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 ROALD AMUNDSEN AND THE SOUTH POLE
Once in a generation of men some pioneer writes a story of
adventures in the uttermost places that thrills the world and
remains a classic for all time to come. Such was Edward

Whymper's Scrambles
Among the Alps,
the story of his conquest
of the Matterhorn. Such was Stanley's How I Found Livingston,
or Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery. These became at
once thrilling tales for children about the fireside, guide-books
for the amateur and style-books for the writer of travels. In
Roald Amundsen's Pole,1 we have a work
book The South that
must undoubtedly become a similar classic. Forty years will
or usefulness.
improve its flavor, but will not dim its charm
This unique book gives a very detailed account of the success
ful Norwegian Antarctic expedition. It begins with a thirteen
page r?sum? of the voyage, entitled "The First Account",
which presumably was the story as first given to the press
March 8, 1912. Following this comes an introduction by
Fridtjof Nansen. Volume I contains an account of the prepa
rations and the voyage to southern waters. Volume II begins
with the start for the Pole from the winter quarters and gives in

great detail the story of the final triumph. Then follows an

account of the return to civilization. The five appendices
contain a description of the "Fram", meteorological obser
vations, including the aurora australis, geologic observations,
astronomic observations, and There are several
oceanography.
fine maps and charts and 136 excellent photographs.
The book is written in quaint and charming style, with a deli
cate humor that delights us at every page. Not a little of its effect
iveness in English must be due to the skill of the translator.
Nansen's introduction is a pleasant tribute to Roald Amund
sen. It reviews
his career, beginning with his first voyage when
he sailed in the "Gj?a" with the double object of discovering the
magnetic North Pole and making the northwest passage. It tells

1 : An Account of the Norwegian

The South Pole Antarctic Expedition in
the "Fram", 1910-1912, by Roald Amundsen. Translated from the Nor
2 vols. : John Murray : Lee
wegian by A. G. Chater. London ; New York
Keedick. 1913.
 Roaid Amundsen and the South Pole 491

how he sailed his little yacht over

the whole arctic region round
the north of America, through the course that had been sought
for four hundred years. And yet, so Nansen tells us, even with
such a record, he had a long struggle to complete the equipment
for his new expedition. Outside of a few friends, little interest
was shown in him or his work, and he himself gave everything
he possessed in the world :?

"Loaded with anxieties and debts, .... he sailed out

quietly on a summer night." Then he was forgotten. As
Nansen continues: went on with his own
"Everyone
affairs. The mists were upon us day after day, week after
.... the mists that are kind to little men and
week,
swallow up all that is great and towers above them.
Suddenly a bright spring day cuts through the bank of fog.
There is a new message. stop aud look up.
People again
High above them shines a deed, a man. A wave of joy runs
through the souls of men ; their eyes are bright as the flags
that wave about them.

"Why? On account of the great geographical dis

coveries, the important scientific results? Oh no; that will
come later for the few specialists. This is something all can
understand. A victory of human mind and human strength
over the dominion and powers of nature ; a deed that lifts
us above the grey monotony of daily life ; a view over
shining plains, with lofty mountains against the cold blue
sky, and lands covered by ice-sheets of inconceivable ex
tent ; a vision of long-vanished glacial times ; the triumph of
the living over the stiffened realm of death. There is a ring
?
of steeled, purposeful human will through icy frosts, snow
storms, and death.
"For the victory is not due to the great inventions of the
present day and the many new appliances of every kind.
The means used are of immense the same as were
antiquity,
known to the nomad thousands of years ago, when he pushed
forward across the snow-covered of Siberia and
plains
Northern Europe. But everything, great and small was
thoroughly thought out, and the plan was splendidly exe
cuted. It is the man that matters, here as
everywhere.
Like everything great, it all looks so plain and simple. Of
course, that is just as it had to be, we think."

This we quote for the benefit of those utilitarian philosophers

who see no earthly use in polar explorations anyhow.
492 The Sewanee Review

Amundsen's account
begins with the story of the numerous

explorations the southern seas, beginning

of with Prince Henry
of Portugal, who crossed the equator in 1470, down through the
notable voyages of da Gama, Vespucci, Magellan, Drake, Cap
tain Cook, to whom
Amundsen pays a great tribute, Dumont,
D'Urville, Wilkes, the American sent out by Congress in 1838,
and Admiral Ross, who went in 1841 through the ice pack into
the open Antarctic Sea in two little boats that were regular tubs.
Ross opened up the way by which the Pole was finally reached.
Amundsen was a member of the Belgian expedition under
Gerlache, which set out in
1897. We quote the following
passages about another member of the Gerlache expedition who
came later to a manner of :?
celebrity

