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92-735: British Antarctic Expedition may refer to: British Antarctic Expedition 1898–1900 , also known as the Southern Cross Expedition British Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04 , also known as the Discovery Expedition British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09 , also known as the Nimrod Expedition British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13 , also known as
184-792: A South Pole expedition . He left Norway in June 1910 on the ship Fram and reached Antarctica in January 1911. His party established a camp at the Bay of Whales and a series of supply depots on the Barrier (now known as the Ross Ice Shelf ) before setting out for the pole in October. The party of five, led by Amundsen, became the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. Following
276-581: A Union Flag . The ship was carrying 31 men and 90 Siberian sledge dogs, the first to be taken on an Antarctic expedition. After final provisioning in Hobart , Tasmania , Southern Cross sailed for the Antarctic on 19 December. She crossed the Antarctic Circle on 23 January 1899, and after a three-week delay in pack ice sighted Cape Adare on 16 February, before anchoring close to the shore on
368-564: A sauna in the snowdrifts. Concerts were held, including lantern slides, songs and readings. During this time there were two near-fatal incidents; in the first, a candle left burning beside a bunk set fire to the hut and caused extensive damage. In the second, three of the party were nearly asphyxiated by coal fire fumes as they slept. The party was well-supplied with a variety of basic foodstuffs—butter, tea and coffee, herrings, sardines, cheeses, soup, tinned tripe, plum pudding, dry potatoes and vegetables. There were nevertheless complaints about
460-474: A Norwegian father and an English mother, Carsten Borchgrevink emigrated to Australia in 1888, where he worked as a land surveyor in the interior before accepting a provincial schoolteaching appointment in New South Wales . Having a taste for adventure, in 1894 he joined a commercial whaling expedition, led by Henryk Bull , which penetrated Antarctic waters and reached Cape Adare , the western portal to
552-505: A doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. He promptly quit university for a life at sea. Amundsen was in the Uranienborg neighbourhood an occasional childhood playmate of the pioneering Antarctica explorer Carsten Borchgrevink . When he was fifteen years old, Amundsen was enthralled by reading Sir John Franklin 's narratives of his overland Arctic expeditions. Amundsen wrote "I read them with
644-586: A failed attempt in 1918 to reach the North Pole by traversing the Northeast Passage on the ship Maud , Amundsen began planning for an aerial expedition instead. On 12 May 1926, Amundsen and 15 other men in the airship Norge became the first explorers verified to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen disappeared in June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission for the airship Italia in
736-615: A fervid fascination which has shaped the whole course of my life". Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as first mate at the age of 25 in 1897. This expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica , became the first expedition to overwinter in Antarctica. The Belgica , whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island , west of
828-404: A landing was possible. On 16 February he, Colbeck and Savio landed with dogs and a sledge, ascended to the Barrier surface, and then journeyed a few miles south to a point which they calculated as 78°50′S, a new Farthest South record. They were the first persons to travel on the Barrier surface, earning Amundsen's approbation: "We must acknowledge that, by ascending the Barrier, Borchgrevink opened
920-414: A new ship, Maud , lasted until 1925. Maud was carefully navigated through the ice west to east through the Northeast Passage . With him on this expedition were Oscar Wisting and Helmer Hanssen, both of whom had been part of the team to reach the South Pole. In addition, Henrik Lindstrøm was included as a cook. He suffered a stroke and was so physically reduced that he could not participate. The goal of
1012-406: A place on Borchgrevink's scientific staff. His later chronicle of the expedition was critical of aspects of Borchgrevink's leadership, but defended the expedition's scientific achievements. In 1901, Bernacchi would return to Antarctica as a physicist on Scott's Discovery expedition . Another of Borchgrevink's men who later served Scott's expedition, as commander of the relief ship Morning ,
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#17327647992151104-402: A quarrel within the group, and Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land . A second attempt, with a team of five made up of Olav Bjaaland , Helmer Hanssen , Sverre Hassel , Oscar Wisting and Amundsen, departed base camp on 19 October. They took four sledges and 52 dogs. Using a route along the previously unknown Axel Heiberg Glacier , they arrived at
