Nowadays, even a child has a general idea of ​​the polar world: snow-white plains, the amazing natural phenomenon of the northern lights, giant icebergs and amazing sea animals - polar bears or penguins.

How many dangers are hidden in these extraordinary corners of the Earth. Despite all the obstacles of travelers and seafarers is drawn to the North and South Poles, trying to fill in the “blank spots” on the world map and prove to everyone and to himself that a person is capable of taking risks. One of the first who managed to conduct successful polar voyages were the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. One managed to become the first person to visit the North Pole, while the other reached the South Point before anyone else.

In the south of Norway in the town of Borg on July 16, 1872 in the family of a shipbuilder Amundsen, the youngest son Roald was born. Roald dreamed of connecting his life with the sea. People came to the port city where the boy lived, and he went to the pier in any weather to watch them. There he heard stories from experienced sailors about adventures and exploits at sea. Rual hoped that one day he too would go to discover unknown lands. Norwegian Roald Amundsen Since childhood, he dreamed of the Arctic and prepared for future campaigns, training hard and enthusiastically reading all the literature available to him about the exploration of the North. Amundsen was greatly impressed by stories about the difficulties that the team of John Franklin, the English explorer and notorious polar explorer, had to overcome.

The young man started skiing. He achieved excellent success in this sport. In addition, by accustoming yourself to the cold, Amundsen slept with the window open even in the most severe cold.

Rual, at the age of 18, obeying his mother’s wishes, entered the medical faculty of the university. The young man did not try to prove himself in the field of medical research, so over time he left the university and was drafted into the army. Thanks to diligent training, Amundsen easily overcame this period in his life. Dreams of future campaigns inspired him in everything.

Amundsen student

In 1894 Amundsen began preparations for the upcoming seafaring. By that time, he had read a lot of books available to him about the Arctic. To gain experience as a sailor, he set sail, starting as a sailor. Studying navigation, he gradually rose to the rank of navigator, and then passed the exam for the rank of captain of the ship. With time Amundsen learned to steer a ship during a storm and became an experienced mate and an excellent navigator.

maps depicting the Arctic Ocean in Amundsen's time were completely different from what they are now

In 1897, twenty-five-year-old Roald Amundsen traveled to Antarctica on a research vessel. Belgium"as the first navigator. The journey turned out to be difficult and not successful. The ship was stuck between the ice for thirteen months. Almost the entire leadership of the expedition fell ill with scurvy, and command passed to the young navigator. Amundsen Thanks to his knowledge in medicine, he saved most of the crew. For seafarers managed to escape from the ice trap in 1899 and the ship " Belgium"returned to Europe.

Thanks to the experience gained Amundsen successfully passed the exams and began organizing his own expedition in 1900 as captain. Taking out a loan against his own house, he purchased a yacht " Yoa» with a displacement of 47 tons and a length of 21 meters. To hire a team and purchase food, he had to ask friends for help and look for sponsors.

On the night of July 16, 1903, the yacht " Yoa"with a crew of seven people left the port of Tromso and headed for Alaska through Baffin Bay, moving between the islands of the northern coast of Canada. The difficult navigation was finally completed in 1905. This meant that he had made a voyage to the Northwest Passage, thereby making the 34-year-old Amundsen accomplished a feat that his “adviser” John Franklin failed to achieve.

polar explorer John Franklin

navigator Amundsen

polar explorer Amundsen

schooner "Fram"

arrival at the South Pole

going on an unknown journey

sailing ship "Maud"

In February 1911, as summer ended in the Southern Hemisphere, schooner« Fram"reached the shores of Antarctica. First of all seafarers organized a base and equipped several warehouses. With the onset of winter, the main part of the expedition remained to wait it out in the camp. The remaining group of people, consisting of four people, left the base on October 19, 1911, on dog sleds, rushing into the interior of the continent. The team covered up to 40 km a day and on December 14, 1911 reached their goal - the South Pole. After three days of observations carried out at this point on the planet, a group of researchers led by Amundsen returned to camp. The Norwegian public rejoiced. Everyone congratulated Amundsen on his feat. The government encouraged navigator And discoverer a generous reward.