"Frederick A. Cook, of Brooklyn," says Amundsen, "was

to the ? beloved and
surgeon expedition respected by all.
As a medical man, his calm and convincing presence had an
excellent effect. As things turned out, the greatest re
sponsibility fell upon Cook, but he mastered the situation in
a wonderful way. Through his practical qualities he became
finally indispensable. It cannot be denied that the Belgian
Antarctic expedition owes a great debt to Cook.
"Afterwards sickness appeared, and threatened the most
serious danger to the expedition?scurvy and insanity.
Scurvy especially increased, and did such havoc that finally
there was not a single man who escaped being attacked by
this fearful disease.
"Cook's behavior at this time won the respect and de
votion of all. It is not too much to say that Cook was the
most popular man of the expedition, and he deserved it.
From morning to night he was occupied with his many
patients, and when the sun returned it happened not in
frequently that, after a strenuous day's work, the doctor
sacrificed his night's sleep to go hunting for seals and
penguins, in order to provide the fresh meat that was so
greatly needed by all."
When midsummer failed to release the ship from the ice, it
was Cook who an ingenious method
devised of sawing her out,
thus enabling her to reach the open lead.

"Cook was incontestably the leading spirit in this work,

and gained such honor among the members of the expedition
 Roald Amundsen and the South Pole 493

that I think it is just to mention it. Upright, honorable,

capable, and conscientious in the extreme ? such is the
memory we retain of Frederick A. Cook from those days.
"Little did his comrades suspect that a few years later he
would be regarded as one of the greatest humbugs the world
has ever seen. This is a psychological enigma well worth
studying for those who care to do so."

This part of the book closes with a great tribute to Captain

Scott and Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton.

"The North Pole is reached!" This dispatch in September,

1909, wrought a great change in the plans of Amundsen. It
found him in the midst of the preparation for the exploration of
the north polar basin. Here was a most unpleasant predica
ment. The North Pole question was solved, and he felt that
under the spell of Peary's deed his own expedition, though its
chief purpose had been all along scientific, and not for record
breaking, might go to pieces. Under the circumstances he felt
that there was nothing to do but attack the last great problem,
the South Pole. If he could solve that, he could raise as much
money as he wanted for later ventures in the North. He de
cided to keep his new purpose entirely secret, and went on with
the plans for the expedition, ostensibly to go to northern waters.
He felt that his friends would not criticize him in this course,
and he did not care particularly what his enemies said. He had
gone too far to retreat, and lose what had already been expended.
The explorer decided to avoid completely every route that
had already been followed, or might be followed by the English,
German, and Japanese expeditions that were then under way.
The following was the plan to which he consistently adhered :
from Norway not later than the middle of
(1) Depart August,
at the Madeira
1910. (2) Call Islands. (3) Sail to the south of
Cape of Good Hope and Australia. (4) Push through ice pack
into Ross Seaabout New Year, as base of
1911. (5) Take
operations the Bay of Whales in the great Antarctic Barrier,
reaching there about January on the Barrier
15. (6) Winter in
'summer' of 1911 and strike for the Pole about October, 1911.
This whole plan was worked out by Amundsen at his home
near Christiana in September, 1909, and was carried out to the
494 The Sewanee Review

last detail. of his plan was: "Thus we shall

The final sentence
be back from the polar journey on January 25th." It was on

January 25, 1912, that he returned to winter quarters after his

successful journey to the Pole.
Herein lies the reason for Amundsen's success. His
great
whole was with such utmost care. It was
expedition planned
he who oversaw all The were chosen
arrangements. provisions
under his personal care, the dogs, the tools, the instruments, the

clothing, the sledges, and the skis.

The
loyal citizens of Norway contributed great numbers of
presents in the way of food, clothing, wine, medical supplies,
etc. Yet the one great thing they lacked was money. They
were from the beginning on a very small budget.
Amundsen was by many new inventions.
aided Thus he had
an oil-motor for his ship, a modern lighting system, presumably
a modern for winter
acetylene, petroleum heating system
a house, a for amusement,
quarters, ready-built gramophone
and electrical apparatus. Amundsen goes into great detail in his
description of the provisioning. His book is thus a most valu
able guide for explorers.
It is evident that the preparedness of the expedition was the
reason of its success. Modern invention helped to enliven the
burden of
long the southern
the machinery winter. It made
work more smoothly. But it is also evident as we turn the pages
of the history that the genius of the chief was after all the great
element of success. The chief was a and withal
great executive,
a wonderful optimist.
One of the most interesting things is the explorer's story of
how they accommodated the dogs on board ship. They kept
their ninety-seven arctic dogs all on deck, building a false floor

entirely over the ship's deck and about three inches above it.
This floor was removable, and ventilation.
allowing cleaning