1196-464: A small square pane high on the northern wall. Bunks were fitted around the outer walls, and a table and stove dominated the centre. During the few remaining weeks of Antarctic summer, members of the party practised travel with dogs and sledges on the sea ice in nearby Robertson Bay , surveyed the coastline, collected specimens of birds and fish, and slaughtered seals and penguins for food and fuel. Outside activities were largely curtailed in mid-May, with
1288-526: A well-received address to the 1895 Sixth International Geographical Congress in London, in which he professed his willingness to lead such a venture, he was initially unsuccessful. The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was preparing its own plans for a large-scale National Antarctic Expedition (which eventually became the Discovery Expedition 1901–04 ) and was in search of funds; Borchgrevink
1380-427: A winter larder and a fuel source. Unloading began on 17 February. First ashore were the dogs, with their two Sami handlers, Savio and Must, who remained with them and thus became the first men to spend a night on the Antarctic continent. During the next twelve days the rest of the equipment and supplies were landed, and two prefabricated huts were erected, one as living quarters and the other for storage. These were
1472-595: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages British Antarctic Expedition 1898%E2%80%931900 The Southern Cross Expedition , otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900 , was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration , and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton . The brainchild of
1564-569: Is little evidence, it was said that Amundsen had a brief affair with his landlady in Antwerp —until he came home and found her dead after an apparent suicide. His biographer Tor Bomann-Larsen also suggests a romantic relationship between Amundsen and Sigrid Castberg, wife of the lawyer Leif Castberg from Gjøvik , in the years before the South Pole expedition, a relationship Amundsen broke off after that expedition in favour of Kiss Bennett. Author Julian Sancton noted that in his younger years, Amundsen
1656-590: The Antarctic Peninsula . The crew endured a winter for which they were poorly prepared. By Amundsen's own estimation, the doctor for the expedition, the American Frederick Cook , probably saved the crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh meat. In cases where citrus fruits are lacking, raw meat – particularly offal – from animals often contains enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy. In 1903, Amundsen led
1748-496: The Parry Channel and then south through Peel Sound , James Ross Strait , Simpson Strait and Rae Strait . They spent two winters at King William Island , in the harbor of what is today Gjoa Haven . During this time, Amundsen and the crew learned from the local Netsilik Inuit about Arctic survival skills, which he found invaluable in his later expedition to the South Pole. For example, he learned to use sled dogs for
1840-585: The Ross Sea . A party including Bull and Borchgrevink briefly landed there, and claimed to be the first men to set foot on the Antarctic continent—although the English-born American sealer John Davis believed he had landed on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821. Bull's party also visited Possession Island in the Ross Sea, leaving a message in a tin box as proof of their journey. Borchgrevink
1932-584: The Royal Norwegian Navy , tried to fly from Wainwright, Alaska , to Spitsbergen across the North Pole. When their aircraft was damaged, they abandoned the journey. To raise additional funds, Amundsen traveled around the United States in 1924 on a lecture tour. In 1925, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth , pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen , flight mechanic Karl Feucht and two other team members, Amundsen took two Dornier Do J flying boats ,
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#17327647992152024-586: The Terra Nova Expedition Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title British Antarctic Expedition . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Antarctic_Expedition&oldid=438936416 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2116-431: The conditions as "democratic anarchy", with dirt, disorder and inactivity the order of the day. Borchgrevink's lack of scientific training, and his inability to make simple observations, were additional matters of concern. Nevertheless, the programme of scientific observations was maintained throughout the winter. Exercise was taken outside the hut when the weather permitted, and as a further diversion Savio improvised
2208-612: The "important geographical discovery ... of the Southern Cross Fjord, as well as the excellent camping place at the foot of Mount Melbourne ". The most significant exploration achievement, Borchgrevink thought, was the scaling of the Great Ice Barrier and the journey to "the furthest south ever reached by man". Borchgrevink's account of the expedition, First on the Antarctic Continent ,
