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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1913)
flTTTl CTTX'T A "XT ATl?r VT A Y PORTLAND, FEBRUARY 23, 1913. Jr. Graphic Account Given by Famous Explorer o His DasVi for the Southern Apex of the Earth. RDALD AMUNDSEN, of the Fram, who first filled in the blank space at the summit of the- Antarctic tone, trill go down in history as the man who got there by changing bis mind and changing it quick. When the news reached civilization, in September. 1909, that the North Pole had yielded up its secret to indefatiga ble Commander Peary, there was more than one man who heard the news with what are generally tremed "mingled feelings." To Captain Amundsen it meant more than that the seal had hieen put on a long record of human endurance and perseverance. It meant that the dream of his own life was rudely shattered.. .. For years and years the stout Nor wegian skipper had been preparing to make the northward dash in his own person and surrounded by a crew of his own nationality. He had made up his mind that the North Pole belonged by special right to the nation which had lived its life under the shadow of the Northern lights. No other flag than the red, standard of the-vikings must wave over the little geographical point toward which so many brave men have struggled in vain. There was no vision of teritorial rights. Ideas that anything exists at the northern and southern apexes of the globe beyond an imaginary point where all latitude and longitude converge have been dir- pelled long ago. It was Just a poin of national honor. , A Poor Man, But Determlaed. ' Norway is a poor country and Amundsen was a poor man. Little in terest was shown in him and his work. outside the few Norwegians who had always helped him and who had ren dered, possible his two previous sclen tine expeditions in the Fram and the Ujoa. The grant that the Strothing could make was of a sUe that would be laughed at by any philanthropic American millionaire. Polar expedi tions had fallen into disrepute. Doubts were even thrown on the sincerity of the men who set out again and again end return to make books and lecture matter of their experiences la the re' gions of the eternal ice. And atop of the general Indifference end lassitude arrived the news that the object towards which Captain Amund sen was bending all his energies had been, achieved by another man. The North had yielded up its secret. This was the position when, on one August evening in 1910, the Fram stole quietly out of the Bay of Christlansand. There were 19 men on board, of whom only three shared the secret of her des tination with the determined Norwe gian captain. A previous oceano graphic expedition round the coasts of Ireland had done much to allay su plclons that anything beyond a scien tific cruise in the Southern waters was In prospect. There was a good deal, however, that looked forward to an oceanographic voyage round the Horn to San Francisco. Ninety-Seven Doga Aboard. Ninety-seven dogs sprawled and yapped on the upper deck. The after deck was filled with coal. There was al most a cargo of planks and boards. Mysterious bundles, sheathed In metal, soldered and sewn in canvas, were be ing carried Into the hold of the Fram from the cellars of the Historical Mu seum and from the Custom-House. To those who knew of the sleepless vig ilance upon which the big news serv ices of the world depend for accuracy, it seemed almost incredible that . the news did not "leak." But, from the day that the Fram left Christlansand until the day in Hobart Bay, Tasmania, when the news was flashed across two continents that Amundsen ("Who was Amundsen?') had planted- his flag at the South Pole, silence, complete and undispelled, covered that man and his self-imposed task. Columbus watching the land weeds and carved logs drift past the bulwarks of the Santa Maria, was hardly more thoroughly cut off from human curiosity. This is the at mosphere in which great men prefer to do their work. The story of all that passed August 10. 