South Pole: Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, Still Competing for History - ABC News ABC News South Pole: Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott Still Race By PETER GWYNNE WATCH Teen Reaches South Pole 0 Shares Email On December 14, 1911 , a five-man Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen became the first explorers to reach the South Pole. Another five-man expedition reached the pole just 34 days later, this time a led by British Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott . But a century later, both teams still seem to be competing against one another. While Amundsen's team traveled faultlessly back to their base on the edge of Antarctica and then on to civilization, Scott and his companions all died on their return from the pole. Today, both teams in the race to the Earth's southern extremity leave behind legacies that impact the modern understanding of the so-called heroic era of exploration, as well as the scientific understanding of the forbidding continent of Antarctica. Initially, Scott was seen as a tragic hero, particularly in Britain and other English-speaking countries.

Many observers outside Scandinavia regarded Amundsen -- who had secretly changed his destination from the North to the South Pole -- as a usurper who had unsportingly jumped in on Scott's long-planned mission. Shifting Reputations Then in 1979, a book by Roland Huntford, a British journalist with long experience in Scandinavia, painted an entirely different picture. In "Scott and Amundsen," Huntford portrayed Scott as an incompetent martinet and Amundsen as a perfect team leader who serenely achieved results. "Scott was the parade ground automaton waiting for orders, while Amundsen wanted to give each man independence and make him feel that he was worth something," Huntford said. "Amundsen made sure that his men never approached the outer limits of exhaustion; he had enough food and a large margin of safety. Scott took delight in exhausting himself, as the English idea was exhaustion and suffering." "Huntford's book was the first to take a contrary view of Scott," said Heather Lane, keeper of collections at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England. "Possibly more influential in changing public perception was the BBC drama based on it." Recently, views have begun to change again.

Some historians point to the two ventures' contrasting goals. While Amundsen sought only the pole, they say, Scott's expedition included several prominent scientists who carried out significant research in other parts of Antarctica while the five-man team undertook its polar journey. "While Scott's objective was to get to the pole, he was completely committed to running a first-rate scientific expedition," said Edward Larson, university professor of history at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. In addition, some meteorological studies have made Scott a more sympathetic leader, by suggesting that his party encountered unprecedentedly bad weather on their return from the pole. "The work done by recent biographers and historians has enabled a far more balanced view of Scott's achievements to come to the fore," Lane said. Fateful Decisions Amundsen's change of destination lies at the crux of the debate over the two men's reputations. A fearless explorer who had led the first party to navigate the Northwest Passage above Canada's and Alaska's Arctic coast, Amundsen originally planned to sail from Norway on a route that would take him around the tip of South America and then north for an attempt on the then undiscovered North Pole.

But that target became moot in September, 1909, when Amundsen learned of claims by two Americans, Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, that they had reached 90 degrees north. Today, most Arctic historians regard both claims as false. Burdened by debts incurred in furnishing his expedition, Amundsen decided that he needed a spectacular achievement to appeal to his creditors. He chose the South Pole -- but initially told only his close friends. That represented a direct challenge to Scott, who, in 1909, had announced his intention to try for the pole. He was in Australia, en route to Antarctica, when learned of Amundsen's new target. Scott had already led an Antarctic expedition early in the decade, while another British explorer, Ernest Shackleton, had led a party to within 100 miles of the South Pole in January 1909. Amundsen and Scott relied on markedly different forms of transport. "Amundsen's technique was the combination of skis and dogs," Huntford said. Indeed, his team included a champion cross-country skier. Scott, meanwhile, opted for motor sledges, Shetland ponies, and just a few dogs.

But the sledges malfunctioned and the ponies couldn't cope with the snowy surface. That left Scott's men with the slow and energy-sapping endeavor of hauling their own sleds. And they used skis only reluctantly. In speed, that meant advantage Amundsen. "Whereas Scott was following a track that Shackleton pioneered and mapped to within 100 miles of the pole, Amundsen was blazing a new trail over terra incognita. He was explorer and ski racer rolled into one," Huntford said. Scott's critics note that for nine days in late March, 1912, he and his two surviving companions stayed in their tent, during what Scott described as a blizzard, rather than marching toward a nearby food depot. That decision, they say, provides evidence of his poor organization. But meteorological studies reported in 2001 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Susan Solomon suggested that a stretch of excessively cold weather beginning in late February, rather than poor planning, led to the polar party's deaths. That assessment remains controversial, however. Among others, Polish physicist Krzysztof Sienicki has recently challenged that view.

Scott's Strong Science Effort Even supporters of Scott admit that Amundsen bested him at polar travel. However, Larson said, "Scott had attracted a very, very good team of scientists." "Chief scientific officer Edward Wilson [who died with Scott] wrote: 'We want the scientific work to make the bagging of the Pole merely an item in the results,'" Lane said. In his book "An Empire of Ice", Larson outlines the expedition's scientific achievements, from studying the movement of glaciers to mapping the continent's snow-free "dry valleys" and collecting Emperor penguins' eggs in the dark Antarctic midwinter. "Scott's expedition came back with a wealth of fossil fish and plants and evidence of a plant that is the link to ancient flora," Larson said. "There's an enormous amount of research now on very small microorganisms in the Antarctic soil and lakes, based on a foundation of work on Scott's expedition," In addition, present-day scientists use the amounts of contaminants in the dead bodies of penguins left behind by the expedition as examples of the levels of atmospheric contaminants at a time and place unaffected by human activity. Other work laid the foundation for modern research on Antarctic microorganisms and historical temperatures.

0 Shares BBC - History - Scott of the Antarctic z Captain Robert Falcon Scott in his sledging gear © 'Scott of the Antarctic' was a naval officer and explorer, who died attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole. Robert Falcon Scott was born on 6 June 1868 in Devonport. He became a naval cadet at the age of 13 and served on a number of Royal Navy ships in the 1880s and 1890s. He attracted the notice of the Royal Geographical Society, which appointed him to command the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition - which included Ernest Shackleton - reached further south than anyone before them and Scott returned to Britain a national hero. He had caught the exploring bug and began to plan an expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole. He spent years raising funds for the trip. The whaling ship Terra Nova left Cardiff, Wales in June 1910 and the expedition set off from base the following October, with mechanical sledges, ponies and dogs.