2300-658: The Amundsen flight. Amundsen was a lifelong bachelor, but he had a long-time relationship with the Norwegian-born Kristine Elisabeth ('Kiss') Bennett, the wife of an Englishman, Charles Peto Bennett . He met her in London in 1907 and they remained close for many years; Amundsen kept the relationship a secret from everyone outside his intimate circle. Later, he became engaged to Bess Magids, an American divorcée whom he had met in Alaska. Though there
2392-693: The Anglo-Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink , it was the first expedition to over-winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier —later known as the Ross Ice Shelf—since Sir James Clark Ross 's groundbreaking expedition of 1839 to 1843 , and the first to effect a landing on the Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in Antarctic travel. The expedition
2484-673: The Arctic in the airship Norge , designed by Nobile. They left Spitsbergen on 11 May 1926, flew over the North Pole on 12 May, and landed in Alaska the following day. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole, by the Americans Frederick Cook in 1908; Robert Peary in 1909; and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge ) are disputed by some, as being either of dubious accuracy or outrightly fraudulent. If these other claims are false,
2576-458: The Arctic. The search for his remains, which have not been found, was called off that September. Amundsen was born into a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge , between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg . His parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the fourth son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family maritime trade and encouraged him to become
2668-442: The Barrier edge, to find the inlet where, in 1843, Ross had reached his farthest south . Observations indicated that the Barrier edge had moved some 30 statute miles (50 km) south since Ross's time, which meant that the ship were already south of Ross's record. Borchgrevink was determined to make a landing on the Barrier itself, and in the vicinity of Ross's inlet he found a spot where the ice sloped sufficiently to suggest that
2760-513: The Barrier, along a line directly south to the Pole. Amundsen also planned to kill most of his dogs on the way and use them as a source for fresh meat. As he went he butchered some of the dogs and fed them to the remaining dogs, as well as eating some himself. A small group, including Hjalmar Johansen , Kristian Prestrud and Jørgen Stubberud , set out on 8 September, but had to abandon their trek due to extreme temperatures. The painful retreat caused
2852-649: The Discovery Expedition, when Edward Wilson wrote; "... heaps of refuse all around, and a mountain of provision boxes, dead birds, seals, dogs, sledging gear ... and heaven knows what else". Southern Cross first called at Possession Island, where the tin box left by Borchgrevink and Bull in 1895 was recovered. They then proceeded southwards, following the Victoria Land coast and discovering further islands, one of which Borchgrevink named after Sir Clements Markham, whose hostility towards
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2944-616: The Moon was named after him; the rim of the crater is being considered by NASA as a potential landing location for their Artemis III lunar lander. Built in 1929 and opened in 1930, Amundsen High School opened its doors in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. The 1969 film The Red Tent tells the story of the Nobile expedition and Amundsen's disappearance. Sean Connery plays Amundsen. A book Scott and Amundsen , by Roland Huntford ,
3036-484: The N-24 and N-25, to 87° 44′ north. It was the northernmost latitude reached by plane up to that time. The aircraft landed a few miles apart without radio contact, yet the crews managed to reunite. The N-24 was damaged. Amundsen and his crew worked for more than three weeks to clean up an airstrip to take off from ice. They shovelled 600 tons of ice while consuming only one pound (450 g) of daily food rations. In
3128-582: The National Expedition on its legs". Newnes stipulated that Borchgrevink's expedition should sail under the British flag , and be styled the "British Antarctic Expedition". Borchgrevink readily agreed to these conditions, even though only two of the entire expedition party were British. This annoyed Markham all the more, and he subsequently rebuked the RGS librarian Hugh Robert Mill for attending
3220-514: The North Pole. Amundsen's French Latham 47 flying boat never returned . Later, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from the plane, which had been adapted as a replacement wing-float, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is assumed that the plane crashed in the Barents Sea , and that Amundsen and his crew were killed in the wreck, or died shortly afterward. The search for Amundsen and team
