THE REAL LIVELIVEJOURNAL IDOL -- SEASON 10, WEEK 18 -- Location, Location, Location
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
The early 20th Century was the heyday of Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Although there had been earlier expeditions to see what lay in the frozen wastes at the top and bottom of the globe, prior to the 1900s all attempts to reach either the North or South Pole had ended in failures... and many men died in the process, occasionally with entire expeditions becoming trapped by horrific weather and crushing ice, never to be seen alive again.
One of the more successful and experienced explorers during this period was Roald Amundsen. A Norwegian, Amundsen had been fascinated by stories of exploration since his childhood, and he left university in 1893 to join the crew of a seal-hunting ship bound for the Arctic in order to gain the necessary skills required to survive in the polar regions. Three years later he was hired on as the First Mate of a Belgian expeditionary ship set to explore the waters off the coast of Antarctica. Although that voyage nearly ended in disaster when the vessel became trapped in the ice for nearly a year, Amundsen learned much from the experience... and so in 1903 he led a successful three-year-long expedition across the so-called Northwest Passage through Hudson Bay, successfully sailing a group of small boats from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Upon returning to his native Norway in 1906, Amundsen was hailed as a hero... but for a man like him, one triumph was not enough. He spent a few years raising money for his next expedition: he planned a multi-year exploration of the Arctic ice pack, including a dedicated attempt to reach the North Pole. However, while still in the process of raising the necessary funds to mount that expedition, he learned of something which made him completely alter his plans...
SEPTEMBER 1909
"Ah, helvete!" Amundsen swore under his breath as he read the newspaper article. In recent months, two other explorers -- Frederick Cook and Robert Peary -- had returned from extended trips to the Arctic... and each of them were claiming that their team had successfully reached the North Pole. Indeed, Cook claimed that he had reached the pole in April 1908, but had such great difficulty on the return trip that he had only very recently returned to civilization, nearly starving to death on the way back. Peary, by contrast, stated that he reached the pole in April 1909 and was able to return home relatively quickly and easily. Peary was now casting aspersions on Cook's claim to have reached the pole first, based on the fact that Cook had not brought an experienced navigator along with him to confirm the expedition's location... but that hardly mattered to Amundsen.
"At least one of them probably made it..." the Norwegian murmured to himself. "Maybe both Cook and Peary did it. No one will care if I reach the North Pole now; no one cares about who comes in second or third in a race..."
Amundsen pondered the situation... and realized that he only had one option left. The problem was that if he publicly announced a change of plan it would likely doom his expedition: much of the money he had raised had come from government and scientific organizations who had specifically contracted him to bring back valuable data about the Arctic ice pack. But his new plan would not involve traveling to the Arctic at all, and so these organizations might demand their money back.
Amundsen sighed. He had no choice but to keep the change in plan a secret until the expedition was underway. Oh, he'd have to immediately tell the truth to Thorvald Nilsen, his second-in-command, but Amundsen was sure Nilsen would keep his mouth shut. In the meantime, Amundsen was going to need to hire a few extra navigators, or at least have some members of his expedition undergo rigorous training in that skill. There was no way that his expedition was going to be dismissed the way that Peary had dismissed Cook's claim to have reached the North Pole...
As a direct result of Cook's and Peary's claims of having reached the North Pole, Amundsen had great difficulty getting additional funds to pay for his expedition... and so the Norwegian had to mortgage his house to raise the necessary cash. If he was not successful, Amundsen would be financially ruined upon his return... but having faced death many times before, the prospect of bankruptcy did not deter the Norwegian explorer in the slightest.
Amundsen's expedition set sail from Norway in August 1910. Though he told a few junior officers about the change of plan immediately prior to departure, Amundsen did not reveal the truth to the rest of the crew until after their ship made port in Madeira several weeks later. Every member of the expedition was then asked whether they were still willing to proceed to the new destination... and all the men responded positively.
Amundsen then sent messages to his backers and supporters in Norway, apologizing for not telling them the truth sooner but assuring them that the success of this expedition would more than make up for any deception on his part. Amundsen also sent one additional telegram, because his expedition was technically part of a race, and the proper thing was for him to inform his competition of this fact.
SEPTEMBER 1910
"Any messages?" Robert Scott quipped as he checked into his hotel. The British explorer had launched an expedition the previous year in an attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole, but he was heavily in debt and so he was visiting Melbourne to raise additional funds. Scott had made no secret of this planned stopover, and so he was not surprised to find a sizable bundle of letters and telegrams waiting for him. Most of the messages were from friends and his financial backers, including the Royal Geographic Society. However, one message which had arrived the previous month came as a complete surprise.
Scott frowned as he read the telegram. It was short and simultaneously vague yet to the point: BEG TO INFORM YOU AM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC -- AMUNDSEN.
The Englishman slowly shook his head. "Why would Amundsen bother telling me this? With the continent being so large, it's unlikely we're going to bump into each other down there... unless--" Scott couldn't bring himself to state his theory out loud, because it seemed so far-fetched... but his guts began to twist in apprehension.
