Surprising Facts About Famous Explorers: Part 3 - Roald Amundsen

This is the third installment of the 3-part series about famous explorers. If you missed the first two, go ahead and take the time to read them. You may learn something new!

Not many people are familiar with Roald Amundsen, but he’s definitely a force to be reckoned with when it comes to explorers. He was a Norwegian explorer who specialized in the polar regions of the world. He’s bound to have interesting stories. Let’s take a quick look at some of them:

1. The first explorer to reach both poles of the Earth

Between 1910 and 1912, Roald Amundsen led an Antarctic expedition that resulted in him being the first to reach the South Pole. Of course, he couldn’t do it alone, so along with him were 19 other people and about 100 sled dogs that helped him in his successful journey. In 1926, he was the first to lead an air expedition to the North Pole, making him well-known for his impressive determination in reaching both poles.

2. The Northwest Passage

This impressive polar explorer has many firsts under his belt. To add to it, he is known for being the first to lead an expedition traversing the Northwest Passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This sea route proved to be a long three-year journey between 1903 to 1906 with a trusty ship and six other crew members. Upon completing this trip, Amundsen skied 800 kilometers to the town of Eagle in Alaska to announce his success, and then skied back to join his crew members. Determination and passion were truly his gifts.

3. His mysterious death

In 1928, the airship Italia crashed killing 17 people. Roald Amundsen, along with a few others, took part on a rescue mission for the airship in the Arctic only to disappear without a trace. That was the last time anybody had seen or heard of Amundsen. It’s assumed that the plane crashed, but there are no definitive answers seeing as there were no bodies or wreckage found.

Roald Amundsen certainly lived an adventurous life. If you want to learn more about him and the details of his amazing journeys, try reading South with the Sun, by Lynne Cox. We hope you discovered interesting details about Amundsen, Columbus, and Polo in this explorer series. You can always browse through our online library, www.cagebook.com, to discover even more about the great adventures of the world!