3312-566: The North and South poles). The geographical establishments in Britain and abroad were slow to give formal recognition to the expedition. The Royal Geographical Society gave Borchgrevink a fellowship, and other medals and honours eventually followed from Norway, Denmark and the United States, but the expedition's achievements were not widely recognised. Markham persisted in describing Borchgrevink as cunning and unprincipled; Amundsen's warm tribute
3404-673: The Northwest Passage "was a great achievement for Norway". He said he hoped to do more and signed it "Your loyal subject, Roald Amundsen". The crew returned to Oslo in November 1906, after almost three and a half years abroad. Gjøa was returned to Norway in 1972. After a 45-day trip from San Francisco on a bulk carrier, she was placed on land outside the Fram Museum in Oslo, where she is now situated inside her own building at
3496-472: The Norwegian supporters felt misled. Scott was planning his own expedition to the South Pole that year. Using the ship Fram , earlier used by Fridtjof Nansen , Amundsen left Oslo for the south on 3 June 1910. At Madeira , Amundsen alerted his men that they would be heading to Antarctica, and sent a telegram to Scott: "Beg to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic – Amundsen." Nearly six months later,
3588-594: The Southern Cross Expedition launch. Mill had toasted the success of the expedition, calling it "a reproach to human enterprise" that there were parts of the earth that man had never attempted to reach. He hoped that this reproach would be lifted through "the munificence of Sir George Newnes and the courage of Mr Borchgrevink". Borchgrevink's original expedition objectives included the development of commercial opportunities, as well as scientific and geographical discovery. However, his plans to exploit
3680-508: The base, christened "Camp Ridley" after Borchgrevink's English mother's maiden name, was fully established, and the Duke of York's flag raised. That day, Southern Cross departed to winter in Australia. The living hut contained a small ante-room used as a photographic darkroom , and another for taxidermy . Daylight was admitted to the hut via a double-glazed, shuttered window, and through
3772-462: The base. In January 1900, the party left Cape Adare in Southern Cross to explore the Ross Sea, following the route taken by Ross 60 years earlier. They reached the Great Ice Barrier, where a team of three made the first sledge journey on the Barrier surface, during which a new Farthest South record latitude was established at 78° 50′S. On its return to Britain the expedition
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3864-459: The carefully collected scientific data was lost during the ill-fated journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen , two crew members sent on a mission by Amundsen. The scientific materials were later retrieved in 1922 by Russian scientist Nikolay Urvantsev from where they had been abandoned on the shores of the Kara Sea . The 1923 attempt to fly over the Pole failed. Amundsen and Oskar Omdal , of
3956-533: The command of Wisting, was to resume the original plan to drift over the North Pole in the ice. The ship drifted in the ice for three years east of the New Siberian Islands, never reaching the North Pole. It was finally seized by Amundsen's creditors as collateral for his mounting debt. Although they were unable to reach the North Pole, the scientific results of the expedition, mainly the work of Sverdrup, have proven to be of considerable value. Much of
4048-487: The continent and to Hobart , Australia, where Amundsen publicly announced his success on 7 March 1912. He telegraphed news to backers. Amundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis. In contrast to the misfortunes of Scott's team, Amundsen's trek proved relatively smooth and uneventful. In 1918, an expedition Amundsen began with
4140-568: The crew got the ship loose from the ice, but it froze again after eleven days somewhere between the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island . During this time, Amundsen suffered a broken arm and was attacked by a polar bear. As a result, he participated little in the work outdoors, such as sleigh rides and hunting. He, Hanssen, and Wisting, along with two other men, embarked on an expedition by dog sled to Nome, Alaska, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. But they found that
4232-623: The crew of the Norge would be the first explorers verified to have reached the North Pole, when they floated over it in the Norge in 1926. If the Norge expedition was the first to the North Pole, Amundsen and Oscar Wisting were the first men to have reached both geographical poles, by ground or by air. Amundsen disappeared on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. His team included Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson , French pilot René Guilbaud , and three more Frenchmen. They were seeking missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from