However, the sledges and ponies could not cope with the conditions and the expedition carried on without them, through appalling weather and increasingly tough terrain. In mid December, the dog teams turned back, leaving the rest to face the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier and the polar plateau. By January 1912, only five remained: Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans. On 17 January, they reached the pole, only to find that a Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen, had beaten them there. They started the 1,500 km journey back. Evans died in mid-February. By March, Oates was suffering from severe frostbite and, knowing he was holding back his companions, walked out into the freezing conditions never to be seen again. The remaining three men died of starvation and exposure in their tent on 29 March 1912. They were in fact only 20 km from a pre-arranged supply depot. Eight months later, a search party found the tent, the bodies and Scott's diary. The bodies were buried under the tent, with a cairn of ice and snow to mark the spot.

Amundsen Becomes First to Reach South Pole, December 14, 1911 - Scientific American Scientific American Amundsen Becomes First to Reach South Pole, December 14, 1911 Under the command of Roald Amundsen, the South Pole was discovered 100 years ago Advertisement | Report Ad One hundred years ago today the South Pole was reached by a party of Norwegian explorers under the command of Roald Amundsen. The existence of the pole had been known, but the inhospitable landscape presented a barrier until Amundsen’s party made the dangerous trek across ice and snow to stand at the geographical South Pole on this day a century ago. One of Amundsen’s competitors, Robert Falcon Scott and his party, achieved a different kind of fame: they arrived on January 17, 1912 to find they were second in the race to fame, and they perished on their way back north. News of Amundsen’s achievement was telegraphed to the world on March 7, 1912, on his return to Hobart, Australia. From Scientific American, Vol. CV1, No.

11, March 16, 1911 The Discovery of the South Pole It is much too early to give any critical account of Capt. Roald Amundsen's achievement. Many weeks must elapse before we are in complete possession of all his data. Yet even the laconic account, which he has cabled to the press, throws a flood of light on the mystery of Antarctic geography. Amundsen seems to have collected enough evidence to substantiate the theory that the great chain of mountains which extends almost uninterruptedly from Alaska to Patagonia finds its continuation in a ridge connecting Victoria Land and King Edward VII Land, and which, in honor of his queen, he has named "Queen Maude's Range." The ice barrier, which had proved for a century and a half a formidable obstacle to Antarctic exploration, is found to terminate in a bay, lying between the southeast mountain range running from South Victoria Land and a range which is probably a continuation of King Edward the VII Land and which extends in a southwesterly direction. Contrary to his original plan, Amundsen despatched one of his officers, Lieut.

Prestud, to survey the Bay of Whales and the great ice barrier and to explore King Edward VII Land, of which practically nothing is known. No doubt the spur of competition played its part in unfolding the secrets of the last unexplored frigid region of the earth. Amundsen and his party at the geographic South Pole, December 14, 1911. CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF NORWEGIAN-U.S. SCIENTIFIC TRAVERSE OF EAST ANTARCTICA No less than four other expeditions were in the Antarctic regions at the time while Amundsen was forcing his way south. Besides Amundsen's, there was the Japanese expedition under Lieut. Shirase, which had to retreat to Australia last spring in order to replenish its supply of dogs, and which Amundsen says landed on January 16th at the Bay of Whales, two weeks before he sailed for home; Dr. Mawson's Australian expedition, for which $215,000 had been raised up to November 1st last, and which was to land three parties between Cape Adare and Gaussberg; the German expedition under Lieut.

Filchner in the "Deutschland," elaborately equipped with wireless, magnetic, and meteorological apparatus, full of the hope of establishing a base southwest of Coats Land in as high a latitude as possible; and lastly, Capt. Scott's English expedition in the "Terra Nova," which left New Zealand in November, 1910, badly damaged by stormy weather; so badly, indeed, that the necessary repairs and the cost of making good the stores that had been lost seriously depleted the resources of the party. Amundsen seems to have been helped by exceptionally favorable weather conditions. To be sure, there were storms, but not those frightful hurricanes which thwarted Shackleton. It was cold, so cold that the dogs suffered visibly; yet the average temperature was no lower than that in many an inhabited part of Canada. Amundsen himself states that part of his journey was much like a pleasure trip--"excellent ground, fine sledging, and an even temperature." The glaciers and crevasses make detours necessary, yet, despite them, progress was remarkably rapid. The party climbed up 2,000 to 5,000 feet in a day.

Throughout much of his journey Amundsen covered entirely new ground. Therefore he will bring back absolutely new information of Antarctic geography. He made up his mind that he would reach the plateau on which the Pole is situated by another route than that of Beardmore Glacier. Luck, instinct, experience, call it what you will, the new route proved easier than that which either Shackleton or Scott took on their expeditions. To that comparatively easy route, coupled with exceptionally favorable weather, may be attributed Amundsen's success. From Scientific American, Vol. CVI, No. 12, March 23, 1912 Amundsen's Attainment of the South Pole Progress of Antarctic Exploration By G. W. Littlehales, Hydrographic Office, United States Navy The legendary limits of the Terra Australis of ancient and medieval cartographers, whose northerly coast was represented in art in the time of Ptolemy as extending eastward from Southern Africa toward China and inclosing the Indian Ocean, began to recede to the southward on the map of the world in the generation which produced Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan and disclosed America, the route to the Indies, and the circumnavigation of the globe.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century the number of maps representing had noticeably lessened, and, by the end of the eighteenth century, it had faded from the minds of geographers. The voyages of Cook in the latter part of the eighteenth century constituted the first circumnavigation of the south polar regions. He reached latitudes in some parts of his circuit which have even at the present time been scarcely surpassed, and, disproving the ancient beilef in a great Terra Australis Incognita extending northward of the sixtieth degree parallel of south latitude, the state of geographical knowledge such that the maps after his time mark "Antarctic Ocean" across the regions of the South Pole. The sum total or added knowledge in the sixty years following Cook's voyages had led to a general belief that around the South Pole was a scattered archipelago and not a continental mass, a state of geographical information that was not materially changed until the discovery by Charles Wilkes that after all there is a great Antarctic land, even if it is smaller than the land of legend.