But the scientist was not satisfied with the collected materials, so on June 7, 1916, on the ship “Maud”, built with his own money Amundsen set off on his second voyage. This ship had many new devices at that time, which made it possible to better maneuver in the ice. Roald Amundsen invested almost all his funds in it, undertaking another polar exploit. His goal was again the North Pole. To visit the northernmost point of the Earth remained the most remarkable dream of the navigator. Amundsen decided to first open the Northeast Passage along the northern coast of Russia. On July 16, 1918, Roald Amundsen set sail on the Maud along the northern coast of Russia to the Bering Strait. With great difficulty, he reached Alaska in 1920. The polar explorer broke his arm and was forced to change course to Seattle to provide medical assistance and repairs to the ship. This is how the second ended Amundsen expedition.

Amundsen conducted brilliant expeditions, visited the Arctic and Antarctica. He became the most famous polar explorer, but it was the Arctic, so beloved by the explorer, that ultimately destroyed him.

A certain Italian aeronaut, Umberto Nobile, decided to conquer the North Pole in 1928, getting there by airship. However, after takeoff, Nobile crashed. Several rescue groups immediately rushed to his aid, one of them included Amundsen. They previously knew each other - they participated together in a joint expedition on the airship "Norway" in 1926. However, later the relationship between them suddenly turned hostile. Nevertheless, Amundsen made the decision to participate in the rescue of the Italian expedition without delay.

The crew of a large seaplane " Latam-47" consisted of Norwegians and French. In its composition Amundsen flew off in an unknown direction. It must be said that he carefully hid his intentions. He did not inform anyone about the chosen route, which subsequently made the search extremely difficult. Didn't leave Amundsen and records, with journalists he was brief and restrained. The great traveler, as if he had prepared for the tragedy in advance, sold his property and paid off his creditors. Eyewitnesses claim that the far-sighted Amundsen I didn’t even take emergency rations, just a few sandwiches. Norway for a long time refused to believe in the death of its national hero. Death Amundsen officially recognized only six months after the disappearance of the seaplane. The country honored the memory of the famous polar explorer with a few minutes of silence. And General Nobile, Amundsen’s rival, having learned about the death of the Norwegian, found the courage to say out loud: “ He beat me».

In honor of the Norwegian navigator and explorer Roald Amundsen a mountain in East Antarctica, a bay of the Arctic Ocean near the coast of Canada, a basin in the Arctic Ocean located between the Lomonosov and Gakkel ridges and the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Antarctica are named. A historical museum dedicated to the great polar explorers has been created in Norway.

monument on the island of Spitsbergen. From here Amundsen went on an expedition

museum in Oslo, Norway

Amundsen-Scott polar station at the South Pole

In 1909, the South Pole remained the last of the major geographical trophies not taken. It was expected that the United States would enter into a fierce battle over it with the British Empire. However, the leading American polar explorers Cook and Peary at that time focused on the Arctic, and the British expedition of Captain Robert Scott on the Terra Nova vessel received a temporary head start. Scott was in no hurry: the three-year program included extensive scientific research and methodical preparation for the trip to the Pole.

These plans were confused by the Norwegians. Having received a message about the conquest of the North Pole, Roald Amundsen did not want to be the second there and secretly sent his ship "Fram" to the South. In February 1911, he already received British officers at a camp on the Ross Glacier. “There is no doubt that Amundsen's plan is a serious threat to ours,” Scott wrote in his diary. The race has begun.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_01.jpg", "alt": "Captain Scott", "text": "Captain Scott")

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_02.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen")

In the preface to his memoirs, one of the members of the Terra Nova expedition later wrote: “For scientific research, give me Scott; for a jerk to the pole - Amundsen; pray to Shackleton for salvation.”

Perhaps a penchant for the arts and sciences is one of the few reliably known positive qualities of Robert Scott. His literary talent was especially evident in his own diary, which became the basis for the myth of a hero who fell victim to circumstances.

Cracker, unsociable, human-function - Roald Amundsen was created to achieve results. This planning maniac called adventures the unfortunate consequence of poor preparation.

Team

The composition of Scott's expedition shocked the polar explorers of that time, numbering 65 people, including the Terra Nova crew, twelve scientists and cameraman Herbert Ponting. Five people set off on the trip to the Pole: the captain took with him the cavalryman and groom Ots, the head of the scientific program Wilson, his assistant caretaker Evans and, at the last moment, the sailor Bowers. This spontaneous decision is considered fatal by many experts: the amount of food and equipment, even skis, was designed only for four.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_03.jpg", "alt": "Captain Scott", "text": "Captain Scott's team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library.")

