43 Facts About Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

In 1909, Roald Amundsen began planning for a South Pole expedition.

Roald Amundsen left Norway in June 1910 on the ship Fram and reached Antarctica in January 1911.

The party of five, led by Roald Amundsen, became the first to successfully reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911.

Roald Amundsen disappeared in June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission for the airship Italia in the Arctic.

Roald Amundsen was born into a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg.

Roald Amundsen's mother wanted him to avoid the family maritime trade and encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21.

Roald Amundsen promptly quit university for a life at sea.

When he was fifteen years old, Roald Amundsen was enthralled by reading Sir John Franklin's narratives of his overland Arctic expeditions.

Roald Amundsen wrote "I read them with a fervid fascination which has shaped the whole course of my life".

Roald Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as first mate at the age of 25 in 1897.

Roald Amundsen and Cook later took over command of the ship when De Gerlache became severely ill.

In 1903, Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Roald Amundsen's technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast.

Roald Amundsen traveled there overland to wire a success message on 5 December, then returned to Nome in 1906.

Roald Amundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin.

Roald Amundsen was not clear about his intentions, and Robert F Scott and the Norwegian supporters felt misled.

Roald Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit-style furred skins.

Roald Amundsen planned to kill some of his dogs on the way and use them as a source for fresh meat.

The painful retreat caused a quarrel within the group, and Roald Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land.

Roald Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII's Plateau.

Roald Amundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis.

In contrast to the misfortunes of Scott's team, Roald Amundsen's trek proved relatively smooth and uneventful.

In 1918, an expedition Roald Amundsen began with a new ship, Maud, lasted until 1925.

Roald Amundsen suffered a stroke and was so physically reduced that he could not participate.

Roald Amundsen considered Hanssen to be in breach of contract, and dismissed him from the crew.

Roald Amundsen finally became free and the expedition sailed south, reaching Seattle, in the American Pacific Northwest in 1921 for repairs.

Roald Amundsen returned to Norway, needing to put his finances in order.

Roald Amundsen took with him two young indigenous girls, a four-year-old he adopted, Kakonita, and her companion Camilla.

When Roald Amundsen went bankrupt two years later he sent the girls to be cared for by Camilla's father, who lived in eastern Russia.

In June 1922, Roald Amundsen returned to Maud, which had been sailed to Nome.

Roald Amundsen decided to shift from the planned naval expedition to aerial ones, and arranged to charter a plane.

Roald Amundsen divided the expedition team in two: one part, led by him, was to winter over and prepare for an attempt to fly over the pole in 1923.

Roald Amundsen disappeared on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic.

Roald Amundsen's team included Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, French pilot Rene Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen.

Roald Amundsen was a lifelong bachelor, though he had a long-time relationship with the Norwegian-born Kristine Elisabeth Bennett, the wife of an Englishman, Charles Peto Bennett.

Roald Amundsen met her in London in 1907 and they remained close for many years, although Amundsen kept the relationship a secret from everyone outside his intimate circle.

Author Julian Sancton noted that in his younger years, Roald Amundsen was said to have ignored romantic relationships in pursuit of his goals.

Roald Amundsen "found little use in activities that didn't help him fulfill his polar ambitions".

The Roald Amundsen crater was named after him and the rim of said crater is being considered by NASA as a potential landing location for their Artemis 3 lunar lander.

On 15 February 2019, a biographic Norwegian film titled Roald Amundsen, directed by Espen Sandberg, was released.

Accounts by members of the expedition told of their relations with Inuit women, and historians have speculated that Roald Amundsen might have taken a partner, although he wrote a warning against this.

Not all descendants claiming European ancestry have been tested for a match to Roald Amundsen, nor has there been a comparison of Ikuallaq's DNA to that of other European members of Roald Amundsen's crew.