September 1912

Amundsen

Gustav Amundsen's copy of his brother's book, with the inscription in Norwegian, "Gustav from Roald. 24.12.14." [1]

Norwegian public opinion of Amundsen's achievement was uneasy, despite the flags and headlines. "We are glad," wrote one newspaper, "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." [2] Helland-Hansen wrote to Nansen that he could not understand "why people don't show more pleasure than they do." [3]

The general mood in Britain seemed to be that Amundsen had made it all look too easy. Scott's report, sent back with the Terra Nova in April, gave, thought a Christiana newspaper, "the impression that terrain and weather were much worse [than] Amundsen's. This can hardly be the case. From Amundsen's acount, one can see, for example, that he was forced to lie still for four days in a snow storm. But he considers it as something that belongs to such a journey -- it's 'all in the day's work', and he doesn't make a fuss about it" [4] but the British seemed to see it as Scott's bad luck, rather than Amundsen's well-laid plans and matter-of-fact execution of them.

Nansen, who supported Amundsen completely, was so annoyed that he wrote in the introduction to Amundsen's book, published in the autumn of 1912, "Let no one come and prate about luck and chance. Amundsen’s luck is that of the strong man who looks ahead." [5]


Notes:

[1] Christie's, Sale 7261, "Exploration and Travel with the Polar Sale Including The Amundsen Collection", 27 September 2006, London.
[2] Norges Handels- og Sjøfartstidende, 9 March 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[3] 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.
[4] Morgenbladet, 2 April 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.549.
[5] Fridtjof Nansen, quoted in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole.

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.

Monday, 27 November 1911

Scott

Poor surfaces and snowfall made the going heavy. "A tired animal makes a tired man, I find," Scott wrote, "and none of us are very bright now after the day's march, though we have had ample sleep of late." [1]


Amundsen

A 1966 map of the Nilsen Plateau and surrounding area, from aerial photographs taken 1960-1964 by the USGS. The nearby Amundsen Glacier was discovered and named on Byrd's 1929 flight. The Axel Heiberg Glacier is to the north-west, on a separate map. [2]

The going was still through fog and blizzard. The glimpse of a dark mass to the E.S.E. was the discovery of what was later called the Nilsen Plateau after the Fram's captain. Another sighting, of what Amundsen afterwards described in a letter to Helland-Hansen as "a gloriously beautiful mountain, in fact two, in the distant, wonderfully lovely land around the Pole which I have given you" [3], proved -- albeit only many years later -- to have been an illusion, sparked not only by the deceptive play of light in that area but Amundsen's own disinterest in geographic surveys. [4]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 27 November, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[2] United States Geological Survey, "Nilsen Plateau" map.
[3] Roald Amundsen, letter to Bjørn Helland-Hansen, [date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.454.
[4] See Roland Huntford, Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.454. Amundsen made only sketchy drawings and took few photographs, but it should be pointed out that his dead-reckoning position of the Butcher's Shop, for example, proved later to have been within a mile of its true bearing. His navigational precision is not in question, only his lack of interest in "minor" details.

Saturday, 1 October 1910

Amundsen

The Hotel Continental, Christiania. [1]

Almost the moment that he arrived back in Christiania, Leon Amundsen had an audience with the King to tell him about his brother's change of plan; at the same time, Helland-Hansen delivered a letter from Amundsen to Nansen.

Nansen is reported to have said, "The idiot! Why couldn't he have told me. He could have had all my plans and calculations." [2]

In the evening of 1st October, Leon held a press conference at the Hotel Continental. "The excitement was great," wrote the Bergen Anonce Tidende the next day. "We knew that it was an announcement concerning Fram which Herr Leon Amundsen was going to make; but of what it consisted, we had not the slightest inkling. And as we waited, the excitement mounted." [3]


Notes:

[1] "Oslo of yore", skyscrapercity.com.
[2] Herlof Harstad, Erobring av Antarktis, p.88, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.318.
[3] Anonce Tidende, Bergen, 3 October 1910, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.319.