Skip to main content

Amundsen's ship home after a century

 

The ill-fated polar exploration ship Maud, built by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1916 has returned to Norway, where it will be restored for display in a museum in Vollen, where it was built.

Amundsen, who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, built Maud in an attempt to reach the North Pole by an unusual route: He planned to sail it into the Arctic Ocean and have it freeze into the ice-pack, expecting that it would be carried to the Pole by drifting ice. The photo below shows Maud as it was then.

After six years of failure with that plan, he sailed it via the Northwest Passage to Nome, Alaska, where it was seized by creditors and sold to the Hudson's Bay Company. The Bay used it as a supply vessel for its fur-trading outposts in northeast Canada. Eventually it was abandoned and sank.

In 1990, Hudson's Bay sold the wreck to the county of Asker with the understanding it would end up in Vollen. The wreck was raised in 2016, but only now was it possible to get it back to Norway.

The best part of every trip is realizing that it has upset your expectations

Add Comment

Comments (0)

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×