The North East Passage

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was born near Borge, Norway. Although he studied medicine, he abandoned that career to pursue a life at sea. In 1897 he went to the Antarctic with a Belgian expedition. The ship, Belgica, became the first vessel to spend a winter in Antarctica. From 1902 to 1906, Amundsen explored the Northwest Passage, becoming the first person to navigate this waterway in both directions.

In 1910 Amundsen set out hoping to be the first person to reach the North Pole. But when the news that the American Robert Peary had reached the pole, Amundsen shifted his attention to the South Pole. He became the first person to reach the South Pole, on in December 14, 1911, the month before Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Amundsen disappeared in the Arctic in 1928 while searching by plane for his airship Italia, which had been missing. Among the books that Amundsen wrote about his adventures, most notably is his autobiography, My Life as an Explorer (1927).

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