1910, when the Fram left; Christian sand, to March 7, 1912, when she an chored in the port of Hobart. and sent the news of the great discovery to the -world. Is now first told by Captain Amundsen himself in his book, "The South Pole," published by Lee Keedlck, of New York. To read the 800 pages in which this brave and modest man chronicles, al most day by day, the struggles, trails and humors of the expedition which set the final touch on man's complete knowledge of the globe on which he lives, is almost to feel that we have been a comrade on the 800-mile dash southward. A Book of Lively Narrative. To this final Journey everything else the long voyage across the Atlantic and Pacific the two six-months-long Winters spent In sewing kits and mak ing skis and sledges, the toilsome Journeys bark and forth to establish and mark depots of stores 20 feet un der the snow, were so many prepara tions. The courage and perseverance and scientific foresight that carried him and his band safe and sound through the dangers that have sur rounded the South Pole with a barrier that many brave men have declared lmpenatrable. can be taken for grant ed, for they were bound up in achieve ment. It Is rather a warm human feeling, the humor that bubbles out in a thou sand references to the oddities of the life of Winter camp at Framheln. or th- queer antics of the four-footed members of the party, every one of whom is remembered by name and marked out by the little sketch of odd character from his fellows, that render Amundsen's book vivid and character istic, .We understand how, it was when ft . X.V i2 ' I Wl the crew were drawn up on deck out side Madiera and the secret of their real goal disclosed, that every single man had his "yes" ready on his lips. Antarctic differs from the Arctic ex- nloratlon as the absolutly unknown dif fers from the partially unknown. It is something like the difference be tween climbing the Matterhorn with guides who have been born and grown up in the shadow of the peaks and glaciers and climbing Mount Everest or Cototiaxi with the same guides. Both in ancient and modern times civnixa tlon has been busy nibbling at tne Arctic sone. The Norwegians' daily Winter life In frost and snow keeps them in touch with Arctic Ice neids, their sailors yearly whaling and seal ing life in the Polar sea makes tnem more or less familiar with the geog raphy of Arctic Seas. Stefansson's dis covery or tne "Dionae csquuimu shows how far exploitation was pushed in times that are forgotten. , The Antarctic, on the other nana. was not even known unil long after the discovery of the new world. The idea, of the Antarctic regions did not assume shape until Ferdinan Magel lan had discovered the connection Be tween the Atlantic and Pacific in 1520. Drake, who rounded Cape Horn In 1578, discovered the true nature ' of the is lands of Terra del Fuego, and a Dutch man. Dirk Gerritsz, is said to nave Deen blown out of his course as far south as C4 degrees and to have found himself under high land covered witn snow. Tasman and his fellow adventurers reached high latitudes at the end of the 17th century, but it was a French man, named Bouvet, who first followed the southern icepack lor any aisiance and noticed the immense, flat-topped Antarctic icebergs. The naming oi Kerguelenland by another Frenchman was the first attempt to chart any of the Antarctic region by name. The Antarctic circle proper was first crossed by Captain Cook on January 17, 1773. His discovery that tne seas in the southern circle teemed with seals brought sealers from America and Eng land in scores and hundreds and ended the old phase of Antarctic mystery. Cook's record, however, was not beaten until 1823. when Captain Weddell reached latitude 74 degrees 15 minutes. The first serious attempt to reach the magnetic pole was made by Sir James Clark Ross in 1839, with the ships Erebus and Terror, two vessels that a-ave their names to two volcanic mountains which popular imagination for 80 years had conceived as guarding the South Pole, like fire spouting hydras. Ross' ships were stoutly built and the ice pack was not the danger ous enemy to him that it had appeared to former explorers. He plunged bold ly into it and after four days' dauntless. struggle, came out into open sea, in latitude 69 degrees 15 minutes and longitude 17S degrees 15 minutes. Find of Ross' Barrier. The course was set for the magnetic pole. but the explorers had hardly grown accustomed to clear sailing when land was sighted ahead. Mighty mountain ranges with summits from 7000 to 10.000 feet, some covered with snow and some quite bare, blocked their way. A thick belt of ice that lay along the coast at their feet prevented the -mainand being reached. Ross continued to work his way down south by following the coast line as near as he dared, and did not abandon all hope, of finding the pole by sea until what was known as Ross Barrier was reached. This was a lofty, impenetrable wall of ice stretching eastward to an apparent indefinite dis tance. Ross followed it for 250 miles eastward and then gave up the at tempt to find an end. To sail through It. he said afterward in his description, seemed as