It will be remembered that, during the year 1839, after having examined many of the island groups with which the vast area of the Pacific Ocean is studded, the United States Exploring Expedition, of which Wilkes was the commander, had reached the Australian shores. On the day after Christmas in 1889 the " Vincennes," "Peacock," "Porpoise," and "Flying Fish" headed southward from Sydney and, falling in with the land in latitude 64 degrees south and longitude 158 degrees East of Greenwich, on the 16th of January following, skirted the border of a new continent to the westward as far as longitude 97 degrees East of Greenwich.

Returning to Sydney, Wilkes announced his discovery, in the following words, in a report to the Secretary of the Navy, dated March 11th, 1840: "It affords me much gratification to report that we have discovered a large body of land within the Antarctic Circle, which I have named the Antarctic Continent, and refer you to the report of our cruise and accompanying charts, enclosed herewith, for full information relative thereto." At one or two points along this coast line, the French expedition under D’Urville, at nearly the same time, confirmed the existence of the land thus reported. Wilkes' work was not only important because he traced this coast for 1,700 miles, but also on account of the geological collections made by the expedition led by him, which showed that the land is formed of granite, massive sandstones, and other rocks of continental type, and further on account of the magnetic observations which were so numerous and well taken us to permit of the deduction of the earliest assigned position of the south magnetic pole.

A year later the extension of Wilkes Land to the eastward and the southward was charted by the famous British expedition under James Clark Ross, which discovered Victoria Land and the mountains of Erebus and Terror and surpassed all previous records in the Antarctic by reaching the latitude of 78 degrees. After the voyages of Wilkes and Ross, there was a long interval before serious work in the Antarctic was renewed. Until the close of the nineteenth century there was no part of the world about which less was known, and none about which so little interest was taken. This was probably due in part to its distance from the center of wealth and thought, and in part also to its dearth of animal and vegetable life and to its unpeopled state. It is only from the scientific side that human interest can he evoked in the desolate wastes of Antarctica. That this continent, whose present unexplored and unvisited extent is twice the area of Europe, was larger in former geological ages is scarcely to be doubted. In all probability it has been connected with Africa, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, although most likely not with all of them at the same time. This is suggested by the living and fossil floras and faunas of these lands.

At the time of the revival of Antarctic exploration in the beginning of the present century, knowledge of Antarctica was of two grades: in some areas the approaches from the sea had been explored; of the rest nothing was known, Knowledge of the first grade existed only in relation to two or three parts of the continent. They were Palmer Land with its associated islands, the coast of Victoria Land with the adjacent Ross Sea, and, to a lesser extent, the coast of Wilkes Land, The rest of the continental limits of the Antarctic was known only through the interpretation of imperfectly recorded observations and the speculations arising from distant and uncertain views.

The work of Krech, Gerlache, Borchgravink, and Bruce had not yet been done; the examinations of the “Belgica,” the “Francais,” and the “Pourquoi Pas” had not yet made known the extension of Palmer Land to the southwestward along the southern confines of the Pacific Ocean ; the explorations of the German Antarctic Expedition in the "Gauss" had not yet confirmed the conclusion of Wilkes that the long coast which he had discovered in 1840 extended still farther to the westward ; the Antarctic Continent had not yet been entered at any point and consequently that acquaintance with the general topography which constitutes the first essential to the scientific investigation of a country was wholly wanting, It was the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901 to 1904, under Capt. R. F. Scott, that first penetrated Antarctica. This expedition landed on the southwestern confines of the Ross Sea, and, by its explorations, showed that the great ice barrier is in reality the front of an enormous ice field or glacier, mainly floating on the surface of an extended bay or sea, and fed by glaciers coming down from the elevated land on the westerly side and probably also on the eastern.

Scott traveled southward up the western margin of the ice field 400 miles to a point in latitude 82 deg. 16 min. 33 sec. south. He also climbed from his headquarters on MacMurdo Sound to the summit of the high table land to the westward. Map of Amundsen’s journey, from Scientific American, Vol. CVI, No. 12, March 23, 1912. CREDIT: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Shackleton's expedition of 1907 to 1909 penetrated at the same place that Scott entered, and traveled up the western border of the ice field along the route which had been pursued by his predecessor until he reached a great glacier, named Beardmore Glacier, coming down from the highlands to the westward. He followed up this glacier to the summit of the plateau and then continued to the southward until he reached a point in latitude 88 deg. 23 min. south, only 97 miles from the South Pole. At this point the elevation was 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.

While this journey to the southward was in progress, another party of the expedition climbed Mount Erebus, and a third party reached the south magnetic pole and located it, in 72 deg. 25 min. south, and 155 deg. 16 min. east, in a position 40 miles distant from the position deduced from the surrounding magnetic observations of the expedition under Scott. The observations in either case were not sufficient, however, to warrant drawing a conclusion as to the actual change in the position of the magnetic poled between 1903 and 1909. Five expeditions were sent to the Antarctic during the past year, for the purpose of reaching the South Pole, or for the exploration of the Antarctic Continent, or both. The first is the British Expedition under the command of Capt, R. F. Scott, who was the leader of the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901 to 1904. He sailed from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, in his ship, the "Terra Nova" November 29th, 1910.

He made a successful landing at a point near his former situation in MacMurdo Sound, and continued to be engaged in exploration to the southward. A German expedition under Lieut. Wilhelm Filchner left early in the year 1911, intending to make a landing somewhere on the shore of the Weddell Sea, perhaps on Coats Land, on the opposite side of the Antarctic Continent from Capt. Scott’s headquarters. No reports have yet been received from him. A Japanese expedition started for the Antarctic, intending to make a landing upon King Edwrd VII Land. Before reaching its projected landing place, however, this expedition suffered a series of mishaps, the chief of which was the loss of nearly all the dogs upon which relicance had been placed for transportation. Near the close of the year 1911, another expedition started for it field of exploration in the Antarctic. This is the Australian expedition under the leadership of Dr. Douglas Mawson, geologist of the Shackleton expedition.

