The Calumet news., 1912-09-18
A STORY OF AmuNpssN,s CREW


Fourteen members df Capt. Amund-
sens crew. who went through the ri
sors Of the Norwegian's dash for the
South pole. while In London recently
told of their experiences. They are
described as clear eyed. deep chested
men. who We're modestly unconscious
of having done anything out of the
ordinary Four Of the fourteen were
with Amundsen when he reached the
pole. These men were for two years
in the land of perpetual ice. All were
I'm the pink of health, and all. previous
to shipping on Amundscn's Fran, had
seen service In the Arctic or the An
tarctic.
One of the fourteen was chosen 10y
the party as spokesman. and to the
correspondent of the London Standard
he told an interesting story. "rhe
Franz" he said. had twenty one men,
including the whole of the shore party.
The entire success OF the expedition is
due TO Capt. Amundsen's fine organiza-
tion. Ii was at the last moment that
Amundsen decided To take only four
men with him. Thirteen dogs were
allotted to each sledge. and two days
rest were given at each of the depots
established on the line of the route. The
greatest difficulty was the mountains
which we encountered, and these had
to be climbed by pass over a height
of about 11,OO0 feet. Several dogs
had to be killed so that the others
could have meat, and IL was on De-
cember that we reached Ss degrces
rs minutes, this being the snow plain
in the region Of the pole. on the
fourteenth we reached the pole. What
did we do? Waved our caps and flags
and shouted. We stayed there Tor
three days making observations. anu
left records and the Norwegian flag"
Ii was Lieut.. Prestrud who mad com
mand OF the eastern party. which ex-
plored King Edward VII land. This
Is the first story of his explorations,
and has been given by one OF
those who formed the small group of
explorers. The chief danger Of our
exploration was the large number of
crevasses which we came across
ION one of-our sledsing trips we
were horrihed to find that the brandy
was frozen in the bottle. Ii was served
out i'm lumps-but IL did not taste like
brandy and only burned our throats.
The lowest temperature experienced
was 50 degrees below zero, centigrade,
and every one was frostbitten. For
many days the average cold was 80
degrees below zero centigrade."
THE return of Amundsen's party
from the pole To the base was almost
unexpected" said the spokesman. "He
came back early one morning durins
the long summer. but though we had
known the men were due to arrive
soon. we did not look out for them.
Some of the men were out on short
exploring tours when he arrived with
his four companions. and the news
they brought was great. We had.
big dinner that day i'm honor of the
important event. Our time at the
base was chiefly occupied, when await
ing Amundsens return, in mending and
making harness, repairing sledges and
overhauling stores generally. When
we left the hut we left II ready for
the next exploring party that came
along. Everything was freshly made,
and all the cooking arrangements were
i'm proper working order. supply Of
oil was near the stove. sleeping bags
were there, and box of matches was
placed beside the stove. thousand
yards from the hut we made cache
Of provisions sufficient to last three
years for a small party. and we erected
a pole there to mark the spot, so that
IL could be easily found. All the next
party have TO do. will he to set the
stove alight and set the table,"