Amudsen's team could win any of the modern winter ultramarathons. Nine people landed with him in Antarctica. There were no mental workers - these were, first of all, physically strong men who had a set of skills necessary for survival. They were good skiers, many knew how to drive dogs, were qualified navigators, and only two did not have polar experience. The five best of them went to the Pole: the path for Amundsen's teams was paved by the Norwegian cross-country champion.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_04.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library.")

Equipment

Like all Norwegian polar explorers of that time, Amundsen was a proponent of studying Eskimo ways of adapting to extreme cold. His expedition dressed in anoraks and kamikki boots, improved during the winter. “I would call any polar expedition without fur clothing inadequately equipped,” wrote the Norwegian. On the contrary, the cult of science and progress, burdened by the imperial “white man's burden,” did not allow Scott to benefit from the experience of the Aborigines. The British wore suits made of wool and rubberized fabric.

Modern research - in particular, blowing in a wind tunnel - has not revealed a significant advantage of one of the options.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_05.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "On the left is Roald Amundsen's equipment, on the right is Scott's.")

Transport

Amundsen's tactics were both effective and brutal. His four 400-kilogram sleigh with food and equipment was pulled by 52 Greenland huskies. As they moved toward their goal, the Norwegians killed them, fed them to other dogs, and ate them themselves. That is, as the load decreased, the transport, which was no longer needed, itself turned into food. 11 huskies returned to base camp.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_10.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Dog team on Roald Amundsen's expedition. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

Scott's complex transportation plan included the use of a motorized sled, Mongolian ponies, a team of Siberian huskies, and a final push on his own feet. An easily predictable failure: the sleigh quickly broke down, the ponies were dying of cold, there were too few huskies. For many hundreds of kilometers, the British themselves harnessed themselves to the sleigh, and the load on each one reached almost a hundredweight. Scott considered this rather an advantage - in the British tradition, the researcher had to reach the goal without “outside help.” Suffering turned achievement into feat.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_09.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Motorized sleigh on Scott's expedition.")

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_13.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Top: Mongolian ponies on Scott's expedition. Below: the British are pulling cargo.")

Food

Scott's failed transportation strategy led his people to starvation. By dragging a sled on their feet, they significantly increased the duration of the journey and the amount of calories required for such physical activity. At the same time, the British were unable to carry the required amount of provisions.

“Terrible disappointment! I feel pain for my faithful comrades. The end of all our dreams. It will be a sad return,” Scott wrote in his diary.

The quality of the food also affected. Unlike Norwegian biscuits, which contained wholemeal flour, oatmeal and yeast, British biscuits were made from pure wheat. Before reaching the Pole, Scott's team suffered from scurvy and nervous disorders associated with vitamin B deficiency. They did not have enough food for the trip back and did not have enough strength to reach the nearest warehouse.

About the nutrition of the Norwegians, it will be enough to say that on the way back they began to throw away excess food to lighten the sleigh.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_20.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Stop. Roald Amundsen's Expedition. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

To the Pole and back

The distance from the Norwegian base to the pole was 1,380 kilometers. It took Amundsen's team 56 days to complete it. Dog sleds made it possible to carry away more than one and a half tons of payload and create supply warehouses along the way for the return journey. On January 17, 1912, the Norwegians reach the South Pole and leave a Pulheim tent there with a message to the King of Norway about conquering the Pole and a request to Scott to deliver it to its destination: “The way home is very far, anything can happen, including something that will deprive us of the opportunity to personally report our journey." On the way back, Amundsen's sleigh became faster, and the team reached the base in 43 days.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_16.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen's team at the South Pole. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

A month later, Amundsen's pulheim at the pole is found by the British, who have traveled 1,500 kilometers in 79 days. “Terrible disappointment! I feel pain for my faithful comrades. The end of all our dreams. It will be a sad return,” Scott wrote in his diary. Disappointed, hungry and sick, they wander back to the coast for another 71 days. Scott and his last two surviving companions die in a tent from exhaustion, 40 kilometers short of reaching the next warehouse.

