guardian.co.uk.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 14 September, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[3] Frank Debenham, 13 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.402.
[4] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[5] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 16 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[6] Helmer Hanssen, Gjennem Isbaksen, p.88, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[7] Jørgen Stubberud, Reminiscences, "Den Siste ave Sydpolens Erobrere", Vi Menn, 1 February, 1972, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[8] Roald Amundsen, [diary? date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.409.
[9] Sverre Hassel, diary, 16 September, 1911, quoted in Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemots miniforlag, 1997), p.6.
[10] Hjalmar Johansen, diary, 17 September, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.410.

Saturday, 2 September 1911

Amundsen

Temperatures hovered around fifty degrees of frost.

"After dinner," wrote Hassel, "the Chief raised the question of whether we should start on Saturday or wait until Monday. Himself, he was certainly anxious to get away on Saturday. He (oddly enough) took a poll, four were for Saturday, 4 were for Sunday [sic]. So it was still a draw. It was decided therefore to flip a coin. This settled the start for Monday the 4th September. -- This, that departure was Monday, not Saturday, suited everyone all right. It turned out that everyone, even the boss, had some essential things to do with their personal equipment." [1]

Amundsen himself took the opportunity to alter the sleeves of his under-anorak.


Notes

[1] Sverre Hassel, diary, 3 September, 1911, published as Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemot Miniforlag, 1997), p.5. Presumably Hassel is writing a little after the fact, as he talks on Sunday the 3rd of possibly departing on Saturday, that is, the 2nd.

Saturday, 19 August 1911

Amundsen

Lussi, Karenius, and Sauen, before the start of the polar journey. [1]

Four days before the planned start of the Polar journey, Hassel wrote in his diary, "If only we could delay the start until November 1st. But if one wants to be first at the Pole, there is no choice." [2]

For the past week, temperatures had stayed below 50 degrees C. of frost, and one afternoon as far as -57.

"In such weather," Johansen wrote, "a sledge journey would be fatal. It would be worst for the dogs. These days they go about lifting their feet gingerly. They lie in the snowdrifts and roll up in a ball with their noses between their paws to keep warm."

The dogs were getting restless, too. "We have to keep watch over them all day," Johansen added. "They fight and bite each other on the ears." [3]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Sverre Hassel, diary, 20 August, 1911, published as Dagboksnotater fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemot Miniforlag, 1997), p.4.
[3] Hjalmar Johansen, diary, 20 August 1911, published as Dagbok fra Sydpolen (Skien : Vågemot Miniforlag, 2007), p.14.

Winter 1911

Amundsen

Bjaaland. [1]

Stubberud. [2]

Prestrud. [3]

Possibly Hassel. [4]

Helmer Hanssen. [5]

Wisting. [6]

Johansen. [7]

At some point during the winter at Framheim, the men took the time to be photographed in their polar gear. The reindeer-skin clothing was not made to measure, and so each man adapted his to suit himself.


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[3] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[4] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[5] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[6] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[7] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

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.

Wednesday, 21 June 1911

Amundsen

Bjaaland, Hassel, Wisting, Helmer Hanssen, Amundsen, Johansen, Prestrud, and Stubberud around the table at Framheim, probably on Midwinter's Day. [1]

At Framheim, Amundsen wrote later, "preparations for a feast were going on, and now one could really appreciate a good house. The change from the howling wind, the driving snow, the intense cold, and the absolute darkness, was great indeed when one came in. Everything was newly washed, and the table was gaily decorated. Small Norwegian flags were everywhere, on the table and walls. The festival began at six, and all the 'vikings' came merrily in. Lindström had done his best, and that is not saying a little. I specially admired his powers and his liberality -- and I think, even in the short time I have observed him, he has shown no sign of being stingy -- when he appeared with the "Napoleon" cakes. Now I must tell you that these cakes were served after every man had put away a quarter of a plum-pudding. The cakes were delightful to look at -- the finest puff-pastry, with layers of vanilla custard and cream. They made my mouth water. But the size of them! -- there could not be one of those mountains of cake to every man? One among them all, perhaps -- if they could be expected to eat Napoleon cakes at all after plum-pudding. But why had he brought in eight -- two enormous dishes with four on each? Good heavens! -- one of the vikings had just started, and was making short work of his mountain. And one after another they all walked into them, until the whole eight had disappeared. I should have nothing to say about hunger, misery, and cold, when I came home. My head was going round; the temperature must have been as many degrees above zero in here as it was below zero outside. I looked up at Wisting’s bunk, where a thermometer was hanging: +95° F. The vikings did not seem to take the slightest notice of this trifle; their work with the 'Napoleons' continued undisturbed." [2]

Cigars, coffee, and Benedictine came after that, and then the gramophone was brought out.

The concert, Amundsen related, "began with 'Tarara-boom-de-ay,' followed by the 'Apache' waltz.... Certain numbers were kept to the last; I could see that they were to the taste of all. First came an air from 'The Huguenots,' sung by Michalowa; this showed the vikings to be musical. It was beautifully sung. 'But look here,' cried an impatient voice: 'aren’t we going to have Borghild Bryhn to-night?' 'Yes,' was the answer; 'here she comes.' And Solveig’s Song followed. It was a pity Borghild Bryhn was not there; I believe the most rapturous applause would not have moved her so much as the way her song was received here that evening."


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.8.