Early Life

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was born on July 16, 1872, in Borge, Østfold, a village located southeast of Oslo, Norway. Three months after his birth, his ship-owner father moved the family to Oslo, where Roald was reared and educated. Roald was only 14 years old when his father died. His mother, taking over the role of both father and mother, decided Roald, her youngest son, should study medicine at the University of Oslo.

The young man, however, was strongly influenced by the writings of Sir John Franklin, the British polar explorer who had died attempting to navigate the legendary Northwest Passage. Franklin's crews had survived but deserted their ships and abandoned the expedition in 1848. Amundsen was fascinated by the challenge of the Northwest Passage and the Arctic Ocean.

The physical hardships and suffering about which he read beckoned, rather than deterring him from a career as an Arctic explorer. He neglected his studies at the university to pore over books and records of the polar explorations, secretly planning to give up medicine for a life as a professional explorer. Where Franklin had failed, Amundsen was certain he would navigate the Northwest Passage himself and be the first person to reach the North Pole.

Without consulting or telling his mother of his new career plans, he began a regimen of training for the Arctic hardships with unusual zeal and dedication. For the next eight years, he endured rigorous physical exercises and developed a superb physique. He became a competent skier and subjected himself to subzero temperatures in winter camping on Norway's slopes. After his mother died when he was 21, Amundsen abandoned his medical training completely.

Preparing for the Arctic

When he was 22 years old, he chose a companion for a cross-country ski trip on a high plateau near Bergen. This adventure nearly cost Amundsen his life, for the rugged terrain and isolated plateau were caught in the grip of a terrible blizzard. The pair's supplies were lost in the snow; without food or fuel, they were stranded in subzero temperature for several days. When they finally reached a settlement eight days later, they were exhausted and nearly starving. "The training," he said, "proved severer than the experience for which it was a preparation, and it well-nigh ended my career before it began." Nonetheless, he served in the Norwegian army, where he continued his physical training.

During the intervals between training, Amundsen read all available books on Arctic exploration and concluded there was a major weakness in the earlier expeditions. Quarrels had arisen between the scientist-explorers and the captains and sailors of the ships on which they sailed. No previous explorer, he realized, had been trained as a ship's captain, so every explorer had been forced to rely on the judgment of someone who was not an explorer during critical periods of decision. His remedy for this weakness was to gain experience both as an Arctic explorer and as a ship's captain; he would not have two leaders at cross purposes on his expeditions.

Amundsen accepted a theory espoused by Fridtjof Nansen that man could utilize the drift of the Arctic ice for the transport of ships across the Polar basin. The ice packs, he theorized, drifted poleward with a tolerable speed, and ships frozen in the ice pack would continue moving across the Polar region. Adequate provisions would allow a ship and crew to reach a destination even without open water under them.

Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897–1899

In 1897, Amundsen qualified as first officer and signed on as first mate of the Belgica with the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrian de Gerlach. The expedition was en route to study the South Magnetic Pole. Gerlach knew too little about navigation in the Antarctic, however, and the Belgica became ice-locked for 13 months in the Belling-Shausen Sea.

The Belgica was the first ship to winter in the Antarctic. Amundsen not only gained polar exploration experience but also became one of the first men to survive a winter in Antarctica. The techniques of scientific research that he learned under Gerlach served him well on subsequent trips to study the magnetic fields at the North Pole.

Traversing "the Northwest Passage" 1903-1905

Recognizing that magnetic study was the most likely source of funding for new expeditions, Amundsen revised his well-planned personal goals. His navigation of the Northwest Passage would include finding the true location of the North Magnetic Pole.

In preparation for this venture, he devoted his time to the study of terrestrial magnetism. He sought out and worked under Geheimrath George von Neumayer in Hamburg. While there, he met many scientists, and through both their help and his own diligent study he gained a working knowledge of the theory and practice of magnetic observation. Following his studies at Hamburg, he was given access to the observatories at Wilhelmshaven and Potsdam.

In 1900, Amundsen purchased and outfitted a small ship, the Gjøa, for a northern expedition. He planned a year's observation of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the North Pole. He delayed two years, however, to make oceanographic observations of the North Atlantic for Fridtjof Nansen, Norway's grand old man of Arctic exploration.

The delay and the costs of outfitting and provisioning the Gjøa proved more than his limited finances could cover, and when angry creditors threatened to seize the Gjøa for payment, he sailed furtively by night on June 16, 1903, headed toward the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage.

From 1903 to 1905, he wintered on King William Island in a small protected harbor where he could study the magnetic field. His observations offered the first proof that the North Magnetic Pole had no exact location but constantly varied its position over a wide area. He calculated the elliptical course that it followed. During this time, he met the Eskimos of northern Canada and learned the technique of using snowshoes, as well as how to handle dogs and dog sledges.

When his observations of the North Magnetic Pole were completed, he continued his navigation of the Northwest Passage. Pushing on through dangerous water and ice pack, he eventually accomplished his goal: he had mastered the Northwest Passage. 

The South Pole Expedition (1910 – 1912)

Amundsen now resolved to "capture" the North Pole. He borrowed Nansen's famous ship, the Fram, and prepared to sail for the North Pole. Before his ship and crew were ready, however, the world learned that Admiral Robert Edwin Peary had reached the North Pole in April 1909. All that was left for Amundsen was the exploration of the uncharted Arctic Ocean by ship—or by airplane. Amundsen believed that to regain his prestige as an explorer, he must quickly achieve a sensational success of some sort.

In 1910, on board the Fram and using funds raised to explore the North Pole, he headed south, not north. If he had failed to capture the North Pole, the South Pole was still within reach and promised the success he sought. From the Madeira Islands, he sent a cablegram to Robert Falcon Scott, already ahead of him by two months, advising him of his intention to join in the "race" for the South Pole.

Scott's expedition included some tough Siberian ponies to pull the supplies over the ice packs. Scott also had a motor sledge; his was to be the first attempted mechanized polar exploration. Amundsen, on the other hand, relied mainly on his men and on dogs to haul his supplies. Amundsen calculated the flesh of the dogs that carried the provisions as part of the food for the men on the return trip.

The eight weeks of travel across the southern ice pack were fast-paced and fraught with danger from hidden crevasses and rifts. Amundsen pushed his men and dogs to the limit of their endurance, covering 50 miles on some days. On December 14, 1911, he snatched the prize from Scott; Amundsen was the first explorer to reach the South Pole. The disappointed Scott and his men lost more than the race to the pole, for they lost their lives on the return trip.

Disappearance and Death

Almost 17 years later, on June 18, 1928, Amundsen, a pilot, and a crew of four set out in a French seaplane to search for survivors of the downed airship Italia, which had crashed on a return trip from the North Pole. Tragedy struck the would-be rescuers somewhere over the Barents Sea, for Amundsen and the seaplane crew were never heard from again. Despite an extensive search, Amundsen’s body was never found. One of the greatest polar explorers of all time had died in the Arctic that he had strived all his life to understand and conquer.

[The text on this page was adapted from Great Lives from History: Twentieth Century Series, ©1990 Salem Press Inc., and was used with the kind permission of the publisher.]