The “Aurora,” a barkentine of 580 tons with auxiliary steam-propulsion in which the expedition sailed, has recently returned to Australia bringing the report that two separate parties have been landed on those part of Wilkes Land known respectively as Adelie Land and Termination Land. Capt. Roald Amundsen, the discoverer of the Northwest Passage, left Norway in June, 1910, in the “Fram,” seemingly with the intention of sailing around Cape Horn, however, he sailed to the westward across the South Pacific, and made a landing at whale Bay on the ice sheet covering Ross Sea. This place is in King Edward VII. Land, near the eastern end of the ice front, and on the opposite shore of the Ross Sea, from the point at which Scott and Shackleton have made their successful entrances into the interior of the continent. The expedition was in winter-quarters at Whale Bay until September, 1911, and, on the 20th of October. the main party made the final start for the South Pole, leaving a subsidiary party to carry on explorations and make a geological collection in King Edward VII Land. In less than a month.

the south-bound expedition had cleared that vast plain of floating ice which flows down from the great mountains of the interior and covers the southern part of Ross Sea throughout an area above 20,000 square miles with an ice sheet approximately 800 feet in thickness, and had begun to climb the heights which form the mountainous embayment at the head of Ross Sea. The glacial streams descending through the depressions among the mountain slopes constituted the usual lines of travel, and the route developed was new and independent, passing among mountain peaks rising to the height of 15,000 and 18,000 feet above the sea and gradually mounting to a maximum level before the Pole was reached and thence descending very gradually for 140 miles over a vast plateau to the position which was occupied on December l5th and 16th, 1911, and determined to be the South Pole.

As a result of Amundsen's expedition, important additions may be laid down upon the map of Antarctica in the sector of the earth’s surface extending from the South Pole to the 80th degree parallel of latitude between the meridians 160 degrees and 180 degrees west of Greenwich. The theory of the structural unity of the Pacific is well established, and, according to it, the Pacific Ocean must be bounded on the south by a coast of the “Pacific type.” With one exception in Central America. the whole of the known coasts of the Pacific belong to this type. The main characteristic of this form of coast is that the trend is determined by mountain ranges running parallel to the shore. In the South Pacific, this type is well exemplified in New Zealand on one side and by the Andes of South America on the other. In the southern part of Patagonia the Andes are turned from their meridional course and run eastward across Tierra del Fuego. The tectonic line of the Andes is then apparently bent southward, and reappears in Palmer Land.

It is probably continued around the southern Pacific meeting the end of the New Zealand line and the Victoria Range in the mighty mountains which Amundsen, in his approaches to the South Pole, discovered in the shape of what he has named the Maude Range stretching off to the southeastward as far as 88 degrees south. The principles of geomorphology would also suggest that from the lofty mountain axis bordering the Pacific there should slope downward, across the Pole, a broad plateau to Weddell Sea on the one side and the bight between Wilkes Land and Enderly Land on the other; and this interpretation is borne out by the description of the plateau conditions which were found to exist around the South Pole. So far the facts published concerning the information gathered by Amundsen are chiefly geographical and topographical. and hence the illustration of the nature of the scientific hearings of the accessions to knowledge which his expedition has produced are drawn from these materials; but, as other branches of the information embraced in his observations are unfolded, other theoretical applications will appear for the advancement of philosophy and such of the geographical sciences as meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, concerning which the observations made in the South Polar regions tend in some respects to deliver the deciding stroke in the elaboration.

In Race To South Pole, Robert Falcon Scott Lost ... Or Did He? : NPR List Price: $28 Chapter 1: Three Cheers for the Dogs He stood in triumph and trepidation. It was the evening of November 15, 1912. A proud, plain-speaking Norwegian adventurer, Roald Amundsen rose to address a packed house at London's elite Royal Geographical Society after having bested better-equipped and better-funded British explorers in attaining a long-prized goal. He had reason to tremble. Some in the audience saw him as a jackal in a den of lions. His talk would be modest, focused more on technical details of the journey than on the end accomplishment — but it could not be modest enough to please many of his British listeners. They, in turn, could not avoid insulting him even had they wanted to do so. For the second time in his life, he had achieved what Britain's greatest heroes could not, but he had done it in a way that they disdained to attempt. In 1912, when Amundsen made this second triumphal appearance before the society, London reigned over the most extensive empire in the history of the world.

For three centuries, British explorers had led Europe in the discovery of other lands and seas. The Royal Geographi­cal Society, or RGS, traced its origins to 1788, as the Association for Pro­moting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, and had succeeded famously in its original goal through its support of David Livingston, Richard Burton, John Speke, Henry Stanley, and other renowned explorers. Under the patronage of Queen Victoria, it extended its reach to the ends of the earth. Antarctica, the last large blank space on world maps, had by 1900 become a focus of its ambitions. The South Pole took on aspects of a holy grail. British geographers of the late Victorian and Edwardian era viewed themselves as scientists and their expeditions as grand enter­prises of science. Simply reaching the head of the Nile, the high Hi­malayas, or the South Pole was not enough. An RGS explorer had to conduct research along the way.

A series of RGS-endorsed expeditions had been opening the way to the pole for more than a decade when, late in 1911, Amundsen stole a march on a team already in the field to capture the prize by questionable means. Hailed for this achieve­ment throughout most of the Western world, Amundsen was all but required to address the leaders of British geographical science and re­ceive their validation of his effort. He did not want to come but could scarcely decline their summons. The Royal Geographical Society's status as the arbiter of world geography was well learned. The British boasted a long history of exploration and claimed a certain province over the far south, where early geographers thought a large landmass must exist to counterbalance the continents of the north. During the 1770s, the Admiralty launched a scientific expedi­tion under the command of James Cook to look for this hypothesized southern land.

"January 17th, 1773, was an epoch in the world's his­tory," RGS Librarian Hugh Robert Mill declared in 1905, "for just before noon on that day the Antarctic circle was first crossed by hu­man beings." The intrepid Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle twice more on the same voyage but retreated each time before dense pack ice without sighting land. By circumnavigating the globe at roughly latitude 60 degrees south, he established that, if an Antarctic continent ex­isted, it must lie in the far south behind a daunting blockade of sea ice. "I will not say it was impossible any where to get farther to the South; but attempting it would have been a dangerous and rash en­terprise," Cook wrote in his journal. "It was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that this ice extended quite to the pole, or perhaps joined to some land, to which it had been fixed from the earliest time." Later British explorers thought otherwise. In 1839 the Admiralty commissioned a second expedition to Antarctic waters.

