# South Pole Race: “Mummy, is Amundsen a good man?”

An episode of [Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1484511465), 29 Jul 2022, 36 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/18db03/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c0ae8c6e-22f0-4e9b-ac1c-ae390037ac53/6641825e-6195-4af5-915a-aedf0098176c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f5a4714-6b10-4ccf-a424-ae390037ac70

Roald Amundsen beat Captain Scott to the South Pole. The Norwegian - using dog sleds and skis - made it look easy... fun, even. He was heading home to safety, while the British party - hauling sleds by hand - were struggling to survive out on the ice. In this case, to the victor went a spoiled reputation. The British grumbled that Amundsen had somehow cheated, or had at least behaved in an underhand manner. These stinging accusations would haunt the adventurer until the day he died in the polar wastes. For a full list of sources go to timharford.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:15] Speaker 1: Pushkin. The headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society is a
[0:24] Speaker 1: grand building in the heart of Victorian London, amidst Palaces
[0:27] Speaker 1: in the Royal Albert Hall. The society was founded in
[0:31] Speaker 1: eighteen thirty and became an icon of Britain's scientific and
[0:35] Speaker 1: imperial ambitions. And to Roald Amundson, the invitation to visit
[0:41] Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society for a lecture and banquet late
[0:45] Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, well, it must have felt like an
[0:49] Speaker 1: invitation from souron to come and have a picnic in Mordal.
[0:56] Speaker 1: This cautionary tale is part two of a three part story.
[1:01] Speaker 1: If you've listened to part one, you'll know that the
[1:03] Speaker 1: Norwegian Amundson was a brilliant adventurer. He'd astonished the world
[1:09] Speaker 1: by announcing that there'd be a slight detour in his
[1:11] Speaker 1: plans to explore the Arctic. He would first dash to
[1:15] Speaker 1: the Antarctic with one simple aim, being the first man
[1:20] Speaker 1: to set foot on the South Pole. His British rival,
[1:25] Speaker 1: Captain Robert Falcon Scott, had also headed south with the
[1:29] Speaker 1: same mission, but with other missions too. Scott was going
[1:33] Speaker 1: to make maps in Antarctica and do serious science with
[1:37] Speaker 1: funding from the Royal Geographical Society. He was testing out
[1:41] Speaker 1: an innovation, a new kind of motorized snow sledge. He
[1:44] Speaker 1: would plant the British flag symbolically at the south Pole,
[1:48] Speaker 1: but not only that, he would show off British grit
[1:51] Speaker 1: and courage by getting there the hard way on foot.
[1:56] Speaker 1: Amunson had no such distractions. He wasn't going to do
[2:00] Speaker 1: science or pioneer technology. Although his navigation was precise, he
[2:04] Speaker 1: had no interest in making maps. That was a chore
[2:08] Speaker 1: for those who would come, Nor did he want to
[2:11] Speaker 1: prove a point about endurance. Amunson knew that a place
[2:15] Speaker 1: in the history books awaited the first man to the poll,
[2:19] Speaker 1: and he knew the most sensible way of getting there
[2:21] Speaker 1: on sledges pulled by teams of dogs. In this unexpected race,
[2:28] Speaker 1: Amunson had comprehensively defeated Captain Scott and his patrons at
[2:32] Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society. He returned triumphant in March nineteen twelve,
[2:39] Speaker 1: leaving behind him an Antarctica cut off by the southern winter.
[2:43] Speaker 1: Nobody even knew if Scott or any of his companions
[2:46] Speaker 1: were alive or dead. When the Society invited Amunson to
[2:53] Speaker 1: tell his story he could hardly refuse. He had wounded
[2:58] Speaker 1: his host's pride, he knew, but their respect his achievement,
[3:02] Speaker 1: wouldn't they After the lecture, the Banquet Societies President, Lord
[3:10] Speaker 1: Curzin stood to give the after dinner speech. I almost
[3:15] Speaker 1: wish that in our tribute of admiration we could include
[3:19] Speaker 1: those wonderful, good tempered, fascinating dogs, the true friends of man,
[3:25] Speaker 1: without who Captain Amundson would never have got to the pole.
[3:31] Speaker 1: With that, Lord Curzin raised his glass and turned to
[3:36] Speaker 1: look down on Amundson. I therefore propose three cheers for
[3:44] Speaker 1: the dogs. Amundson felt I had been slapped across the face.