hopeless as to sail through the cliffs of Dover. But, If Ross failed to reach the pole; he- pointed out the wav it must be finally attained. It is a little hard to see today why the idea that open sea existed at botn tne rnortn and South Poles should have been held so persistently. Scientific expeditions naa mapped out the land round tne &outn role nrettv completely before the epoch- making phase ' was ushered in by the y ' Ll !i -'-: - "'" "S- wmm w ' ...X . Belgian expedition of 1897. commanded by Commander de Gerlache. Dr. Cook, of Brooklyn, also accompanied the expedition as surgeon, and in his brief summing up of Antarctic exploration prior to his own crowning expedition, Captain Amundsen spares a few words for what he calls a "psychological enigma well worth studying." Cauffht on the lee Trap. "On February 28 the Belgica reached latitude 70 degrees 20 minutes south and longitude 89 degrees west. Then a breeze from the west sprang up and opened large channels in the ice lead ing southward. They turned to the south and plunged at haphazard Into the Antarctic floes. "On March 3 they reached latitude 70 degrees 30 minutes south, where all further progress was hopeless. An at tempt to get out again failed they were caught in a trap." The 13 months that followed Cap tain Amundsen describes as "hell upon earth." On May 17 the sun disappeared. The Belgica was not fitted for Win tering in the Ice and her crew had to make Winter clothes out of blankets and any thick material that came to hand. Scurvy and even insanity broke out, and there was not a man who es caped the ravages of the skin disease. Immense seas raised the heavy ice with which the Belgica was surrounded, high in the air and flung it against the sides of the vessel 1 Cook's behavior at this time," says Amundsen, "won the respect and devo tion of alU From morning to night he was occupied with his many patients, and when- the sun returned it happened not infrequently that after a day's strenuous work, the doctor sacrificed his night's sleep to go hunting 'seals and penguins in order to provide the fresh meat that was so greatly needed by all." By New Year's day of 1898 the situa tion became a nightmare There were no signs of the ice pack breaking, and another Winter in the ice would mean slow destruction. Cook tbe Leading- Spirit. "Again Cook came to the help of the expedition. In conjunction with Raco vltz he had thought of a very ingeni ous way of sawing a channel, and thus reaching the nearest land. The proposal was submitted to the leader of the ex pedition and accepted, and after three weeks' work day and night, they at last reached the land. Cook was ln contestably the leading spirit in this work. "Upright, honorable and conscientious in the extreme such is the memory we retain of Frederick Cook from those days." Last of all came British Shackleton. His failure to discover the geographic pole, was perhaps, from the explorer's point of view the most exasperating of all, for Amundsen shows that but for an error of Judgment, Shackleton would have preceded him in his dramatic discovery. , "If when Shackleton passed the Bay of Whales on January 21, 1908," says Amundsen, "and saw the ice of the bay in process of breaking ub and drift ing out, he had waited a few hours, or at the most a couple of days, the problem of the South Pole would prob ably have been solved long before pe cember, 1911. With his keen sight and sound judgment, it would not have taken him long to determine that the inner part of the bay does not consist of floating barrier, but the barrier there rests upon a good solid founda tion, probably in the form of small islands, akerries or shoals, and from this point be and his able companions would have disposed of the South Polar question once for all. But circum stances willed otherwise and the veil was only lifted, not torn away. It was September, 1909. nine months j . ',y . N. after bhackleton's failure, that the news of Peary's buccbss at the other extrem ity of the earth reached Norway, and all Amundsen's Arctic plans were 'dished." But he assures us he did not hesitate. "Just as rapidly as the message bad traveled over the cables I decided on my change of front to turn to the rignt-about. and face to the soutn." Amundsen knew that he would be blamed and misunderstood for his sud den change. He had collected funds for a North Polar Expedition, and there were already two expeditions, one a British one under Captain Scott, an other Japanese under Lieutenant Shir ase, well under way for the Antarctic Zone. It was one of the cases where a man has to thresh matters out with his