May 1909

Amundsen

Stubberud in July 1910, just before the Fram sailed. Photograph by Anders Beer Wiltse. [1]

Amundsen had hired a young local carpenter, Jørgen Stubberud, to work on his house at Svartskog, and was impressed enough to ask Stubberud to build the expedition hut, capable of being built ahead of time and reassembled on site. "Roald said only, 'It should be winter quarters, five metres long, four metres wide, and five metres high. Figure out the rest yourself!'"

"So then I went to Skedsmo and got the right materials, three-inch plank. There should be four panels, two outside and two inside, with cardboard in-between. I finished 'Framheim'. Roald said he was pleased, and so I packed the whole thing up. Afterwards I asked respectfully, "Captain, is there also an opportunity for me to go with the expedition?' 'Yes,' answered Roald, 'as long as your wife agrees.' And she did right away. The same day I sat in Roald's dining room and signed a contract for seven years." [2]


Notes:

[1] Norsk Folkemuseum, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Jørgen Stubberud, quoted in "Sydpol-Stubberud: den Siste Gjenlevende av Roald Amundsens Atten Menn", Dagbladet, April 1978, reprinted at Polarlitteratur.com. A clip from 1961 of Stubberud recalling this is available at NRK Skole.

Wednesday, 24 March 1909

Scott

Marshall, Wild, and Shackleton at 88°23'S, 9th January 1909. Adams took the photograph. [1]

The same day that he took up his new Admiralty appointment as Naval assistant to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, Second Sea Lord, Scott heard the news of Shackleton's arrival in New Zealand.

Shackleton had got within 97 miles of the Pole before weather, short rations, and dysentery forced the four-man Polar party to turn back.

Doubts were soon cast on Shackleton's latitudes, which had been calculated by dead reckoning, the estimation of present position based on route, speed, and elapsed time since the previous observation (as opposed to the more accurate celestial navigation, determining current position by its relation to sun, stars, etc.), but on the whole Shackleton was received with acclamation and official recognition.

"The private feeling incurred by past incidents cannot affect my judgment of his work," Scott wrote to Leonard Darwin, now president of the RGS. "That excited my interest and admiration to an extent that can scarcely be felt by those who have no experience of Polar difficulties." [2]

He wrote rather differently to Skelton. "Shackleton's exploit is very fine, but of course I cannot but share your mixed feelings -- However, outwardly, there is only one attitude for me and I shall have to do & say things that go a little against the grain -- What a difference it would make if one could be genuinely enthusiastic! -- but there's such a lot that tastes bad!" [3]


Amundsen

Upon hearing Shackleton's news, Amundsen wrote to the RGS, "I must ... congratulate you ... upon this wonderful achievement.... The English nation has by the deed of Shackleton won a victory in the Antarctic exploration [sic] which never can be surpassed. What Nansen is in the North Shackleton is in the South." [4]

"More than any of their predecessors," he later wrote of Shackleton and his men, "[they] had succeeded in raising the veil that lay over 'Antarctica.' But a little corner remained." [5]


Notes:

[1] Wikipedia.
[2] R.F. Scott, letter to Leonard Darwin, 23 March, 1909, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.355.
[3] R.F. Scott, letter to Reginald Skelton, undated, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.355.
[4] Roald Amundsen, letter to Scott Keltie, 25 March, 1909, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.244-245.
[5] Roald Amundsen, The South Pole, ch.1.

March 1909

Scott

As Scott was unable to get leave from the Admiralty, Skelton ran the motor sledge trials. Scott had chosen Lillehammer in eastern Norway, as it was easily accessible.

It was about this time that, realising the motor sledges would not be as useful as he had hoped, Scott decided to take ponies as well.

Saturday, 6 February 1909

Amundsen

The Fram in front of Akershus castle in 1908. Photo: Anders Beer Wilse. [1]

The Storting, by a vote of 87 to 34, agreed to let Amundsen have the Fram and the 75,000 kroner to refit her.