Defeat

In the autumn of the same 1912, a tent with the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers was found by their comrades from the Terra Nova expedition. The last letters and notes lie on the captain’s body, and Amundsen’s letter to the Norwegian king is kept in his boot. After the publication of Scott's diaries, an anti-Norwegian campaign unfolded in his homeland, and only imperial pride prevented the British from directly calling Amundsen a murderer.

However, Scott’s literary talent turned defeat into victory, and placed the painful death of his companions above the perfectly planned breakthrough of the Norwegians. “How can you equate Amundsen’s business operation with Scott’s first-class tragedy?” - contemporaries wrote. The primacy of the “stupid Norwegian sailor” was explained by his unexpected appearance in Antarctica, which disrupted the preparation plans of the British expedition, and the ignoble use of dogs. The death of the gentlemen from Scott's team, who by default were stronger in body and spirit, was explained by an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances.

It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the tactics of both expeditions were subjected to critical analysis, and in 2006 their equipment and rations were tested in the most realistic BBC experiment in Greenland. The British polar explorers were not successful this time either - their physical condition became so dangerous that doctors insisted on evacuation.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_18.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Last photo of Scott's team.")

(the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific around the Arctic coasts of North America, 1903-1905) Amundsen’s goal was to conquer the North Pole.

His name, which became known far beyond Norway, quickly helped attract the necessary capital for the expedition. The explorer's plan was to reach the North Pole on a ship frozen in ice.

To carry out the trip, Amundsen used the Norwegian ship Fram, specially built for polar research. The ship was created for the expedition of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1893-1896), and participated in the campaign of the Norwegian navigator Otto Sverdrup, who explored the Perry Archipelago off the coast of North America in 1898-1902.

However, Amundsen's plans were ruined when in April 1909 news arrived that the American Robert Peary had already reached the North Pole. Then Amundsen decided to conquer the South Pole. At the same time, it became known that the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott was also preparing for his second attempt to discover the South Pole. Amundsen, driven by his ambition to be the first, decided to get there before him, but the Norwegian polar explorer hid the purpose of the upcoming expedition. Four people knew about Amundsen's intention to go to Antarctica before the Fram sailed from Norway - his brother and three members of the expedition. The purpose of the expedition was not known to the Norwegian government either, since Amundsen feared a ban - Norway was economically and politically dependent on Great Britain. The world learned that Roald Amundsen was also preparing to make a leap to the South Pole only when the Fram reached the island of Madeira (near the Canary Islands). Amundsen's telegram reached Scott's expedition as he was leaving New Zealand.

Among the participants in Amundsen's expedition, which consisted mainly of Norwegians, there was one Russian - a native of the Arkhangelsk province, oceanographer Alexander Kuchin (1888-1912).

On December 14, 2011, 100 years after the conquest of the South Pole, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg unveiled an ice bust monument to Roald Amundsen at the South Pole.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

“Antarctica is a continent in the center of Antarctica, with an area of ​​13,975 km2, including 1,582 km2 of ice shelves and islands” - this is the meager scientific description of a small white spot at the very bottom of the globe. But what is Antarctica really? This is an icy desert with unbearable conditions for living beings: temperatures in winter from −60 to −70°C, in summer −30 to −50°C, strong winds, icy blizzards... In East Antarctica there is the Earth's pole of cold - there is 89.2 ° frost!

The inhabitants of Antarctica, such as seals, penguins, as well as sparse vegetation, huddle on the coast, where in the summer the Antarctic “heat” sets in - the temperature rises to 1-2°C.

In the center of Antarctica is the South Pole of our planet (the word “southern” will seem like a joke to you if you suddenly find yourself here). Like everything unknown and difficult to reach, the South Pole attracted people, and at the beginning of the 20th century there were two daredevils who dared to reach it. This is Norwegian Roald Amundsen(1872-1928) and Englishman Robert Scott(1868-1912). Just don't think that they went there together. On the contrary, each of them strived to become the first, they were rivals, and this incredibly difficult campaign was a kind of competition between them. For one he brought glory, for another he became the last... But first things first.

It all started with equipment, because the correct calculation when it comes to such, as we will now say, extreme travel, can cost people their lives. An experienced polar explorer, and also a native of a northern country, Roald Amundsen relied on sled dogs. Unpretentious, hardy, covered with thick hair, huskies had to pull sledges with equipment. Amundsen himself and his companions intended to travel on skis.

