The Northeast Passage & North Pole
While lesser men may have been content with achieving history once, Amundsen had an insatiable appetite for exploration. He began a seven-year expedition on the ship Maud in 1918. The first mission was to sail west to east via the Northeast Passage. Amundsen was joined by a couple of his South Pole team members, and he planned to explore the unknown parts of the Arctic Ocean.
The ship became frozen in ice, and Amundsen suffered injuries so he could not get involved in much of the outdoor work. As well as sustaining a broken arm, he had been attacked by polar bears. After a couple of winters frozen on the ice, Amundsen elected to sail to Nome for provisions; the mission was a failure.
After further failed attempts. Amundsen had his ship seized as collateral for his enormous debts. As well as being unable to drift the Maud over the North Pole on ice as intended, Amundsen failed in an attempt to fly over the Pole.
However, Amundsen was a stubborn and remarkably resilient and determined individual, so he did not rest until he reached the North Pole. He took two flying boats toward the North Pole along with five crew members in 1925. At the time, it was the furthest that any plane had flown in a northernmost latitude.
When one of the planes became irreplaceably damaged, it appeared as if the crew was doomed. However, they somehow managed to cram into the other plane and safely made it home.
Along with a crew of 15, Amundsen crossed the Arctic in the airship Norge in 1926. They left Svalbard on May 11, 1926, and landed in Alaska on May 13. There are suggestions that none of the three previous expeditions to the North Pole actually occurred.
However, historians are satisfied that Robert E. Peary’s expedition in 1909 was legitimate although Frederick Cook’s 1908 mission probably wasn’t.
The Death of an Explorer
In 1928, the airship Italia crashed while returning from the North Pole. The same person who created the Norge designed it and Amundsen was part of a rescue mission. The 6-man team was looking for members of the Italia, but they also disappeared on June 18, 1928. Although Amundsen’s body and the remains of the others were never found, it is certain that they all died in a crash.
Parts of Amundsen’s flying boat were found off the coast of Tromso soon after the disappearance. The Norwegian Government eventually gave up and officially declared an end to the search in September 1928. In 2004 and again in 2009, the Norwegian Navy used a submarine to try and find further evidence from the 1928 crash but found nothing. There is a dispute over the probable location of the crash.
Some believe the plane crashed in the Barents Sea in fog while others are more specific and suggest it went down northwest of Bear Island. Regardless of where the plane ultimately landed, Amundsen and the others unquestionably died on their rescue mission; a sad end to the life of a great explorer.