[3:50] Speaker 1: His blood began to boil. I'm Tim Harford, and you're
[3:55] Speaker 1: listening to cautionary tales. A year earlier, life had seemed
[4:22] Speaker 1: simpler out there on the ice. Amonson's team certainly faced challenges,
[4:28] Speaker 1: but each challenge was overcome with something closer to exhilaration
[4:32] Speaker 1: than endurance. For example, the Cruel Range of Mountains stood
[4:37] Speaker 1: in his way, a brutal obstacle for both Amonson and Scott.
[4:42] Speaker 1: Scott slogged grimly up, demonstrating British stubbornness that as Amonson
[4:48] Speaker 1: and his team explored the snow clad slopes. He almost
[4:52] Speaker 1: seemed to be on a skiing holiday. I made all
[4:55] Speaker 1: the preparations for an elegant Telemark turn. A Telemark turn
[5:00] Speaker 1: allows a skier to turn sharply. The technique was invented
[5:03] Speaker 1: in the Norwegian town of Telemark. But I went head
[5:07] Speaker 1: over heels brilliantly. I was on my feet again with
[5:10] Speaker 1: surprising speed, and shuffled over to Biala. Bearland was a
[5:14] Speaker 1: former Norwegian cross country skiing champion, one of the best
[5:18] Speaker 1: skiers in the world. He was from Telemark. I am
[5:22] Speaker 1: not sure if he saw me tumble. However, I collected
[5:25] Speaker 1: myself after the unfortunate exhibition, and he undoubtedly believed that
[5:30] Speaker 1: I managed the Telemark At any rate. He was tactful
[5:33] Speaker 1: enough to give that impression. You see what I mean fun.
[5:38] Speaker 1: There's nothing like this in the diaries of the British
[5:40] Speaker 1: Navy Captain Scott and his companions. There's courage and adversity,
[5:46] Speaker 1: some gallows, humor, soulful conversations late at night in the tent,
[5:51] Speaker 1: But goofing around on fresh powder, horrid, overcast, gloomy. Slowly
[5:59] Speaker 1: our spirits became very low. That's Scott expressing how a
[6:04] Speaker 1: journey to the South Pole is supposed to feel. Hamundson
[6:08] Speaker 1: was having none of it, even when facing the most
[6:11] Speaker 1: treacherous terrain and the most perilous dangerous The wildness of
[6:16] Speaker 1: the landscape from above is indescribable. Pit after pit, crevasse
[6:22] Speaker 1: after crevass, and huge ice blocks scattered helter skelter. It
[6:26] Speaker 1: was not without satisfaction that we surveyed the scene. Our
[6:30] Speaker 1: tent in the middle of this chaos gave us a
[6:33] Speaker 1: feeling of strength and power. This was supposed to be
[6:38] Speaker 1: the worst journey in the world, but Amunson, who was
[6:43] Speaker 1: loving it. Last episode, I framed the race between Amunson
[6:52] Speaker 1: and Scott as a battle between David and Goliath. Scott,
[6:57] Speaker 1: like Goliath, was weighed down, sluggish, and unable to focus,
[7:03] Speaker 1: But what about David. David was brave and skillful, but
[7:07] Speaker 1: neither of those qualities really account for David's victory. David
[7:12] Speaker 1: won because he decided he didn't want to play by
[7:15] Speaker 1: Goliath's rules. Goliath expected an epic duel of champions, in fact,
[7:21] Speaker 1: everybody expected that on both sides, but David decided instead
[7:27] Speaker 1: to do it the easy way by using a sling
[7:30] Speaker 1: slings are highly effective weapons, and with Goliath's open faced helmet,
[7:35] Speaker 1: he had no protection against a bone crushing slingshot right
[7:39] Speaker 1: between the eyes. When David picked up some smooth pebbles
[7:42] Speaker 1: to slip into his bag, his fellow Israelites would have understood, Oh,
[7:47] Speaker 1: David's playing by his own rules, and he's probably going
[7:51] Speaker 1: to win. One of the most famous moments in cinema
[7:58] Speaker 1: is in Raiders of the Lost Art. In front of
[8:02] Speaker 1: a crowd of onlookers, our hero Indiana Jones faces off
[8:06] Speaker 1: against the terrifying swordsman with an enormous scimitar. With a
[8:11] Speaker 1: look of irritation, he pulls out a pistol and shoots
[8:14] Speaker 1: the guy, and before his foe has even hit the floor,
[8:18] Speaker 1: Indy has turned his back to get on with his
[8:20] Speaker 1: next challenge. The scene caused a sensation because we all
[8:25] Speaker 1: know that's not how the story is supposed to go.