4324-535: The crew. During the third winter, Maud was frozen in the western Bering Strait. She finally became free and the expedition sailed south, reaching Seattle , in the American Pacific Northwest in 1921 for repairs. Amundsen returned to Norway, needing to put his finances in order. He took with him two young indigenous girls, a four-year-old he adopted, Kakonita, and her companion Camilla. When Amundsen went bankrupt two years later, however, he sent
4416-425: The dogs and sledges. Their base camp was cut off from the continent's interior by high mountain ranges, and journeys along the coastline were frustrated by unsafe sea ice. These factors severely restricted their exploration, which was largely confined to the vicinity of Robertson Bay. Here, a small island was discovered, which was named Duke of York Island , after the expedition's patron. A few years later this find
4508-435: The dogs were killed but a few remained. 9 of the remaining dogs were bought by Ernest Shackleton . Southern Cross returned to England in June 1900, to a cool welcome; public attention was distracted by the preparations for the upcoming Discovery Expedition, due to sail the following year. Borchgrevink meanwhile pronounced his voyage a great success, stating: "The Antarctic regions might be another Klondyke "—in terms of
4600-626: The edge of the Polar Plateau on 21 November after a four-day climb. The team and 16 dogs arrived at the pole on 14 December, a month before Scott's group. Amundsen named their South Pole camp Polheim . Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII's Plateau. They left a small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in case they did not return safely to Framheim. The team arrived at Framheim on 25 January 1912, with 11 surviving dogs. They made their way off
4692-526: The end, the six crew members were packed into the N-25. In a remarkable feat, Riiser-Larsen took off, and they barely became airborne over the cracking ice. They returned triumphant when everyone thought they had been lost forever. In 1926, Amundsen and 15 other men (including Ellsworth, Riiser-Larsen, Oscar Wisting, and the Italian air crew led by aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile ) made the first crossing of
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#17327647992154784-491: The expedition arrived at the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (then known as "the Great Ice Barrier"), at a large inlet called the Bay of Whales , on 14 January 1911. Amundsen established his base camp there, calling it Framheim . Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit -style furred skins. Using skis and dog sleds for transportation, Amundsen and his men created supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South on
4876-559: The expedition as "interesting as a dashing piece of scientific work". The meteorological and magnetic conditions of Victoria Land had been recorded for a full year; the location of the South Magnetic Pole had been calculated (though not visited); samples of the continent's natural fauna and flora, and of its geology, had been collected. Borchgrevink also claimed the discovery of new insect and shallow-water fauna species, proving "bi-polarity" (existence of species in proximity to
4968-469: The expedition told of their relations with Inuit women, and historians have speculated that Amundsen might also have taken a partner, although he wrote a warning against this. Specifically, half-brothers Bob Konona and Paul Ikuallaq say that their father Luke Ikuallaq told them on his deathbed that he was the son of Amundsen. Konona said that their father Ikuallaq was left out on the ice to die after his birth, as his European ancestry made him illegitimate to
5060-522: The expedition was evidently unchanged by this honour. Southern Cross then sailed on to Ross Island , observed the volcano Mount Erebus , and attempted a landing at Cape Crozier , at the foot of Mount Terror . Here, Borchgrevink and Captain Jensen were almost drowned by a large wave caused by a calving or breakaway of ice from the adjacent Great Ice Barrier . Following the path of James Clark Ross sixty years previously, they proceeded eastwards along
5152-501: The expedition was to explore the unknown areas of the Arctic Ocean, strongly inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's earlier expedition with Fram . The plan was to sail along the coast of Siberia and go into the ice farther to the north and east than Nansen had. In contrast to Amundsen's earlier expeditions, this was expected to yield more material for academic research, and he carried the geophysicist Harald Sverdrup on board. The voyage
5244-447: The extensive guano deposits that he had observed during his 1894–95 voyage were not pursued. Research would be carried out across a range of disciplines, and Borchgrevink hoped that the scientific results would be complemented by spectacular geographical discoveries and journeys, even perhaps an attempt on the geographical South Pole itself; he was unaware at this stage that the site of the base at Cape Adare would not allow access to
