South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912 - Volume 1 , livre ebook

Pub One Info - Roald Amundsen

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147 pages

English

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. When the explorer comes home victorious, everyone goes out to cheer him. We are all proud of his achievement - proud on behalf of the nation and of humanity. We think it is a new feather in our cap, and one we have come by cheaply.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819948322
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Introduction
When the explorer comes home victorious, everyonegoes out to cheer him. We are all proud of his achievement — proudon behalf of the nation and of humanity. We think it is a newfeather in our cap, and one we have come by cheaply.
How many of those who join in the cheering werethere when the expedition was fitting out, when it was short ofbare necessities, when support and assistance were most urgentlywanted? Was there then any race to be first? At such a time theleader has usually found himself almost alone; too often he has hadto confess that his greatest difficulties were those he had toovercome at home before he could set sail. So it was with Columbus,and so it has been with many since his time.
So it was, too, with Roald Amundsen — not only thefirst time, when he sailed in the Gjöa with the double object ofdiscovering the Magnetic North Pole and of making the North-WestPassage, but this time again, when in 1910 he left the fjord on hisgreat expedition in the Fram, to drift right across the North PolarSea. What anxieties that man has gone through, which might havebeen spared him if there had been more appreciation on the part ofthose who had it in their power to make things easier! And Amundsenhad then shown what stuff he was made of: both the great objects ofthe Gjöa's expedition were achieved. He has always reached the goalhe has aimed at, this man who sailed his little yacht over thewhole Arctic Ocean, round the north of America, on the course thathad been sought in vain for four hundred years. If he staked hislife and abilities, would it not have been natural if we had beenproud of having such a man to support?
But was it so?
For a long time he struggled to complete hisequipment. Money was still lacking, and little interest was shownin him and his work, outside the few who have always helped so faras was in their power. He himself gave everything he possessed inthe world. But this time, as last, he nevertheless had to put tosea loaded with anxieties and debts, and, as before, he sailed outquietly on a summer night.
Autumn was drawing on. One day there came a letterfrom him. In order to raise the money he could not get at home forhis North Polar expedition he was going to the South Pole first.People stood still — did not know what to say. This was anunheard-of thing, to make for the North Pole by way of the SouthPole! To make such an immense and entirely new addition to hisplans without asking leave! Some thought it grand; more thought itdoubtful; but there were many who cried out that it wasinadmissible, disloyal — nay, there were some who wanted to havehim stopped. But nothing of this reached him. He had steered hiscourse as he himself had set it, without looking back.
Then by degrees it was forgotten, and everyone wenton with his own affairs. The mists were upon us day after day, weekafter week — the mists that are kind to little men and swallow upall that is great and towers above them.
Suddenly a bright spring day cuts through the bankof fog. There is a new message. People stop again and look up. Highabove them shines a deed, a man. A wave of joy runs through thesouls of men; their eyes are bright as the flags that wave aboutthem.
Why? On account of the great geographicaldiscoveries, the important scientific results? Oh no; that willcome later, for the few specialists. This is something all canunderstand. A victory of human mind and human strength over thedominion and powers of Nature; a deed that lifts us above the greymonotony of daily life; a view over shining plains, with loftymountains against the cold blue sky, and lands covered byice-sheets of inconceivable extent; a vision of long-vanishedglacial times; the triumph of the living over the stiffened realmof death. There is a ring of steeled, purposeful human will —through icy frosts, snowstorms, and death.
For the victory is not due to the great inventionsof the present day and the many new appliances of every kind. Themeans used are of immense antiquity, the same as were known to thenomad thousands of years ago, when he pushed forward across thesnow-covered plains of Siberia and Northern Europe. But everything,great and small, was thoroughly thought out, and the plan wassplendidly executed. It is the man that matters, here aseverywhere.
Like everything great, it all looks so plain andsimple. Of course, that is just as it had to be, we think.
