Rare Book Monthly
Mission Seeks to Find the Lost Discoverer of the South Pole
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
With the discovery by the search party, the final chapter was complete on Scott's life. His last letters home were retrieved, and a marker was placed to note his final resting place. However, no such final chapter was ever written, nor any marker erected, for Amundsen. He returned safely, and lived until 1928, sixteen years after Scott died. Now, over 80 years later, a new expedition is about to be launched to write the final chapter on Amundsen's life.
After his return, Amundsen led an expedition through the Northeast Passage, and then began exploring by air. In 1926, he became either the second or first (depending on whether you believe the claims of Admiral Richard Byrd) to fly over the North Pole. Then, in 1928, an exploration by air headed by Umberto Nobile, an Italian aircraft designer who accompanied Amundsen on his flight over the North Pole, went down on sea ice. An international rescue effort was launched, and Amundsen was one of those who took to the skies. Ironically, Nobile and his men were found, but the great Norwegian explorer was lost. His plane went down over the sea, and unlike Nobile and Scott, he was never found. A pontoon from his seaplane was located, but the resting place of Amundsen and his plane remains a mystery.
Recently, the Royal Norwegian Navy announced that the search for Amundsen will resume this summer. The navy, along with some specialty partners, will be using the latest sonar equipment and submarine technology to locate the missing plane. Amundsen is believed to have gone down in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway's Spitsbergen Island. The Navy has a particular area in mind where it believes the plane is most likely to be located. They have no expectation of finding any remains of Amundsen. As Scott was consigned to the ice, Amundsen is forever consigned to the sea.
Among the books Amundsen wrote are The South Pole. An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the "Fram," 1910 - 1912 (published in 1912), and The North West Passage being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Gjoa" 1903-1907... published in 1908. The Arctic and Antarctic regions have become quite popular fields for collecting, with booksellers such as Aquila Books and Bjarne Tokerud specializing in the area. Amundsen's works are important elements of such a collection.
