What days they were—those ship and dog days! What small returns came to those men for their vast spending of energy and toil and gold! I am filled with admiration for the courage and the hardihood of the men who cut adrift from civilization and set out with dogs or on foot over the tractless ice fields of the Far North. All honor to them! Yet now what utter neglect it seems of the resources of modern science!
No doubt the men who have been through it best realize what a hopeless, heart-breaking quest it was. Peary’s land base at Camp Columbia was only 413 miles from the Pole; yet it took him twenty-three years to traverse that 413 miles.
LINCOLN ELLSWORTH AND N 24 JUST BEFORE THE START
Curiously enough, Peary was the first man with whom I ever discussed the matter of using an airplane for polar work. That was shortly before his death, and he was enthusiastic about the project. Eight years later, in 1924, Captain Amundsen arrived in New York. He had already announced his belief that the Polar Sea could be crossed in a plane, and for those eight years my mind had not freed itself of the idea. We had a long talk and, as the result, I brought Amundsen and my father together. My father, too, became enthusiastic and agreed to buy us two flying boats. Thus the adventure began.
THE POLAR SEA FROM THE SKY
The island of Spitzbergen, lying just halfway between Norway and the North Pole, is ideally situated to serve as a base for Polar exploration. Besides its nearness to the Pole—ten degrees, or 600 nautical miles—a warm current, an offshoot of the Gulf Stream, follows along the western and northern coasts of the island, and has the effect of producing ice-free waters at the highest latitude in the world. These were the principal reasons which prompted Captain Amundsen and myself to choose Spitzbergen as a base for our aeroplane flight to the Pole.
We wanted to be on the ground early in the spring and to make our flight before the summer fogs should enshroud the Polar pack and hide from view any possible landing place beneath us, for it was our intention to descend at the Pole for observations. From April 19th to August 24th (127 days) the sun never sets in the latitude of King’s Bay, Spitzbergen, where we had established our base. Here one may find growing during the long summer days 110 distinct species of flowering plants and grasses. But from October 26th to February 17th is another story; the long Arctic winter is at hand and the sun never shows above the horizon. Many houses have been built along the Spitzbergen coast during the last twenty years by mining companies who annually ship about 300,000 tons of coal, and King’s Bay boasts of being the most northerly habitation in the world.
May 21st, 1925, was the day we had long awaited, when, with our two Dornier-Wal flying boats we are ready to take off from the ice at King’s Bay to start into the Unknown. We are carrying 7,800 pounds of dead weight in each plane. As this is 1,200 pounds above the estimated maximum lift, we are compelled to leave behind our radio equipment, which would mean an additional 300 pounds. Our provisions are sufficient to last one month, at the rate of two pounds per day per man. The daily ration list per man is: