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| the maud |
In 1918–1920 Amundsen began an expedition with a new ship called Maud, which was to last until 1925. Maud sailed West to East through the Northeast Passage, now called the Northern Route.The aim of the expedition was to explore the unknown areas of the Arctic Ocean, strongly inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's expedition earlier with Fram. The plan was to sail along the coast of Siberia and go into the ice farther to the north and east than Nansen had. Amundsen planned to freeze the Maud into the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole as Nansen had done with the Fram and he did so off Cape Chelyuskin. Unfortunately, the ice became so thick that the ship was unable to break free, even though the ship was designed for such a journey. In September 1919 the ship came loose from the ice, but froze again after only eleven days. Four of the crew embarked on an expedition by dog sled to Nome, Alaska, despite it being over one thousand kilometres away. But the ice was not frozen solid in the Bering Strait and it could not be crossed. They were, at the very least, able to send a telegram from Anadyr. In the third winter the Maud was frozen in the western Bering Strait, before finally reaching Seattle for repairs in 1921. Amundsen then returned to Norway. In June 1928 he flew by seaplane to try help with the rescue of Nobile. Roald Amundsen was never seen again and probably crashed in the sea off the Norwegian coast.