Scott sighed heavily as he thought the situation over. "No matter; I won't change my plans one iota. I promised to perform various scientific observations on my way to the pole, and I will fulfill those obligations no matter what. Besides, I already have a several week lead over Amundsen..."
Scott's expedition quickly lost that lead, due to a combination of bad weather, getting caught in pack ice for three weeks... and the vessel being so heavily overloaded that it could only crawl along when the seas were calm.
By comparison, Amundsen had geared his expedition for speed and efficiency; the cold-weather clothing he had issued to his men weighed significantly less than what Scott had issued to his team. Further, when the two expeditions reached Antarctica, Amundsen berthed his ship in a bay which was 70 miles (110 km) closer to the pole than the spot where Scott set up his base of operations. In retrospect, the outcome of the "Race for the South Pole" should come as no surprise.
DECEMBER 1911
"Well?" Amundsen shivered as he stood on the wind-swept plateau, waiting for a response from the other men in his team. He had taken several sextant readings himself in the preceding days, but he felt he could not trust himself... especially in light of how Cook's claims of having reached the North Pole had been so thoroughly dismissed because Cook didn't have a trained navigator with him to verify his readings. That was why three of his four companions on the final leg of the journey were all navigators themselves... and those three were performing a final analysis.
After a brief conference, Bjaaland spoke for the other two navigators. "Sir, from where we are standing now, we are within two-and-a-half kilometers of the actual pole... and with the equipment we have, there's no realistic way of being more precise."
Amundsen felt a wave of relief wash over him. That was no more than a mile and a half away from the exact location of the South Pole. All things considered, no one could reasonably claim that he had not reached his destination... and there was absolutely no sign that Scott's party had reached this area first. Amundsen smiled as he planted the Norwegian flag in the ice... then he turned to the other four men and started giving orders. "Set up a tent here, and leave any gear we won't absolutely need for the trip back; Scott might require it when he finally gets here." The other four men quickly set to work as Amundsen stood by... yet despite his accomplishment, the Norwegian explorer felt strangely empty inside, and he quickly determined the reason why.
He spent a moment to muse about the situation he found himself in: "The area around the North Pole -- devil take it -- has fascinated me since childhood, and now here I am at the South Pole. Could anything be more crazy?" He silently shook his head at the obvious irony... yet the realization left him feeling even more empty than before.
The man heaved a heavy sigh. Well, maybe he would eventually do something about the matter, but first he needed to get back home to tell the world of what he had accomplished... and as a precaution he left a message behind for Scott and his team in case Amundsen and his men didn't survive the trek back to the coast...
Scott and his team would eventually reach the South Pole five weeks later, though no member of the British expedition would survive the trip back, but that is another story for another time.
Amundsen's expedition would eventually reach civilization safely, and though a few folks grumbled about the somewhat underhanded aspect of how he had planned the expedition, several scientific organizations reviewed the navigational notes of his team and unanimously concluded that he had, in fact, reached the South Pole. But this is not quite the end of Amundsen's story.
APRIL 1925
Amundsen smiled as his invited guest stepped forward. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me, Captain Nobile.”
The Italian engineer shook hands with the famous explorer. “The pleasure is all mine, sir. How might I be of assistance?”
The Norwegian came straight to the point: “I'm planning an expedition to travel across the Arctic Ocean, including a visit to the North Pole. As you've no doubt heard, many people now question Robert Peary's claim to have reached the pole, for the same reason that Peary denounced Frederick Cook's claim: Neither man brought additional navigators with them to confirm their position... and the few astronomical notes that both Cook and Peary recorded are such a mess that there's good reason to suspect that neither man actually reached the pole, and in Cook's case there's evidence of outright fraud. As such, I'm planning on taking several trained navigators with me on my upcoming expedition... and I'd like you to design a vessel that will get us there.”
Nobile mulled over the request. “I have something currently on the drawing board that, with appropriate modifications, would be able to handle arctic conditions. However, before we discuss price, I should tell you right now that I will only agree to build the vessel under one condition: that I will be its captain during your expedition.”
Amundsen snorted. “Actually, sir... that was going to be my next request of you.”
MAY 12, 1926
“Well?” Amundsen felt a brief wave of deja vu, but in a sense he had lived through this exact experience before, as he had asked the same question of his navigators nearly fifteen years before. Yet at the same time, the two circumstances could hardly be more different...
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, the chief navigator, spoke for his entire team. “Sir, we are, at most, a little under a kilometer from the pole... and with the instruments we have, that is within the margin of error. We simply can't be more accurate than that.”
Amundsen sighed with relief, then he turned to look out a nearby view port. The semi-dirigible airship Norge cast a huge oval shadow upon the rough surface of the ice pack several hundred feet below. They wouldn't be able to land upon the ice... but that hardly mattered to Amundsen.
“I made it...” A sense of accomplishment warmed the Norwegian, despite the freezing conditions inside the airship cabin. “After all these years, I finally made it.”
This post is an entry for THE REAL LIVEJOURNAL IDOL (therealljidol), Season 10,
Week 18. It is based on the prompt "Location, Location, Location", and is a fictionalized account of the journeys of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
My Intersection partner was shadowwolf13. You can read their piece by CLICKING HERE.