More about Antarctica
Norwegian Roald Amundson always wanted to be the first person to the North Pole. He was planning an expedition in 1908 – 1909 when he got word that American Robert Peary beat him to it, kind of taking away his enthusiasm for the trip. Not to be dissuaded, though, he looked around and realized that he had a crew and ship assembled, 52 Husky’s to pull sleds (12 actually made it back alive) and four tons of food (for perspective, they say we started with more potatoes than that for our cruise) so he took off on his expedition. He didn’t want to give anyone an advantage to tell them where he was actually going, though, so even the crew didn’t know they were going South until they sailed off and it was too late for anyone to follow them.
Imagine thinking you are leaving on week-long trip for Disney World in Florida and once you hit the interstate the driver says, “Change of plans. We’re going to Disneyland in California, and are going to be gone for a month instead.”
It’s hard to keep secrets, though, and eventually a British guy named Robert Falcon Scott, who planned to go to the South Pole, got wind of it and sped up his own operations along.
Amundson gives us proof that good planning makes for a great trip. Once they got there, recognizing that other explorers were right behind them (in 1910 terms) and that people might try to steal their thunder, they started doing things to document their achievement, because we all know that if you don’t document, it probably didn’t happen.
They planted flags, took pictures and metaphorically peed on everything that might mark the territory as theirs. Then they left for home.
This was smart thinking, because Scott next made it to the South Pole, but missed the deadline, arriving about 5 weeks after Amundson. That’s got to be somewhat disheartening to think you are going someplace that no one has ever been before – only to see another guy’s flag sticking out of the snow when you top the hill! To make things even worse, Scott – and all of his men – didn’t make it back alive.
Mention of trips to the South Pole mandate the mention of one other explorer – Ernest Shackleton, who didn’t make it to the South Pole first, but decided a couple of years later to cross Antarctica from side to side across the South Pole.
First, Shackleton opted to take ponies and a “truck” upfitted for the weather instead of sled dogs. (Spoiler – ponies didn’t survive).
He also only brought a ton of food, despite the fact that his crew was some 28 people.
And because he was rushing and didn’t bother to listen to any of the other “experts” in the field (since he obviously knew best), he left when it was probably a bit after the season and the ice simply wasn’t right for getting as close as you could by ship before you had to start hoofin’ it.
The end result is that Shackleton and his crew are caught in the ice, which started to re-freeze around them, and eventually went on to become the most famous failed expedition in history.
28 men (all of whom survived) ended up trapped for a couple of years. Their ship, the Endurance, had to be abandoned when they realized not only that it was stuck in the ice, but that the ice was going to crush it. They used what they could scavenge off the ship to create a base camp. (The Endurance finally sank on November 21, 1914, but curiously enough, it was recently found on the bottom of the ocean where the frigid temperatures have preserved it almost perfectly).
Once the ship sank, they recognized they were gonna have to walk out, so Shackleton took a lifeboat and 5 men and started off to find help. They finally got to a whaling station on one of the suburb islands of Antarctica, where – duh! – nobody believed who they were. This was probably in part because instead of bringing the boat around and coming by sea, they were again worried about the ice so they climbed over a mountain to come into town.
They put together a rescue party and then headed BACK to the ship, meeting up with them on August 30, 1916.
Let that date sink in – that’s 128 days AFTER he went out to look for help. How many of us would have been patient enough to wait even half that long??
The most interesting factoid we heard – Shackleton’s expedition was primarily a scientific one, and they had all kinds of equipment for taking measurements, collecting samples, etc. When they were abandoning the ship and deciding what to take, a discussion was had about how much longer they were going to be there. Morale being an important issue, they opted to take the banjo, but leave the microscope behind.
Obviously, no one had an accordion, or the decision could have required more things to be left behind!
Imagine thinking you are leaving on week-long trip for Disney World in Florida and once you hit the interstate the driver says, “Change of plans. We’re going to Disneyland in California, and are going to be gone for a month instead.”
It’s hard to keep secrets, though, and eventually a British guy named Robert Falcon Scott, who planned to go to the South Pole, got wind of it and sped up his own operations along.
Amundson gives us proof that good planning makes for a great trip. Once they got there, recognizing that other explorers were right behind them (in 1910 terms) and that people might try to steal their thunder, they started doing things to document their achievement, because we all know that if you don’t document, it probably didn’t happen.
They planted flags, took pictures and metaphorically peed on everything that might mark the territory as theirs. Then they left for home.
This was smart thinking, because Scott next made it to the South Pole, but missed the deadline, arriving about 5 weeks after Amundson. That’s got to be somewhat disheartening to think you are going someplace that no one has ever been before – only to see another guy’s flag sticking out of the snow when you top the hill! To make things even worse, Scott – and all of his men – didn’t make it back alive.
Mention of trips to the South Pole mandate the mention of one other explorer – Ernest Shackleton, who didn’t make it to the South Pole first, but decided a couple of years later to cross Antarctica from side to side across the South Pole.
First, Shackleton opted to take ponies and a “truck” upfitted for the weather instead of sled dogs. (Spoiler – ponies didn’t survive).
He also only brought a ton of food, despite the fact that his crew was some 28 people.
And because he was rushing and didn’t bother to listen to any of the other “experts” in the field (since he obviously knew best), he left when it was probably a bit after the season and the ice simply wasn’t right for getting as close as you could by ship before you had to start hoofin’ it.
The end result is that Shackleton and his crew are caught in the ice, which started to re-freeze around them, and eventually went on to become the most famous failed expedition in history.
28 men (all of whom survived) ended up trapped for a couple of years. Their ship, the Endurance, had to be abandoned when they realized not only that it was stuck in the ice, but that the ice was going to crush it. They used what they could scavenge off the ship to create a base camp. (The Endurance finally sank on November 21, 1914, but curiously enough, it was recently found on the bottom of the ocean where the frigid temperatures have preserved it almost perfectly).
Once the ship sank, they recognized they were gonna have to walk out, so Shackleton took a lifeboat and 5 men and started off to find help. They finally got to a whaling station on one of the suburb islands of Antarctica, where – duh! – nobody believed who they were. This was probably in part because instead of bringing the boat around and coming by sea, they were again worried about the ice so they climbed over a mountain to come into town.
They put together a rescue party and then headed BACK to the ship, meeting up with them on August 30, 1916.
Let that date sink in – that’s 128 days AFTER he went out to look for help. How many of us would have been patient enough to wait even half that long??
The most interesting factoid we heard – Shackleton’s expedition was primarily a scientific one, and they had all kinds of equipment for taking measurements, collecting samples, etc. When they were abandoning the ship and deciding what to take, a discussion was had about how much longer they were going to be there. Morale being an important issue, they opted to take the banjo, but leave the microscope behind.
Obviously, no one had an accordion, or the decision could have required more things to be left behind!
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