Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) was a Norwegian polar explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole and was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage. Drawn to the polar regions from youth, he gave up medical studies for the sea and gained his first Antarctic experience on the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899. Between 1903 and 1906 he guided the small ship Gjøa through the Arctic waters of northern Canada, learning from the Netsilik Inuit the use of fur clothing and sled dogs. Those lessons proved decisive in 1911, when he and four companions reached the South Pole on December 14 by ski and dog sled. In 1926 he flew over the North Pole aboard the airship Norge. Amundsen disappeared in 1928 over the Barents Sea while flying to aid the crew of a stranded airship. His careful planning set a lasting model for polar exploration.
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Seeking a Passage to the Pacific
For centuries explorers sought a waterway across or around North America to the Pacific. Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River, Henry Hudson explored the river and bay that bear his name, and James Cook searched the Arctic coast from the Pacific side. Sent by Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark crossed the continent overland, and Roald Amundsen became the first to sail the Northwest Passage.
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