5336-407: The first buildings erected on the continent. A third structure was contrived from spare materials, to serve as a magnetic observation hut. As accommodation for ten men the "living hut" was small and cramped, and seemingly precarious—Bernacchi later described it as "fifteen feet square, lashed down by cables to the rocky shore". The dogs were housed in kennels fashioned from packing cases. By 2 March
5428-546: The first expedition to traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He planned a small expedition of six men in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa , to have flexibility. His ship had relatively shallow draft. His technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a small 13 horsepower single-screw paraffin (diesel) engine. They traveled via Baffin Bay ,
5520-493: The first person to be buried on the Antarctic continent. The grave was dynamited from the frozen ground at the summit of the Cape. Bernacchi wrote: "There amidst profound silence and peace, there is nothing to disturb that eternal sleep except the flight of seabirds". Hanson left a wife, and a baby daughter born after he left for the Antarctic. As winter gave way to spring, the party prepared for more ambitious inland journeys using
5612-511: The following day. Cape Adare, discovered by Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross during his 1839–43 expedition , lies at the end of a long promontory , below which is the large triangular shingle foreshore where Bull and Borchgrevink had made their brief landing in 1895. This foreshore held one of the largest Adelie penguin rookeries on the entire continent and had ample room, as Borchgrevink had remarked in 1895, "for houses, tents and provisions". The abundance of penguins would provide both
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#17327647992155704-426: The girls to be cared for by Camilla's father, who lived in eastern Russia. In June 1922, Amundsen returned to Maud , which had been sailed to Nome. He decided to shift from the planned naval expedition to aerial ones, and arranged to charter a plane. He divided the expedition team in two: one part, led by him, was to winter over and prepare for an attempt to fly over the pole in 1923. The second team on Maud , under
5796-601: The hinterland of Antarctica. For his expedition's ship, Borchgrevink purchased in 1897 a steam whaler, Pollux , that had been built in 1886 in Arendal on the south east coast of Norway, to the design of renowned shipbuilder Colin Archer . Archer had designed and built Fridtjof Nansen 's ship, Fram , which in 1896 had returned unscathed from its long drift in the northern polar ocean during Nansen's Fram expedition . Pollux , which Borchgrevink renamed Southern Cross ,
5888-548: The ice was not frozen solid in the Bering Strait , and it could not be crossed. They sent a telegram from Anadyr to signal their location. After two winters frozen in the ice, without having achieved the goal of drifting over the North Pole, Amundsen decided to go to Nome to repair the ship and buy provisions. Several of the crew ashore there, including Hanssen, did not return on time to the ship. Amundsen considered Hanssen to be in breach of contract, and dismissed him from
5980-462: The lack of luxuries, Colbeck noting that "all the tinned fruits supplied for the land party were either eaten on the passage or left on board for the [ship's] crew". There was also a shortage of tobacco; in spite of an intended provision of half a ton (500 kg), only a quantity of chewing tobacco was landed. The zoologist, Nicolai Hanson , had fallen ill during the winter. On 14 October 1899 he died, apparently of an intestinal disorder, and became
6072-536: The location of the South Magnetic Pole was, as expected, within Victoria Land, but further north and further west than had previously been assumed. The party then sailed for home, crossing the Antarctic Circle on 28 February. On 1 April, news of their safe return was sent by telegram from Bluff, New Zealand . The dogs were left on Native Island , New Zealand. Due to quarantine requirements, many of
6164-538: The museum. Amundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin . Finding it difficult to raise funds, when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to reach the North Pole as a result of two different expeditions, he decided to reroute to Antarctica. He was not clear about his intentions, and Robert F. Scott and
6256-402: The onset of winter. Winter proved to be a difficult time; Bernacchi wrote of rising boredom and irritation: "Officers and men, ten of us in all, found tempers wearing thin". During this period of confinement, Borchgrevink's weaknesses as a commander were exposed; he was, according to Bernacchi, "in many respects ... not a good leader". The polar historian Ranulph Fiennes later described
6348-529: The prospects for fishing, sealing, and mineral extraction. He had proved that it was possible for a resident expedition to survive an Antarctic winter, and had made a series of geographical discoveries. These included new islands in Robertson's Bay and the Ross Sea, and the first landings on Franklin Island, Coulman Island, Ross Island and the Great Ice Barrier. The survey of the Victoria Land coast had revealed