James Clark Ross, already famous as the first European to reach the wandering North Magnetic Pole, was given two sturdy wooden ships, HMS Ere-bus and Terror, and a charge to make magnetic observations through­out the deep southern seas. By this time, sealers, whalers, and expedi­tions from various countries had probed the edges of the ice pack and returned with reports of isolated bits of land. "Impressed with the feeling that England had ever led the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the northern regions," Ross commented, "I considered it would have been inconsistent with the pre-eminence she has ever maintained, if we were to follow in the footsteps of the expedition of any other nation." Instead he plowed through the ice pack south of New Zealand and found a vast open sea with a mountainous western coast that he named Victoria Land for his young queen.

"It was an epoch in the history of discovery," the RGS's Mill later wrote, "the magic wall from before which every previous explorer had to turn back in despair, had fallen into fragments at the first determined effort to break through it." Sailing south along the Victoria Land coast in the sea later named for him, Ross encountered at about latitude 78degrees south what he de­scribed as "a perpendicular cliff of ice between one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet above the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level on top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even seaward side." The awestruck captain found that this "Great Ice Barrier" ex­tended eastward from the Victoria Land coast for hundreds of miles. He realized it would prevent anyone from sailing farther south. De­spite this obstacle in the way to the pole, Ross had found an exposed coastline with majestic mountains and, jutting from the Ice Barrier across the Ross Sea's McMurdo Sound, a large island that was later named for him. He never set foot on the Antarctic mainland, but his namesake island became the base for many later efforts to probe the southern continent.

In 1901, after years of prodding by its president, Clements R. Markham, the RGS cosponsored the first British land expedition to the southern continent. Aboard the purpose-built wooden ship Discovery, which wintered over for two years at Ross Island's Hut Point with a select team of scientists, officers, and sailors under Royal Navy com­mander Robert Falcon Scott, the British National Antarctic Expedition became the first to send parties south across the Ice Barrier and east over the Victoria Land mountains. A team consisting of Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Edward Wilson set a new farthest south record on the last day of 1902 before turning back at the extreme end of their endurance, at just over latitude 82degrees south. They had covered almost five hundred miles on foot with heavy sledges.

"Whilst one cannot help a deep sense of disappointment in reflecting on the 'might have been' had our team remained in good health," Scott wrote in his pub­lished journal, "one cannot but remember that even as it is we have made a greater advance towards a pole of the earth than has ever yet been achieved by a sledge party." Shackleton returned to Antarctica five years later leading a pri­vately funded expedition aboard the forty-year-old converted sealer Nimrod. Accompanied by a small land party that included several sci­entists, he wintered at Cape Royds on Ross Island before heading south with three men across the Ice Barrier, up a glacial pass through the mountains of South Victoria Land, and onto the vast Polar Plateau. They man-hauled their sledge to within 120 miles of the pole before being forced to turn back or face certain death by starvation. "We have shot our bolt, and the tale is latitude 88 degrees 23' South, longitude 162 degrees East," Shackleton wrote on January 9, 1909.

"We hoisted her Majesty's flag and the other Union Jack afterwards, and took possession of the plateau in the name of his Majesty," King Edward VII. Excerpted from An Empire of Ice by Edward J. Larson. Copyright 2011 by Edward J. Larson. Reprinted with permission of Yale University Press. Who Was the First Person to Reach the South Pole? Who Was the First Person to Reach the South Pole? By Stuart Fox | May 27, 2010 02:59pm ET MORE British expedition members Edward A. Wilson, Robert F. Scott, Edgar Evans, Lawrence Oates and Henry Robertson Bowers, photographed at the South Pole in front of Roald Amundsen Credit: AMNH Library Nationalist competition and a taste for adventure drove explorers to the farthest reaches of the Earth during the 19th and 20th centuries. But that spirit spurred what turned out to be a deadly competition between Norway and England to be the first to plant their flag on the South Pole. Although Norway won the prize, both nations led impassioned treks in the face of punishing environmental obstacles.

The first person to reach the South Pole was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and author of Race To the End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (Sterling Publishing, 2010). Amundsen spent 99 days racing Robert Scott, an English naval officer, to the South Pole. Amundsen, a veteran polar traveler, led a team of 18 men across the frozen continent , finally reaching the pole on Dec. 14, 1912, MacPhee said. Scott and his crew made it to the pole four weeks later on Jan. 17, 1913 but did not make it back alive. "When [Amundsen] was 15, he said the only thing he wanted to do was be a polar explorer, MacPhee told Life's Little Mysteries. He trained himself in all kinds of ways to become hard as nails. He was a master logistician, and that's why fundamentally he was successful.

When they were both on the Ross Ice Shelf [on the Antarctic coast, where the expeditions started], there was no question he would be first." Amundsen won the race because his team used dog sleds to travel, wore fur clothing and started his run earlier, MacPhee said. Scott, by contrast, had his men haul the gear or used ponies, wore wool clothes and started his expedition too late. "Scott was insufficiently aware of the conditions he would face , MacPhee said. You have to do everything as quickly as possible at the height of the Antarctic summer. Otherwise, you're a dead man." And dead men they were. While Amundsen returned home to a hero's welcome, Scott and his team died on their way back from the pole, frozen in their sleeping bags, MacPhee said. Editor's Recommendations Antarctic Explorers: Roald Amundsen 1872-1928 Roald Amundsen, born in 1872 near Oslo, Norway, left his mark on the Heroic Era as one of the most successful polar explorers ever born.

His career of adventure began at the age of 15, originally studying medicine, but dropping out to go to sea where he soon moved his way up to the rank of mate. His first experience in the Antarctic was with Adrien de Gerlache 's 1899 BELGICA EXPEDITION. He became the first to travel the Northwest Passage, in his ship Gjoa in 1903-06. After this expedition, plans were assembled to drift across the North Pole in Nansen's famous FRAM, but news arrived of Peary's successful attainment of the pole which caused Amundsen to make new plans--covert plans--for an expedition to the Antarctic and the subsequent capture of the South Pole. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen and four others stood at the South Pole, a month before Robert Scott . This expedition was an incredible masterpiece of organization. Here is the story... "The North Pole is reached!" was the news that flashed all over the world...it was September 1909 when the news reached Amundsen. The original plan of the FRAM'S third voyage--the exploration of the North Polar basin--was quickly called off.