Crossing the tropics it was shaded all over. Thus, Amundsen

carried his thick-haired eskimos straight across the tropics with
out losing any of them ; in fact, their numbers were considerably
increased in the course of nature !
Amundsen shows extraordinary affection for his dogs. He
was compelled to kill many during his final dash to the Pole, and
 Roa Id Amundsen and the South Pole 495

nothing gave him greater grief. One bad habit, he says, into
which these eskimo dogs have fallen during the course of ages
is their tendency to hold howling concerts. He was never able to
make outthe real meaning of these performances. The whole
pack might be lying perfectly still and quiet on deck when a

single individual would take upon himself the part of leader of

the chorus and set up a long, blood-curdling yowl. Then the
whole pack joined in and this infernal din went on at full steam
for several minutes. This was calculated to tear the soundest
sleeper from his slumbers. only amusing thing about it was
The
the conclusion. They all stopped short at the same instant,
just as a well-trained chorus obeys the baton of its director.
On June 7, 1910,the expedition left Norway. I have not
mentioned one omen ? the was the the
important ship "Fram",
sturdy boat in which Nansen reached his farthest north. The
Norwegian Storthing had lent the boat and had donated about
$20,000 for repairs and alterations.
It was not until the Madeira Islands were reached that
Amundsen acquainted his fellows with his plans. Only the
captain of the vessel had known of them heretofore. Up to this
time the men had understood that they were bound for northern
waters after rounding Cape Horn. Without exception they all
declared instantly for the South Pole.
Now comes the long and tedious voyage of 16,000 miles
around the Cape of Good Hope into the seas south of Australia.
But there was no time for idleness. Every hour of the day
was put in on preparations for the final expedition. Each man
in the crew was a specialist. They were picked men chosen for
their all-round qualities. Some of those who did menial tasks
were highly educated.
" "
It was on January 14, 1911, that the Fram arrived at the Ross
Barrier, long considered one of the most mysterious natural
phenomena of the earth. Here they moored in the vast Bay of
Whales in latitude79 S. Amundsen's descriptions of the great
white are
ice barrier magnificent.
They spent many days in putting up the house, the parts of
which had already been labeled and numbered, in training the
dogs, some of which were green hands, killing seals, and trans
496 The Sewanee Review

" "
porting the provisions from the Fram into their winter quarters.
Their house was constructed for winter
admirably quarters.
It consisted of one large room and a kitchen. Before winter
came on they built pent-houses along the sides and thus secured
a great deal of room. They also made caverns in the ice around
the house.
On February 4, 1911, they received a visit from the "Terra
Nova", Captain Scott's vessel. Scott was not on board, but they
got news of him and his work in exploring King Edward VII
Land.

On February 10, Amundsen set forth on what he calls his

depot journey. He placed large depots of provisions in suc

cession at latitudes 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 S. These depots were
quite solidly constructed of ice, about twelve feet in height, and
were filled with cases of provisions. They were marked for
several miles on each side with bamboo poles, flags, etc., so that
any one might be easily found. The placing of these caches
took up several weeks of hard work. Amundsen did not fail to
put a great deal of seal-meat in the depots and this gave him
fresh meat on the final journey to and from the Pole.
As soon as these depots were placed it was time to go into
winter quarters, remembering that June, July, and August consti
tute winter in the southern hemisphere. The men passed this
period in great comfort, in spite of such temperature as j6
below zero.
degrees
The latter part of Volume I is devoted to the description of a
day at Framheim. Rising early, it was the custom to recon
noitre briefly to note anything that had happened during the
sleeping period. They all seem to have religiously brushed
their teeth every morning, and to have bathed frequently, even
using an American vapor-bath. Their breakfast consisted of
hot American washed down with strong aromatic
pan-cakes
coffee. Some of the morning duties were taking the dogs out
for exercise, working on their sledging outfit, digging passages
in the ice, sewing leather clothing, packing and checking pro
visions for the dash to the Pole, washing clothes, dishes, etc.
Amundsen's attitude toward the use of alcoholic beverages in

polar exploration is interesting. We expected to hear him

 Roald Amundsen and the South Pole 497

condemn it. this, he considers

Far from"a tot of spirits" an
excellent medicine in sub-zero emergencies. "The swilling of
hot coffee," says he, "does not fill the bill." And he feels that
his men needed it occasionally to keep up their cheer, and to

patch up their indifferences. All of this is put in the quaintest

manner.