[8:28] Speaker 1: They're supposed to be an epic battle. In fact, an
[8:31] Speaker 1: epic battle was in the original script, but with the
[8:34] Speaker 1: lead actor Harrison Ford, feeling unwell and the filming running
[8:38] Speaker 1: behind schedule, they came up with a short cut. That
[8:42] Speaker 1: unforgettable scene is the best depiction we have of what
[8:45] Speaker 1: the battle between David and Goliath might actually have seemed like.
[8:50] Speaker 1: Indy had a gun, David had a sling. Both were
[8:55] Speaker 1: powerful weapons that could drop a heavily armed opponent from
[8:58] Speaker 1: a safe distance. The question wasn't whether they would work.
[9:03] Speaker 1: The question was whether our supposed hero would be so
[9:06] Speaker 1: outrageous as to use a missile weapon in what was
[9:09] Speaker 1: supposed to be hand to hand combat. Amunson, like David,
[9:14] Speaker 1: and like Indiana Jones, didn't want to play the game
[9:18] Speaker 1: Goliath's way. He brought a metaphorical sling, and he knew
[9:22] Speaker 1: exactly how to use it, and if some people thought
[9:25] Speaker 1: it was unfair, that was their problem. So yes, Amuson
[9:29] Speaker 1: was very good at what he did, just like David.
[9:32] Speaker 1: But skill wasn't his only advantage. His real edge was
[9:37] Speaker 1: his ruthlessness. He wasn't going to play the game by
[9:41] Speaker 1: British rules, and if the British didn't like that, he
[9:44] Speaker 1: didn't care. At least he thought he didn't care. In
[9:54] Speaker 1: his lecture to the Royal Geographical Society, Amunson described how
[9:58] Speaker 1: he'd won his David and Goliath battle with Captain Scott's
[10:02] Speaker 1: far bigger, better funded expedition. It was simple. Really, It'd
[10:07] Speaker 1: taken almost one hundred dogs who were perfectly adapted to
[10:11] Speaker 1: the cold conditions, along with a small team of highly
[10:14] Speaker 1: skilled skiers. They prepared supply depots every ten miles, marking
[10:19] Speaker 1: them with lines of flags planted every half mile. The
[10:23] Speaker 1: small flags were just as they had been left, standing
[10:27] Speaker 1: out beautifully against the white background. Amunson stored lots of supplies,
[10:32] Speaker 1: as it later turned out, ten times more per man
[10:35] Speaker 1: than Scott. He set aside plenty of spares of equipment
[10:39] Speaker 1: and instruments. His men expended less physical energy than Scott's team,
[10:44] Speaker 1: which meant that they sweated less, and you really don't
[10:47] Speaker 1: want to sweat in the Antarctic because it turns to
[10:50] Speaker 1: ice in your clothes. Amunson covered more ground per day
[10:56] Speaker 1: than Scott in much less time, leaving plenty of leeway
[11:00] Speaker 1: to rest and recover. With his dog fulled sledges, Amunson
[11:04] Speaker 1: could travel in conditions that pinned Scott down in his tent.
[11:09] Speaker 1: For example, during one storm in early December, Scott wrote
[11:13] Speaker 1: in his diary, one cannot see the next tent, let
[11:17] Speaker 1: alone the land. I doubt if any party could travel
[11:21] Speaker 1: in such weather. Certainly no one could travel against it,
[11:26] Speaker 1: couldn't they? At that very moment Amuson was moving through
[11:30] Speaker 1: the same blizzard. It has been an unpleasant day, but
[11:34] Speaker 1: we have advanced thirteen miles closer to our goal. Of course,
[11:39] Speaker 1: nobody in the audience at the Royal Geographical Society knew
[11:42] Speaker 1: yet how unremittingly grim it had all been for Scott.
[11:46] Speaker 1: His diaries would be discovered only later. For now they
[11:50] Speaker 1: were just hearing how straightforward Amuson had found it. Scott's wife,
[11:57] Speaker 1: Kathleen or was she his widow, sat discreetly up in
[12:02] Speaker 1: the balcony. Ammonson's speech was plucky and modest, but dull
[12:09] Speaker 1: and of a dullness. And that's the problem with winning.