In order to save the expedition, Amundsen immediately turned his attention to the South simultaneously emphasizing to his financial contributors that the FRAM'S Arctic voyage would be, in every way, a scientific expedition and would have nothing to do with record-breaking. Therefore, as far as the supporters were aware, Amundsen's Arctic voyage would not be influenced one way or another by Peary's accomplishment. Since he was so heavily in debt, Amundsen felt his change in plans to head south and capture the South Pole should be kept a secret. In his own words, Amundsen wrote, "I know that I have been reproached for not having at once made the extended plan public, so that not only my supporters, but the explorers who were preparing to visit the same regions might have knowledge of it. I was well aware that these reproaches would come, and had therefore carefully weighed this side of the matter". As hinted at, he also felt it important to keep his intentions secret from his peers. "Nor did I feel any great scruples with regard to the other Antarctic expeditions that were being planned at the time.

I knew I should be able to inform Captain Scott of the extension of my plans before he left civilization, and therefore a few months sooner or later could be of no great importance. Scott's plan and equipment were so widely different from my own that I regarded the telegram that I sent him later, with the information that we were bound for the Antarctic regions, rather as a mark of courtesy than as a communication which might cause him to alter his programme in the slightest degree. The British expedition was designed entirely for scientific research. The Pole was only a side-issue, whereas in my extended plan it was the main object". Amundsen must have been in a dream world as this simply was not true. Scott's intention to try for the Pole had been widely publicized and was certainly not a side issue...one only need turn to Scott's Antarctic Expedition announcement in the September 13, 1909, issue of The Times of London. Amundsen admitted that he was heavily in debt and knew that his best chance of raising money was to bring off a spectacular triumph.

Amundsen wrote, "If at that juncture I had made my intention public, it would only have given occasion for a lot of newspaper discussion, and possibly have ended in the project being stifled at its birth. Everything had to be got ready quietly and calmly. My brother, upon whose absolute silence I could blindly rely, was the only person I let into the secret of my change of plan, and he did me many important services during the time when we alone shared the knowledge". The only other man to know of the change in plans was the ship's commander, Lieutenant Thorvald Nilsen. Amundsen kept his plans so secret that only these two men, along with Lieutenants Prestrud and Gjertsen (told on the eve of the FRAM'S departure), knew of them before the FRAM reached Madeira, ostensibly on the way to Buenos Aires and then northwards to the Arctic; the Madeira trip was supposed to be mainly for the purpose of oceanographical research. The Norwegians left Christiania on August 9, 1910, eight weeks after Scott's TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION had departed Cardiff.

On board were 97 Greenland dogs, the key to Amundsen's success, along with a hut and provisions for two years in the Antarctic. A month later, on September 6, the FRAM arrived at Madeira where fresh water and other provisions were taken on board. A few minor repairs were made to the ship as the crew enjoyed some free time ashore. On the evening of the 9th, some three hours before departing for Antarctica, Amundsen called the crew to his attention. Many of the men were quite puzzled and unhappy to be interrupted as they were quickly writing final letters for home. As they came on deck, Amundsen was standing next to a map of Antarctica pinned to the mainmast. Amundsen spoke, "...it is my intention to sail Southwards, land a party on the Southern continent and try to reach the South Pole". Gjertsen wrote, "Most stood there with mouths agape staring at the Chief like so many question marks". Amundsen personally asked each man if he would like to join him on this historic journey. The last man to go ashore was Amundsen's brother, Leon.

His charge would be to mail the men's letters and cable Scott...but not until the beginning of October when Amundsen knew he would be beyond the point of recall. Once Amundsen left Madeira, he vanished, bound for an unknown destination...Scott never dreamt it would be the Ross Sea. Scott, on board the TERRA NOVA, arrived in Melbourne on the evening of October 12, 1910. Among the mail waiting for him was Amundsen's telegram, sent from Madeira, which came as a complete surprise: "Beg leave inform you proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen." Although there is no record of Scott's reaction, Evans later recalled, "we considered that he [Amundsen] would go to the Pole from the Weddell Sea side". In London, Sir Clements Markham eagerly put forth his opinion: "She [the FRAM] has no more sailing qualities than a haystack. In any case, Scott will be on the ground and settled long before Amundsen turns up, if he ever does".

Markham gleaned information from his sources in Norway and reported to the Royal Geographic Society's secretary, on October 15, that Amundsen had "quietly got a wintering hut made on board and 100 dogs and a supply of tents and sledges. His secret design must have been nearly a year old. They believe his mention of Punta Aranas and Buenos Aires is merely a blind, and that he is going to McMurdo Sound to try to cut out Scott...If I were Scott I would not let them land, but he is always too good-natured". Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, the general view among those involved in Scott's expedition was that Amundsen's behavior was underhanded. It took the FRAM four months to reach the Ross Ice Shelf, on January 14, 1911. Amundsen chose the Bay of Whales as winter headquarters for a number of reasons.

First, they could sail a whole degree farther south than Scott could hope to get in McMurdo Sound, putting them 60 miles closer to the Pole; secondly, they could set up their headquarters right on top of their field of work; thirdly, animal life in the Bay of Whales was extraordinarily rich and offered all the fresh meat the men required in the form of seals, penguins, etc. Besides, it offered a favorable site for an investigation of the meteorological conditions in all directions and was very easy to reach by ship. Unloading started on January 15 with camp established two miles inland. The first sledge was loaded with supplies, hitched to eight dogs and led away by Amundsen. For the next three weeks, five sledges, 46 dogs and five men transferred some 10 tons of supplies daily to base camp. Meanwhile, the carpenter, Jorgen Stubberud, supervised the assembly of the prefabricated hut. After a visit from Scott's TERRA NOVA, the base camp was christened Framheim--"The home of Fram"--and the depot-laying journeys began.