own conscience, and on the whole Captain Amundsen justifies his action In the somewhat lengthy examination which he devotes to it in his second chapter. Briefly, Scott's expedition was an official one, and its objects were scientific in the main. Amundsen was dependent for support on the public interest he could arouse. The "Kainan Maru" was bound, not for the pole, but for King Edward VII land. It is sig nificant as Justifying Amundsen with his critics, that Scott has never blamed his rivalry and was among the first to congratulate him on his luck. With sure instinct, however, Amund sen kept his new scheme a jealously guarded secret. '"If at this Juncture," ho says, "I had made my Intention public It would only have given occasion for a lot of newspaper discussion, and probably have ended in the project being stifled at its birth. Everything had to be got ready 'quietly and calmly. My brother, upon whose absolute silence I could blindly rely, was the only person I let into the secret of my change of plan, and he did me many important services during the time when we alone shared the knowledge." Nllsen Leans the Secret. Lieutenant Thorvald Nllsen, the first officer and afterwards commander of the Fram, was the next to be let into the secret, and warmly commended Amundsen's change of front. The explorer admits he had only a book knowledge of the famous Ross Barrier, and his decision to winter upon its shore was all tho more dar ing for being made in face of Shackle ton's bad report. , "I had devoted special attention," he tells us, "to this peculiar formation In the Barrier, and had arrived at the conclusion that the inlet that exists to day in the Ross Barrier under the name of the Bay of Whales is nothing else than the self-same bight that was ob served by Sir James Clark Ross no doubt with great changes of outline, but still the same. How like clockwork the programme of Amundsen and his lieutenants worked out may be best understood from a comparison of dates. At the end of his plan the following sentence occurs: "Thus we shall be back from. the Polar journey on January 25." It was on that precise date that the shore party entered the depot "Framheim,, after the dash for the South. Captain Kilsen, the seafaring commander, reck oned to reach the Barrier, 16.000 miles from Norway, on January 15, 1911. The Fram arrived in sight of the great wall -91 III ppl I 111 1 1 Mi iJ I- 1 'StA II I JTSt-. - - . of ice Just one day before that date. For his sledge journey Amundsen plumped for dogs, first, last and all the time, and cannot understand Shackle ton's and Scott's experiments with ponies. So all-Important dtd Amundsen con sider this question of dog-draught, that he declares the only part of the expedi tion which gave him real anxiety was i ..nKlam rt sHlnnincr thesA 97 RhflCriTV coated inhabitants of Greenland safe and sound through' tne tropical seas. "To protect them against damp and heat, we laid a loose deck of planed boards about three Inches above the fixed deck, an arrangement by which all the rain and spray ran underneath thA rlno-s Tn ttila -ami- we kept them out of the water, which must always De running irom siue to siue un mo deck of a deep-laden vessel on her way to the - Antarctic Ocean. We carried awnings in addition, chiefly on account of the dogs. These awnings could be stretched over the whole vessel and give the dogs constant protection from the burning sun." For the sledge Journey the emergence food carried was a special kind of pemmican first produced for the use of lard this pemmican contains vegetables and oatmeal, and Captain Amundsen considers it almost a perfect diet. An other sort of pemmican carried for the food of the dogs while on the voyage, was made of dried meat or flsh, lard I ..M.HIt.b " The clothing and equipment did not differ essentially from that carried for years by explorers Intending to win ter in the Arctic but every detail was cident and worry during the time when every second lost would be so much against the - chance of success. Thus, instead of ningea lias to me cases which would be carried on the sledges, 11..! .n.in AnAnlnffQ hlff. pTinurh to admit a hand and arm, were made. closed witn an aluminum nu, ab mc top of a milk can. In making the skin -i 1 annuB on th thin Rlrin nf the BlOCIlUB ... reindeer -belly was removed, Amund sen having noticed that rot always at tacked tne SKin irom mis puini. me" the hair on the inside of the sleeping sacks was changed from its usual airection wnn uair pointing toward the opening, so that 1 ...nrllno- In fl f tll-ht IT1 1 Ch t tlP an UIO i,kv.ab ' " - c - - - ' easier