Motor sleigh of Scott's expedition. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Robert Scott decided to use the achievement of scientific progress - a motor sleigh, as well as several teams of shaggy short ponies.

And so in 1911 the journey began. On January 14, Amundsen's ship Fram reached its final starting point - Whale Bay on the northwestern coast of Antarctica. Here the Norwegians had to replenish supplies and move to the southeast, into the desolation and ice of Antarctic waters. Amundsen sought to enter the Ross Sea, which cuts deeper than others into the continent of Antarctica.

He achieved his goal, but winter began. Going to Antarctica in winter is tantamount to suicide, so Amundsen decided to wait.

In the early Antarctic spring, on October 14, Amundsen and four comrades set off for the Pole. The journey was difficult. 52 huskies pulled a team of four loaded sleds. When the animals were exhausted, they were fed to their more resilient comrades. Amundsen drew up a clear schedule of movement and, surprisingly, almost did not violate it. The rest of the journey was covered on skis, and on December 14, 1912, the Norwegian flag was already flying at the South Pole. The South Pole has been conquered! Ten days later, the travelers returned to base.

Norwegian flag at the South Pole. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Ironically, Robert Scott and his companions set out for the Pole just a few days after Amundsen's return, not knowing that the South Pole had already been conquered. On the way, it became clear how poorly equipped the expedition was. Due to the severe frosts, the engines of the new-fashioned sleighs broke down, horses died, there was a shortage of food... Many of the participants returned to the base, only Scott himself and his four comrades stubbornly continued their journey. The unbearable cold, the icy wind knocking down, the blizzard clouding everything around so that the satellites could not see each other, had to be overcome by brave researchers obsessed with one goal: “To get there first!”

Hungry, frostbitten, and exhausted, the British finally reached the South Pole on January 18. Now imagine what their disappointment was, what a disappointment there was - pain, resentment, the collapse of all hopes when they saw the Norwegian flag in front of them!

Robert Scott. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Broken in spirit, the travelers set off on their way back, but never returned to the base. Without fuel and food, they died one after another. Only eight months later was it possible to find a tent covered with snow, and in it bodies frozen in the ice - all that remained from the English expedition.

Although no, not all. The only witness to the unfolding tragedy was also found - the diary of Robert Scott, which he kept, it seems, until his death. And there remains an example of true courage, an unbending will to win, the ability to overcome obstacles, no matter what.

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was born (July 16, 1872 - June 18, 1928) - Norwegian polar explorer and record holder, “Napoleon of the polar countries” in the words of R. Huntford.
First man to reach the South Pole (December 14, 1911). The first person (together with Oscar Wisting) to visit both geographic poles of the planet. The first traveler who made the sea passage by the Northwest Passage (through the straits of the Canadian archipelago), later made the passage by the North-East route (along the coast of Siberia), for the first time completing a round-the-world distance beyond the Arctic Circle. One of the pioneers of the use of aviation - seaplanes and airships - in Arctic travel. He died in 1928 during the search for the missing expedition of Umberto Nobile. He received awards from many countries around the world, including the highest US award - the Congressional Gold Medal; numerous geographical and other objects were named after him.

Oranienburg, 1910

Unfortunately, his dream of conquering the North Pole was not allowed to come true, as Frederick Cook was ahead of him. This American polar explorer was the first to conquer the North Pole on April 21, 1908. After this, Roald Amundsen radically changed his plan and decided to direct all his efforts to conquer the South Pole. In 1910, he headed to Antarctica on the ship Fram.

Alaska, 1906

But still, on December 14, 1911, after a long polar winter and an unsuccessful exit in September 1911, the expedition of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. Having made the necessary measurements, on December 17 Amundsen was convinced that he was indeed at the very middle point of the pole, and 24 hours later, the team headed back.

Spitsbergen, 1925

Thus, the Norwegian traveler's dream, in a sense, came true. Although Amundsen himself could not say that he had achieved the goal of his life. This would not be entirely true. But, if you think about it, no one has ever been so diametrically opposed to their dream, in the literal sense of the word. All his life he wanted to conquer the North Pole, but he turned out to be a pioneer to the South Pole. Life sometimes turns everything inside out.

1875

Antarctica, 1897-1898