A few days later, Amundsen wrote to Keltie, "I have not yet got all the money I want, but I must go on nevertheless." [2]


Notes:

[1] GalleriNOR, Norske Folkemuseum, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Roald Amundsen, letter to Scott Keltie, 13 February, 1909, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.203.

January 1909

Amundsen

Olav Bjaaland, photographed in 1910 just before the Fram's departure for the south, by Anders Beer Wilse. [1]

At the end of January, on his way to lecture at the RGS on his coming Arctic expedition, Amundsen changed trains at Lübeck in northern Germany, and happened to meet in the station restaurant a Norwegian ski team going to Chamonix.

"Do you know," one of them said as they chatted, "it would be fun to be with you at the North Pole." "Indeed!" Amundsen replied. "Well, if you really mean it, I think it could be arranged. Just look me up in Christiania when you get home from Chamonix. But -- think it over carefully. It won't only be fun." [2]

This was was not as casual as might appear, for the man was Olav Bjaaland, from Morgedal in Telemark, one of the best skiers in Norway, who had won the Nordic combined ski-jump and cross-country competition at Holmenkollen a few years earlier. Now thirty-five, he was a farmer and a skilled carpenter, and could make both violins and skis; he was travelling abroad for the very first time, and saw Amundsen's expedition as a chance for a bit of adventure. He did look up Amundsen on his return, and by February he had joined the expedition.


Notes:

[1] GalleriNOR, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Olav Bjaaland, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.214.

Saturday, 26 December 1908

Scott

Towards the end of the year, the second version of the motor sledge was ready. Contemplating Norway for the snow trials, Scott wrote to Nansen for advice, qualifying that "the real conditions required cannot be obtained outside the Polar circle." [1] Nansen replied that "[on] one of the big glaciers ... of course you may have almost exactly Inland Ice conditions." [2]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, letter to Fridtjof Nansen, [1908], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.244.
[2] Fridtfjof Nansen, letter to R.F. Scott, 26 December, 1908, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.244.

Saturday, 28 November 1908

Amundsen

After the initial enthusiastic donations to the expedition, Amundsen found it hard going raising money. An old friend, F. Herman Gade, now also Norwegian consul in Chicago, wrote to offer help. "My dear friend," Amundsen replied gratefully and somewhat bitterly, "if you with your contacts can manage anything in that direction you will do me a greater service than I can possibly explain. Attitudes here are miserably mean and parochial, and disproportionately hard work is needed to drum up the necessary means." [1]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen, letter to Herman Gade, 28 November 1908, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.209.

Monday, 24 November 1908

Amundsen

F. Hjalmar Johansen, ca.1897. [1]

Applications to join Amundsen's expedition began to come in. One was from Hjalmar Johansen, a name that was already familiar to Amundsen.

"I have studied your plan," wrote Johansen, "with the greatest interest, which I in some ways am already familiar with as I took part in the first Fram expedition with Nansen." Having spent the previous winter in Spitsbergen, he said, "[I] realised that I am still not altogether unqualified for such work," giving an account of his experience and ending, "in other respects I refer you to Professor Nansen." [1]

Johansen had joined Nansen's Arctic expedition in 1893, and being an expert dog driver accompanied Nansen on his dash for the Pole, reaching the celebrated Farthest North of 86° 13.6' N before retreating to Franz Josef Land, but after his return to Norway, Johansen had fallen on hard times, exacerbated by alcoholism and a poor business sense. Nansen had helped his old comrade to find work on various expeditions in the Arctic, and now pressed Amundsen to take him.


Notes:

[1] "Holder foredrag om polfarer Hjalmar Johansen", telemark.no.
[2] Hjalmar Johansen, letter to Roald Amundsen, 24 November, 1908, quoted by Tor Bomann-Larsen in Roald Amundsen (Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton, c2006, c1995), p.70.