matter. No boot that any invent or could devise would exactly suit Arc .i nAnttinn. nnri vt he canable of driving a ski and the footgear of the expedition naa to db msnuiatmieu the Winter camp after the men had lnnrned bv bitter experience what to seek and avoid. The Fram Sets Sail. ThA Fram left Christlansand August 10, 1910. Just before sailing. Lieuten ants Prestrud and GJertsen were taken into Amundsen's confidence and un hesitatingly adhered to the programme that was ' sprung on them. The crew . . - nn n1A until the AFri- O i io men u uwb .... ... - . - , -ii'.. .inVio 1 nn fie ntpmhpr 5. when they followed their officers' example to a man, ana Amunuacu iiuim Luti ous fact that tne men s spirna were much better when all doubt was Bet aside. The news of the Fram s desti nation "leaked in iviaaeira mrougn some means or another, and the ver- i - .,o nars rievnt pil considerable nacuiai -" - space to it, but the representatives of the big press agencies at Funchal ap parently do not read the native papers, . - j for the news never got outside the island. The equator was crossed Octo ber 1. and immediately after the cape was rounded the Fram ran into her first gale, during which she rolled like a cask. Christmas was spent in lati tude 56 degrees south, and on January 11 the sight of large masses of floating Ice told the little party that tneir goal was near. On January 14, after a voy age of five months, the Fram moored to the fixed ice-foot at koss- earner. The crnspintr of the dreaded Barrier, which has barred explorers from the Antarctic nlateau ever since Ross dis covered it in the '30s, is humorously described by Amundsen, who founa it something in the nature of an anu climax. The Barrier Yields. "The going was ideal: our ski glided easily and pleasantly through the new ly fallen loose snow. After half an hour's march we were already at the first important point, the connection between the sea ice and the Barrier. The connection had always haunted our brains. What would it be like? A high, perpendicular face of Ice, up which we should have to haul our things laboriously with the help of tackles? Or a great and dangerous fis sure, which we should not be able to cross without going a long way round? We naturally expected something of the sort. The mighty ana terrioie mon ster would, of course, offer resistance in some form or other. "The mystic Barrier. All accounts without exception, from the days of Ross to the present time, had spoken of this remarkable natural iormanon with aDDrehensive awe. It was as though one could always read between the lines the same sentence: iusn, he nuiet. The mystic Barrier. "One. two, three, and a little jump a-nrt the Barrier was surmounted." The first "depot journey" was made on February 10, after the camp hut had been built and provisions carried up from the ship. Four men with three sledges, composed the party. The stores carried consisted principally or dog. pemmican and dried flsh. The around covered In a day aver aged generally 11 to 17 miles. On the last day of the trip a rorced marcn was made to test the capabilities of the dogs in case of need. It was found that thev could cover as mucn as miies at a stretch, pulling a weight that av eraged 170 pounds per do'g. Three journeys to pianc provisions for the final trip were made before the Antarctic Winter set in. On April 19 the sun sank for the last time and the long night began. Luckily the men had plenty to do to occupy them during the long Winter. Experience gained in tne journeys to and from the three depots at latitudes 81. 82 and 83 had shown that a great deal of equipment would have to be al tered or remade, in order to extena the camp till it was big enough to hold all the stores and provide workshops, Amundsen hit upon the happy plan of excavating and vaulting the hard packed snow in all directions from the central wooden hut. Soon the camp at Framheim resembled a vast rectangular burrow filled with dim opalescent light. Eleven Litters of Puppies. The dogs were a great resource to all. "There can hardly be a more inter esting animal to observe," says Amund sen, "than the Eskimo dog. From his ancestor, the wolf, he has inherited the instinct of self-preservation the right of the stronger in a far higher degree than our domestic dog. The struggle for life has brought him to early ma turity and given him such qualities as frugality and endurance in an alto- t 7h &Jtepj3y Jd6c ozt gether surprising degree. His intelli gence is Bharp, clear and well devel oped for the work he has to do. Friend ship easily springs up between these animals always