6440-533: The time to the pioneer work of the Southern Cross expedition", and that the magnitude of the difficulties it had overcome had previously been underestimated. After the expedition, Borchgrevink lived quietly, largely out of the public eye. He died in Oslo on 21 April 1934. Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen ( UK : / ˈ ɑː m ʊ n d s ən / , US : /- m ə n s -/ ; Norwegian: [ˈrùːɑɫ ˈɑ̂mʉnsən] ; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928 )
6532-569: The transport of goods and to wear animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas, which could not keep out the cold when wet. Leaving Gjoa Haven, he sailed west and passed Cambridge Bay , which had been reached from the west by Richard Collinson in 1852. Continuing to the south of Victoria Island , the ship cleared the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on 17 August 1905 . It had to stop for the winter before going on to Nome on Alaska's Pacific coast. The nearest telegraph station
6624-704: The two dog experts from northern Norway, sometimes described in expedition accounts as Lapps or "Finns". Among the scientists was the Tasmanian Louis Bernacchi , who had studied magnetism and meteorology at the Melbourne Observatory . He had been appointed to the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899, but had been unable to take up his post when the expedition's ship, the Belgica , had failed to call at Melbourne on its way south. Bernacchi then travelled to London and secured
6716-399: The way to the south, and threw aside the greatest obstacle to the expeditions that followed". Close to the same spot ten years later, Amundsen would establish his base camp "Framheim", prior to his successful South Pole journey. On its passage northward, Southern Cross halted at Franklin Island , off the Victoria Land coast, and made a series of magnetic calculations. These indicated that
6808-497: The youngest of the party. The ship's company, under Captain Bernard Jensen, consisted of 19 Norwegian officers and seamen and one Swedish steward. Jensen was an experienced ice navigator in Arctic and Antarctic waters, and had been with Borchgrevink on Bull's Antarctic voyage in 1894–1895. Southern Cross left London on 23 August 1898, after inspection by the Duke of York (the future King George V), who presented
6900-640: Was Nicolai Hanson , a graduate from the Royal Frederick University . Also in the shore party was Herluf Kløvstad, the expedition's medical officer, whose previous appointment had been to a lunatic asylum in Bergen . The others were Anton Fougner, scientific assistant and general handyman; Kolbein Ellifsen, cook and general assistant; and the two Sami dog-handlers, Per Savio and Ole Must, who, at 21 and 20 years of age respectively, were
6992-628: Was William Colbeck , who held a lieutenant's commission in the Royal Naval Reserve . In preparation for the Southern Cross Expedition, Colbeck had taken a course in magnetism at Kew Observatory . Borchgrevink's assistant zoologist was Hugh Blackwell Evans, a vicar's son from Bristol , who had spent three years on a cattle ranch in Canada and had also been on a sealing voyage to the Kerguelen Islands . The chief zoologist
7084-470: Was barque-rigged , 520 gross register tons , and 146 feet (45 m) overall length. The ship was taken to Archer's yard in Larvik to be fitted out with engines designed to Borchgrevink's specification. Although Markham continued to question the ship's seaworthiness, she was able to fulfil all that was required of her in Antarctic waters. Like several of the historic polar ships her post-expedition life
7176-534: Was 500 mi (800 km) away in Eagle . Amundsen traveled there overland to wire a success message on 5 December, then returned to Nome in 1906. Later that year he was elected to the American Antiquarian Society . Amundsen learned of the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden , and that he had a new king. The explorer sent the new king, Haakon VII , news that his traversing
7268-522: Was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions . He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration . Born in Borge, Østfold , Norway, Amundsen began his career as a polar explorer as first mate on Adrien de Gerlache 's Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899. From 1903 to 1906, he led the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage on the sloop Gjøa . In 1909, Amundsen began planning for
7360-526: Was a lone approving voice. According to Scott's biographer David Crane, if Borchgrevink had been a British naval officer his expedition would have been treated differently, but "a Norwegian seaman/schoolmaster was never going to be taken seriously". A belated recognition came in 1930, long after Markham's death, when the Royal Geographical Society presented Borchgrevink with its Patron's Medal. It admitted that "justice had not been done at
