The Plan

Tuesday, November 10, 1908

The Norwegian Geographical Society arranges a meeting in the great hall of the Old Lodge in Kristiania.

The room is filled to capacity.

The King, members of the government, diplomats and scientists, including Fridtjof Nansen - everyone is eagerly waiting to hear the man who is climbing to the podium.

Roald Amundsen is 36 years old. It is two years since he returned from his last expedition and wrote himself into polar history as the conqueror of the Northwest Passage.

Now a new plan will be presented.

There are many people who believe that a polar expedition is just an unnecessary waste of money and lives.

With the concept of a polar expedition, they generally associate the idea of a record, of reaching the pole or the farthest north—and in that case, I must declare myself in agreement with them.

But I must strongly emphasize that this—the rush to the pole—will not be the goal of this expedition.

The main goal is a scientific study of the Polar Sea itself, or more specifically: an investigation of the conditions of the seabed and the oceanographic conditions of this vast basin.

Det Norske geografiske selskabs aarbog. 1908/1909 Vol. 20: Plan for en Polarfærd

The course is set from here in a N-NW direction towards the drift ice, where we will then seek out the most favourable place for further penetration to the north. Once this has been found, we search as far as possible and get ready for a four-to-five-year drift across the Arctic Ocean.

The plan to drift across the Arctic Ocean holds great scientific potential.

Roald Amundsen to the left, together with Bjørn Helland- Hansen. Photo: Roald Amundsen's House, MiA

In preparation, Amundsen has undergone training in marine research and has been in close contact with both Fridtjof Nansen and the marine scientist Bjørn Helland-Hansen.

In the summer of 1908, Amundsen goes to Bergen to participate in a "series of marine surveys in the Bergen fjords", the newspapers can report.

The stay lasts two months, and in the following spring he is back on a new six-week course. Several of the crew also receive similar training.

Sunday, March 7, 1909

Photographer Anders Beer Wilse has come to visit Roald Amundsen. Amundsen poses at his desk and by the stove in the living room, and outside in the snow.