Apart from the discoveries and experiences ofearlier explorers — which, of course, were a necessary condition ofsuccess — both the plan and its execution are the ripe fruit ofNorwegian life and experience in ancient and modern times. TheNorwegians' daily winter life in snow and frost, our peasants'constant use of ski and ski-sledge in forest and mountain, oursailors' yearly whaling and sealing life in the Polar Sea, ourexplorers' journeys in the Arctic regions — it was all this, withthe dog as a draught animal borrowed from the primitive races, thatformed the foundation of the plan and rendered its executionpossible — when the man appeared.
Therefore, when the man is there, it carries himthrough all difficulties as if they did not exist; every one ofthem has been foreseen and encountered in advance. Let no one comeand prate about luck and chance. Amundsen's luck is that of thestrong man who looks ahead.
How like him and the whole expedition is histelegram home — as simple and straightforward as if it concerned aholiday tour in the mountains. It speaks of what is achieved, notof their hardships. Every word a manly one. That is the mark of theright man, quiet and strong.
It is still too early to measure the extent of thenew discoveries, but the cablegram has already dispersed the mistsso far that the outlines are beginning to shape themselves. Thatfairyland of ice, so different from all other lands, is graduallyrising out of the clouds.
In this wonderful world of ice Amundsen has foundhis own way. From first to last he and his companions havetraversed entirely unknown regions on their ski, and there are notmany expeditions in history that have brought under the foot of manso long a range of country hitherto unseen by human eye. Peoplethought it a matter of course that he would make for BeardmoreGlacier, which Shackleton had discovered, and by that route comeout on to the high snow plateau near the Pole, since there he wouldbe sure of getting forward. We who knew Amundsen thought it wouldbe more like him to avoid a place for the very reason that it hadbeen trodden by others. Happily we were right. Not at any pointdoes his route touch that of the Englishmen — except by the Poleitself.
This is a great gain to research. When in a year'stime we have Captain Scott back safe and sound with all hisdiscoveries and observations on the other route, Amundsen's resultswill greatly increase in value, since the conditions will then beilluminated from two sides. The simultaneous advance towards thePole from two separate points was precisely the most fortunatething that could happen for science. The region investigatedbecomes so much greater, the discoveries so many more, and theimportance of the observations is more than doubled, oftenmultiplied many times. Take, for instance, the meteorologicalconditions: a single series of observations from one spot no doubthas its value, but if we get a simultaneous series from anotherspot in the same region, the value of both becomes very muchgreater, because we then have an opportunity of understanding themovements of the atmosphere. And so with other investigations.Scott's expedition will certainly bring back rich and importantresults in many departments, but the value of his observations willalso be enhanced when placed side by side with Amundsen's.
An important addition to Amundsen's expedition tothe Pole is the sledge journey of Lieutenant Prestrud and his twocompanions eastward to the unknown King Edward VII. Land, whichScott discovered in 1902. It looks rather as if this land wasconnected with the masses of land and immense mountain-chains thatAmundsen found near the Pole. We see new problems looming up.
But it was not only these journeys over ice-sheetsand mountain-ranges that were carried out in masterly fashion. Ourgratitude is also due to Captain Nilsen and his men. They broughtthe Fram backwards and forwards, twice each way, through thoseice-filled southern waters that many experts even held to be sodangerous that the Fram would not be able to come through them, andon both trips this was done with the speed and punctuality of aship on her regular route. The Fram's builder, the excellent ColinArcher, has reason to be proud of the way in which his “child” hasperformed her latest task — this vessel that has been farthestnorth and farthest south on our globe. But Captain Nilsen and thecrew of the Fram have done more than this; they have carried out awork of research which in scientific value may be compared withwhat their comrades have accomplished in the unknown world of ice,although most people will not be able to recognize this. WhileAmundsen and his companions were passing the winter in the South,Captain Nilsen, in the Fram, investigated the ocean between SouthAmerica and Africa. At no fewer than sixty stations they took anumber of temperatures, samples of water, and specimens of theplankton in this little-known region, to a depth of 2, 000 fathomsand more. They thus made the first two sections that have ever beentaken of the South Atlantic, and added new regions of the unknownocean depths to human knowledge. The Fram's sections are thelongest and most complete that are known in any part of theocean.
Would it be unreasonable if those who have enduredand achieved so much had now come home to rest? But Amundsen pointsonward. So much for that; now for the real object. Next year hiscourse will be through Behring Strait into the ice and frost anddarkness of the North, to drift right across the North Polar Sea —five years, at l