It is hard for us to understand the long period of preparation

that Amundsen thought necessary for the final dash to the Pole.
We remember
must that the weight of the outfit had to be
reduced in every possible way and that everything taken with
them must at the same time be absolutely trustworthy in char
acter. Much of their clothing had to be remade ; practically all
shoes to be expanded,
had as they were too small for feet with
three pairs of stockings. Again, it would have been absolute
folly to start until spring and milder temperature were certain.
Amundsen and his party got away for the Pole on October 19,
1911. There were five in the party, Hanssen, Wisting, Hassel,
Bjaaland, and himself. They had four sledges with thirteen dogs
to each. At the start the sledges were very light, as they took
only supplies for the trip to 80 S., where their cases were
awaiting them. Their
departure from Framheim was, of course,
a great event. the crew turned out to see them depart and
All
one man photographed them with a cinematograph. These
films have been used by Amundsen in his lectures in America.
Thefirst day they made seventeen miles. They turned loose
a fine dog, Neptune, because he was too fat, and another, Peary,
because he was incapacitated. In the first four days they
covered ninety-four miles. The sledges bore sledge metres
which measured the distance covered very effectively.
After 80 S. they erected snow-beacons about six feet high
every nine kilometres, or one hundred and fifty in all. These
snow-beacons were invaluable to them on their return.
guides
From 80 to 84 S. made an of seventeen miles
they average per

day. Between 84 and 88 S. they sometimes made as much as

twenty-three miles a day even in thick fog. Yet they were in
constant of crevasses and had many narrow
danger escapes.
Travel was aided
by their skis. They coasted rapidly many
miles per day behind the sledges.
32
498 The Sewanee Review

On this part of the journey they were constantly rising. At

84 S. they had reached a height of 4,550 feet. Soon they had
arrived at the alpine height of 10,920 feet. In one day they
made nineteen and one-fourth miles with an ascent of 5,750
feet. This extraordinary achievement shows what can be done
with well-trained dogs.
o
It was at this point, 85 36', that they sacrificed twenty-four
of their dogs. Amundsen almost weeps over his brave helpers.
This slaughter was absolutely necessary. They had left behind
the last depot at 84 S. They could not feed all thesedogs,
and, furthermore, the time had now come when they had to eat
dog themselves. Some of them had declared they would not
come to this, but when it came to the test, all had grown so
weary of stale food, such as pemmican, biscuits, and chocolate,
that they were eager for what Amundsen calls frankly dog
cutlets. With
the slaughtered dogs, they filled depot number
eight. They now reduced the number of sledges to three.
We have to read Amundsen's narrative closely to appreciate
the tremendous trial that they went through in these days. The
explorer takes it all cheerfully and belittles the difficulties. Yet
it is fearful when men are constantly falling from fatigue, when
even dogs are dropping and dying because their lungs cannot
take in enough air to nourish them, when noses and feet are

freezing every few minutes, when one's face is covered with

abscesses and frost-sores of terrible appearance. Yet we
great
do not get the same impression of physical suffering that we get
from Peary's narrative.

It was
in this vast plateau that on December 14, 1911, they
o
attained the Pole.
By dead reckoning their latitude was 89
53'. When they caught the sun next day their calculation
o
showed 89 56'. In order to make sure that he had reached the
Pole Amundsen encircled the camp with a radius of about
twelve and one-half miles. That is, three men went out in three
different directions, two at right angles to the course they had
been and one in the same course. When their obser
steering
vations were later checked up in Norway by astronomers it was
found that they could not have failed to come within a few
hundred feet of the actual South Pole.
 Roald Amundsen and the South Pole 499

Amundsen found no new conditions at the Pole. It was the

same vast
plain of ice and snow. He remained there about
three days in all, leaving on December 17th. He set up a little
tent with a flag pole about thirteen feet high, well secured with
guy-ropes on all sides. Inside he left letters addressed to the

King of Norway and to Captain Scott who he assumed would be

the first to find the tent. And it was so. The ill-fated Scott
arrived there one month later.
exactly
The remainder of Amundsen's history describes his meeting
with members of the Japanese who ? the
expedition impressed
Norwegians with nothing more than their fearful cruelty to seals
? the return to civilization at Hobart, Australia, and the final

breaking up of the party. I believe they did not lose a single

man on the expedition.
The story of the discovery of the South Pole is followed by a
description of the eastern sledge journey by Lieutenant Pres
trud, and a description of the voyage of the "Fram", while
Amundsen was in winter quarters and on his way to the Pole,
by Captain Nilsen.
The writer
had the pleasure of meeting Roald Amundsen on

June 25, 1913, at Portland, Maine. The explorer's visit was

made a memorable celebration, as Portland is also the home of
Rear Admiral Peary. A small, slight man of fifty-odd, wiry and
alert in movement, with an nose, a smile,
unusually large genial
a manner, "we". Such is the im
deprecating saying always

pression we get. Perhaps his personality will gain him far more
applause than came to our American discoverer of the North
Pole.

Amundsen will soon be

journey far on
across the north his
polar basin. This
regards his he
"main expedition". as

Starting from Behring Strait, Nansen so tells us, he will drift

across the Pole with the movement of the ice. He will be five
years in the ice and frost and darkness of the North. "It seems
almost says Nansen, "but he is the man for that,
superhuman,"
too. 'Fram' is his ship, 'forward' (fram) is his motto, and he
will come through."
Bert Edward Young.
Vanderbilt University.