combined with respect and fear of the stronger." The sun returned on August 24, and it shone on men healthy in body and mind and eager for the task before them. At the end of the first week in September a party of eight, with seven sledges and 90 dogs, carrying provis ions for three months, set out south ward. Almost Immediately after the start the temperature fell as low as 67 degrees below freezing point, and on the third day a cutting wind against the party played havoc with the dogs. "It was easy to see that the temper ature was too much for the dogs. In the morning, especially, they were a pitiful sight. They lay rolled up as tightly as possible, with their noses under their tails. We had to lift them up and put them into harness. "To make matters worse, the fluid In the compasses froze, and a thick haze prevented the party from following the flags and enow beacons that had been built along the depot trails. A dull roar underfoot, which made the dogs at times leap into the air, showed that the snow and ice was shifting peril ously. At times the booming was so. loud that it resembled cannon. One after another the sledme party discov ered that their feet were frostbitten, without having felt any discomfort. Under all the circumstances, a return for home was ordered, and the attempt was not made again until October 19. "The hardest part of the Journey now began. The dogs were cut down to a minimum by the slaughter of 24 of the weakest, and In some of the worst places it was only by the combined ef forts of men and animals that the sledges could be hauled over the ice hummocks." Amundsen believes that if the party had not been experienced ski runners few of them would have come out alive, for many a time it was only the long ski that stopped a headlong plunge down some crevasse. The Pole Discovered. The great moment that was yet to arrive was thus discounted In advance. The South Pole was discovered with much less fuss. "On the morning of December 14 the weather was of the finest, just as if it had been made for arriving at the pole. By noon we had reached 89 deg. 53 min. by dead reckoning, and made ready to take the rest ii one stage. I had asked Hanssen (who led) to spy out ahead for all he was worth. But, however keenly he stared, he could not descry anything but the endless flat plain ahead of us. The dogs had dropped their scenting and appeared to have lost their interest in the regions about the earth's axis. "At 3 in the afternoon a simultane ous 'Halt!' rang out from the drivers. They had carefully examined their sledge meters, and they all showed the full distance our pole by reckoning. The goal was reached the journey ended." With victory In his grasp Captain Amundsen owns to feeling a little blue. "I had better be honest," he says, "and admit straight out that I have never known any man to be placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his desires as I was at that moment. The, regions about the North Pole the North Pole Itself had attracted me from childhood, and here I stood at the South Pole. Can any thing more topsy-turvy bo imagined?" Upon the spot thus scientifically in dicated as the apex of the earth. Cap tain Amundsen erected a brown canvas tent surmounted by the Norse flag and the pennant of the. Fram. As "many things might happen!' on the long way home, letters to the Norwegian King, giving an account of the expedition and a covering letter to Captain Scott, whom Amundsen fully expected at the time would locate the pole soon after, were left there with other stores. Only a few days were Bpent exploring the vast monotonous plain that surrounds the pole, and the party turned their faces homeward on December 17. We can easily believe that all were glad to see the last of "Poineim. "Good-bye to Polhelm." The journey north and homeward was uneventful. It was necessary to pick up the route by sighting beacon after beacon. During snowy weather the journey had to be suspended, and the sledges went astray more than once. But the luck tnat aitennea tne Amundsen expedition held good to the last. January 25, at 4 o'clock In the morning, Framheim was reached. The pole party had been away 99 days, and had traveled 1860 miles. Xot Mere Lnck and Chance." 'The victory is not -due to the great inventions of the present day and the many new appliances of every kind. The means used are of Immense an tiquity, the same as were known to the nomad thousands of years ago, when he pushed across the enowcovered plains of Siberia and Northern Europe. But everything, great and small, was thoroughly thought out, and the plan splendidly executed."