7452-563: Was adapted into the TV serial The Last Place on Earth . It aired in 1985 and features Sverre Anker Ousdal as Amundsen. On 15 February 2019, a biographic Norwegian film titled Amundsen , directed by Espen Sandberg , was released. At least two Inuit in Gjøa Haven with European ancestry have claimed to be descendants of Amundsen, from the period of their extended winter stay on King William Island from 1903 to 1905. Accounts by members of
7544-527: Was called off in September 1928 by the Norwegian government, and the bodies were never found. In 2004 and in late August 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy used the unmanned submarine Hugin 1000 to search for the wreckage of Amundsen's plane. The searches focused on a 40-square-mile (100 km ) area of the sea floor, and were documented by the German production company ContextTV. They found nothing from
7636-481: Was convinced that the Cape Adare location, with its huge penguin rookery providing a ready supply of fresh food and blubber , could serve as a base at which a future expedition could overwinter and subsequently explore the Antarctic interior. After his return from Cape Adare, Borchgrevink spent much of the following years in Britain and Australia, seeking financial backing for an Antarctic expedition. Despite
7728-490: Was coolly received by London's geographical establishment exemplified by the Royal Geographical Society , which resented the pre-emption of the pioneering Antarctic role they envisaged for the Discovery Expedition . There were also questions about Borchgrevink's leadership qualities, and criticism of the limited extent of scientific results. Thus, despite the number of significant "firsts", Borchgrevink
7820-432: Was dismissed by members of Scott's Discovery Expedition, who claimed that the island "did not exist", but its position has since been confirmed at 71°38′S, 170°04′E. On 28 January 1900 Southern Cross returned. Borchgrevink and his party quickly vacated the camp, and on 2 February he took the ship south into the Ross Sea. Evidence of a hasty and disorderly departure from Cape Adare was noted two years later by members of
7912-479: Was never accorded the heroic status of Scott or Shackleton, and his expedition was soon forgotten in the dramas which surrounded these and other Heroic Age explorers. However, Roald Amundsen , conqueror of the South Pole in 1911, acknowledged that Borchgrevink's expedition had removed the greatest obstacles to Antarctic travel, and had opened the way for all the expeditions that followed. Born in Oslo in 1864 to
8004-545: Was privately financed by the British magazine publisher Sir George Newnes . Borchgrevink's party sailed in the Southern Cross , and spent the southern winter of 1899 at Cape Adare , the northwest extremity of the Ross Sea coastline. Here they carried out an extensive programme of scientific observations, although opportunities for inland exploration were restricted by the mountainous and glaciated terrain surrounding
8096-520: Was published the following year; the English edition, much of which may have been embroidered by Newnes's staff, was criticised for its "journalistic" style and for its bragging tone. The author, whom commentators recognised was "not known for either his modesty or his tact", embarked on a lecture tour of England and Scotland, but the reception was generally poor. Despite the unexplained disappearance of many of Hanson's notes, Hugh Robert Mill described
8188-414: Was regarded by RGS president Sir Clements Markham as a foreign interloper and a rival for funding. Borchgrevink persuaded the publisher Sir George Newnes (whose business rival Alfred Harmsworth was backing the RGS venture) to meet the full cost of his expedition, some £40,000. This gift infuriated Markham and the RGS, since Newnes's donation, had it come their way would, he said have been enough "to get
8280-589: Was relatively short. She was sold to the Newfoundland Sealing Company, and in April 1914, was lost with her entire complement of 173, in the 1914 Newfoundland sealing disaster . The ten-man shore party who were to winter at Cape Adare consisted of Borchgrevink, five scientists, a medical officer, a cook who also served as a general assistant, and two dog drivers. Five—including Borchgrevink—were Norwegian, two were English, one Australian and
8372-595: Was said to have ignored romantic relationships in pursuit of his goals. He "found little use in activities that didn't help him fulfill his polar ambitions". Owing to Amundsen's numerous significant accomplishments in polar exploration, many places in both the Arctic and Antarctic are named after him. The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station , operated by the United States Antarctic Program , was jointly named in honour of Amundsen and his British rival Robert Falcon Scott . The Amundsen crater on
8464-568: Was to the northeasterly direction over the Kara Sea . Amundsen planned to freeze the Maud into the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole ;– as Nansen had done with the Fram – and he did so off Cape Chelyuskin . But, the ice became so thick that the ship was unable to break free, although it was designed for such a journey in heavy ice. In September 1919,
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