Within a three-week period, depots were established at 80°S, 81°S and 82°S...more than a ton and a half of supplies had been stored within 480 miles of the Pole. On April 21 the sun finally sank and the long winter night began. FRAM, taken by a crewmember aboard TERRA NOVA A great deal of work had to be done over the next four months. Amundsen was well aware of potential problems brought by nine men cramped into close quarters over the long winter nights so a strict routine was quickly introduced. Six days a week the men would rise at 7:30 am, have breakfast, start work at 9:00 and have lunch at noon. They would return to their work at 2:00 pm and end at 5:15, with the balance of the day to be used as they pleased. Each man took his turn as the week's housekeeper emptying ashtrays, sweeping up and generally keeping the hut clean. Each man had two hooks on which to hang clothes, while the rest of their small stuff was kept out of sight in a clothes sack nearby.

In addition to the hut in which they lived, fifteen 16-man tents were erected to store fuel and supplies. Bjaaland and Hassel built a Scandanavian staple...a sauna. A bottomless box, on a platform raised two feet off the ice floor, was built large enough to slip over the man, allowing only his head to protrude. A tin box, fitted between the platform and the ice floor, was heated by two paraffin stoves. As the water boiled, the compartment would fill with steam. When the man was finished, a rope-and-pulley system would lift the box clear, exposing a naked man, who then had to make a dash back to the hut. Exposure to the elements would quickly seal the pores...the event became a Saturday night ritual. Over the winter, every man had specific chores. Kristian Prestrud, assisted by Hjalmar Johansen, made scientific observations; Sverre Hassel, assisted by Helmer Hanssen, was nicknamed the "Managing Director of Framheim's Coal, Oil and Coke Company Limited", the position responsible for supplying lamps and heaters with fuel. Johansen packed the sledges with pemmican, chocolate, milk powder and biscuits.

Remodelling and overhauling of the expedition's sledging equipment was left to the skilled carpenter, Olav Bjaaland, assisted by Jorgen Stubberud. Bjaaland was an expert at reducing unnecessary weight on the sledges. As well as preparing two sets of skis for each man, Bjaaland lightened the weight of the sledges by nearly one third. Stubberud achieved similar results with the sledging cases. When Bjaaland was finished, Hanssen and Oscar Wisting would assemble the sledge using rawhide lashings. In a tiny snow cave off the main storage room, Wisting spent most of the winter at a sewing machine where new tents were made, complete with floors, from weight-saving windcloth. The new tents weighed nearly nine pounds less than the tents brought on the expedition. The camp's cook was an overweight and jolly man named Adolf Lindstrom. Lindstrom would rise each morning at 6:00 am to prepare a breakfast of hot buckwheat cakes spread with whortleberry preserve, plus wholemeal bread enriched with wheatgerm, butter and cheese. Amundsen said Lindstroms' cakes "slipped down with fabulous rapidity".

As for lunch, various meals were prepared from fresh or frozen seal meat, supplemented with tinned meats by the end of winter. For dessert, tinned California fruits, tarts, pudding, pies and pastries, all made by Lindstrom, were served. Supper was seal steak, bread with butter, whortleberry jam and cheese. Coffee was the staple beverage although brandy was served on Saturday evenings, birthdays and holidays. Amundsen made certain the food at Framheim was very nutritious since he'd learned first-hand the effects of scurvy while on the BELGICA EXPEDITION in 1897. The men actually enjoyed getting together each evening over supper. Since they had worked in different parts of the camp during the day, rarely was there a lack of conversation come evening time. Card games, dart matches, reading and needlework took place often around the main table. Occasionally the gramophone was brought out and a few records played. But, despite the relative easy passing of winter nights, Amundsen remained worried about Johansen's quick temper. Forced abstinence from alcohol made Johansen quite difficult to deal with at times.

To make matters worse, Johansen had as much experience in polar exploration as Amundsen; he had been to the Arctic with Nansen. Johansen felt this put him, at worst, on level par with Amundsen. And then there was the matter of Robert Scott...how far had the English advanced? Amundsen was aware that Scott was using motorized sledges although he doubted their efficiency. Little did he know of what was going on at McMurdo Sound. Fridtjof Nansen By August 24 the sun had reappeared and the packed sledges were ready to be taken out from their underground storage. But two long, frustrating months would pass before the weather was warm enough for them to start the journey to the Pole. Tensions increased as each day passed. Amundsen would have the men and dogs prepared for departure only to cancel at the last moment due to inclement weather. The weather had to be clear for their first run to the 80°S depot, or there was a real risk of missing it.

Finally, on Friday, September 8, 1911, they sped off across the snow...eight men with sledges pulled by 86 dogs; only Lindstrom was left behind as custodian of Framheim. Amundsen wrote that "the going was splendid" and they covered 31 miles over the next three days. However, on the morning of the 11th they awoke to frigid temperatures nearing -70°F. By the next day, conditions were even worse as the fluid in their compasses froze solid. Amundsen determined that it was simply too risky to continue on towards the Pole. That evening a decision was made to make a run for the depot, weather permitting, unload their sledges and race back to Framheim. The weather co-operated and they arrived at the depot on Thursday. The next evening Hanssen and Stubberud discovered their heels were frostbitten. As well, a number of the dogs were suffering from the cold; two of the dogs froze to death in their sleep. At 7:00 the next morning they set off for Framheim.

Johansen They would normally keep in sight of each other but the first two sledges moved so rapidly that the others were soon left behind. The sledge teams continued to break up, with Bjaaland and Stubberud reaching Framheim first at 6 pm, followed two hours later by Amundsen's group. A half an hour after that Hassel arrived and six hours later, at 12:30 am, Johansen and Prestrud finally stumbled into camp. Johansen and Prestrud were totally exhausted, having found Framheim in the dark and fog only by following the barking of the dogs. At breakfast the next morning, Amundsen finally succeeded in knocking the chip off Johansen's shoulder when Amundsen asked why it had taken them so long to make it back to Framheim. Johansen exploded, angrily accusing Amundsen of panicking and displaying poor leadership qualities when the group had been allowed to split up. In the dead silence that followed, Amundsen remained speechless. It was what Amundsen had always feared--a confrontation with the one man in the expedition with experience to equal his own.

This brought to an end the harmony amongst all the men as Amundsen never forgave Johansen or spoke to him unless absolutely necessary. Amundsen's excuse to the others was that Hanssen was suffering too severely from frostbite to linger behind...the men were not totally convinced. At noon, Amundsen announced to his men a change in plans. Amundsen would lead one party to the Pole while Prestrud--with Johansen--would lead a second party to explore King Edward VII Land. Amundsen's decision was not a revengeful one as he felt that if the Pole party were not successful, at least there might still be a "first" gained for Norway. Amundsen then spoke to each man individually (ignoring Johansen), asking for his pledge of loyalty...all gave it. And so, on October 20, 1911, Amundsen, Bjaaland, Wisting, Hassel and Hanssen departed on their historic journey to the Pole. Four sledges were used, each pulled with 13 dogs. They made good progress, other than a little trouble with crevasses, and arrived at 80°S depot on the 24th.

They uncovered the provisions and gave the dogs a feast of seal meat and blubber. The next day the party left with all five men on skis. On the way south, they spotted a cairn still standing as they had built it the prior April. Thus proving reliability, another 150 similar cairns were built on the journey south, each left with a written record inside stating the distance and bearing to the next cairn. Each day, as they built their cairn, lunch was eaten..."nothing very luxurious", wrote Amundsen, "three or four dry oatmeal biscuits, that was all. If one wanted a drink, one could mix snow with the biscuit". They arrived at 82°S depot on November 4. Two days later they left...they were accomplishing 20 miles each day, in only five hours, after which they would build their cairn, in an hour and a half, and then rest for the remainder of the day. On November 11 the peaks of mountains were seen in the distance, which Amundsen later named Queen Maud's Range, after the Queen of Norway.

At the foot of the range they camped and discussed strategy for the final push to the Pole, some 340 miles distant. The final plan was to take supplies and provisions for 30 days, along with the remaining 42 dogs, and make the climb. After reaching the top, 24 of the dogs would be shot, since they would no longer be needed, using the remaining 18 in the final dash for the Pole. Once reached, six more would be slaughtered to provide food for the remaining twelve on the trip back to Framheim. On November 17 they started the climb up the Axel Heiberg Glacier. The weather was warm and the climb even better as they covered 11.5 miles before making camp at 2000 feet. Four days later, on November 21, they found themselves at the summit. They'd managed to carry a ton of supplies to an altitude of 10,000 feet. Twenty-four dogs were shot and the party stayed at "The Butcher's Shop", as it was now called, for four more days before heading off into a raging blizzard.

They had already waited two days longer than planned so they had no choice but to push on. For the next ten days they struggled, five men and 18 dogs, against driving snow in 35 mph winds and thick fog. At last they reached the plateau, only to be confronted by "The Devil's Ballroom", a glacier with a thin crust of snow covering a number of dangerous, deep crevasses. This proved to be the last major obstacle. On December 8, with the sun shining brightly, they passed Shackleton 's farthest south, 88°23'S. They were only 95 miles from the South Pole. The dogs were hungry and exhausted, the men had many sores and frostbitten faces, yet still the party pushed on. The closer they came to the Pole, the more Amundsen worried that Scott had already beaten them. The temptation to race on, at full speed, was shared by everyone. At 3:00 pm, on Friday, December 14, 1911, there was a simultaneous cry of "Halt!" as the sledge meters registered their arrival at the South Pole. They had achieved their goal.

Symbolic of their struggle in unity, each of the men, with their weathered and frostbitten hands, grasped the Norwegian flag and planted it firmly at the geographical South Pole. Amundsen named the plain King Haakon VII's Plateau. There were festivities in the tent that evening with each man sharing a little seal meat. At midnight observations were taken that put them at 89° 56'S. Arrangements were now made to encircle the camp with a radius of approximately twelve and a half miles. At noon, on December 17, the observations had been completed and it was certain the men had done all that could be done. In order to come a few inches closer to the actual Pole, Hanssen and Bjaaland went out four geographical miles and promptly returned. Bjaaland surprised Amundsen when he pulled out a cigar-case full of cigars at dinner. A cigar at the Pole! Following the festival dinner, preparations for departure began. A tent was erected, naming it Poleheim, with Amundsen leaving a message inside for Scott, along with a letter for King Haakon.

Thirty-nine days later the party returned to Framheim, as planned, with all five men and 11 dogs "hale and hearty". The month-long voyage back to Tasmania was a frustrating time for Amundsen, who was now quite anxious to be the first to announce the news of their achievement. On March 7, 1912, Amundsen finally cabled his brother Leon with the historic news. During World War I Amundsen made a significant amount of money from supplying "neutral" shipping. He went on to build the MAUD in order to continue his Arctic drift. He managed to complete the Northwest Passage around Siberia--only the second to do so--but failed in his attempt to proceed farther north. Subsequently, he left the ship in 1921. Amundsen now became consumed with flying, but was soon facing extreme financial hardship before gaining support from Lincoln Ellsworth. Together with Ellsworth, history was made when they flew the airship NORGE from Spitsbergen to Alaska via the North Pole. This was the first trans-Arctic flight right across the Pole. Amundsen, fulfilled by his reputation, now retired.

Unfortunately, he never could come to terms with the British reaction to his secret change of plans in 1910. Mill, of the Royal Geographic Society, described him as the most unhappy of all the polar explorers he had ever met. In 1928, while searching for survivors of an airship disaster, Amundsen's plane crashed and he disappeared without a trace. Ham Radio QSL Card Confirming My 2-Way Radio Contact With the South Pole <MAP NAME="boxmap-p16"> <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="10, 322, 100, 329" HREF="" > <AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="" > </MAP> <img src="" width="468" height="336" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p16" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> Who led the first expedition to the South Pole? Science & Technology Who led the first expedition to the South Pole? Roald Amundsen of Norway landed his party on Antarctica in 1911.

Amundsen and four men started for the South Pole on sleds drawn by dogs. They reached the Pole in less than two months. The journey back was even quicker, and everyone returned safely. Soon afterward, Robert F. Scott's British expedition also reached the Pole. But none of the five men survived the return trip.

Question: Who led the first expedition that reached the South Pole?
Answer: Roald Amundsen