[12:13] Speaker 1: Like David or Indiana Jones, epic battles make for great stories,
[12:19] Speaker 1: quick and easy victories, not so much. Amunson had thought
[12:25] Speaker 1: that merely being first to the poll would bring him
[12:27] Speaker 1: the glory he craved. He hadn't understood that there was
[12:31] Speaker 1: a deeper, more important objective to come back with an
[12:36] Speaker 1: interesting and admirable tale to tell. After the break, Goliath's
[12:43] Speaker 1: friends complained that David has cheated. When Captain Scott's two
[13:02] Speaker 1: year old son, Peter Markham Scott heard about Amunson's victory
[13:06] Speaker 1: over his father, Peter asked his mother Kathleen, mummy, is
[13:12] Speaker 1: Amunson a good man? The British didn't think so they
[13:17] Speaker 1: called him a cheat, a professional, certainly, not a gentleman,
[13:22] Speaker 1: or a scientist or a hero. Some British objections were
[13:28] Speaker 1: just silly. They fulminated that Amunson was an impostor, as
[13:32] Speaker 1: though he was trespassing or jumping the line, or both.
[13:36] Speaker 1: But the British didn't own Antarctica. There was no line
[13:40] Speaker 1: to jump. There were stronger grounds for complaining about Amunson's deception.
[13:46] Speaker 1: He had told the world he was sailing north, but
[13:49] Speaker 1: he had long been intending to sail south. He revealed
[13:53] Speaker 1: his true plans at the last possible moment, after both
[13:57] Speaker 1: expeditions had already set sail. Scott was almost in Antarctica
[14:02] Speaker 1: when he received a notoriously brief telegram, I'm going south, Amunson.
[14:09] Speaker 1: That was crafty, but was it shameful? The last minute
[14:14] Speaker 1: revelation was viewed with some bitterness by the British. Here's
[14:18] Speaker 1: Scott's companion, absolutely, Cherry Garrard. Nothing makes a more unpleasant
[14:24] Speaker 1: impression than a faint and here's the diary of Birdie Bowers.
[14:29] Speaker 1: As he trudged miserably towards the South Pole alongside Captain Scott.
[14:35] Speaker 1: Amonson has probably reached the pole by now. I hope
[14:38] Speaker 1: he has not, as I regard him as a sneaking,
[14:41] Speaker 1: backhanded ruffian. But another of Scott's team, Captain Oates, just shrugged.
[14:48] Speaker 1: In a letter to a friend, he wrote, Bloody Norski
[14:51] Speaker 1: is coming down south as a bit of a shock.
[14:53] Speaker 1: They say Amonson has been underhand in the way he's
[14:56] Speaker 1: gone about it, but personally, I don't see it as underhand.
[14:59] Speaker 1: To keep your mouth shut as so often Oates was
[15:05] Speaker 1: a realist. Amuson was under no obligation to explain his
[15:09] Speaker 1: plans in public, but I do think some moments must
[15:14] Speaker 1: have troubled Amunson's conscience. He accepted a hundred pounds from
[15:19] Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society to help fund his expedition, more
[15:23] Speaker 1: than ten thousand dollars in today's terms. But they gave
[15:27] Speaker 1: him that funding because they believed he was heading to
[15:30] Speaker 1: the Arctic, rather than racing their own man, Scott to
[15:33] Speaker 1: the South Pole. Captain Oates had said of Amuson, I
[15:38] Speaker 1: don't see it as underhand to keep your mouth shut.
[15:41] Speaker 1: But Amuson wasn't keeping his mouth shut. He poured a
[15:45] Speaker 1: stream of plausible lies into the ears of journalists, explaining
[15:49] Speaker 1: all the details of his plans to explore the North
[15:52] Speaker 1: Polar basin. He lied to others too, the Norwegian Parliament,
[15:57] Speaker 1: the Norwegian King, and his own mentor, Fritjof Nansen, whose
[16:01] Speaker 1: ship he was borrowing. He was even lying to his
[16:04] Speaker 1: own crew. Amon's lives were fueled by desperation. He had
[16:12] Speaker 1: already secured some funding to go north. When two American explorers,
[16:17] Speaker 1: Frederick Cook and Robert Peery, both claimed to have reached
[16:20] Speaker 1: the North Pole. That put Amunson in a pinch. Going
[16:25] Speaker 1: north felt pointless, and his backers had lost enthusiasm. Now
[16:29] Speaker 1: that race seemed to be over. But few backers would
[16:33] Speaker 1: give him money to go south either, not with the
[16:35] Speaker 1: world's eyes on the formidable British expedition of Captain Scott,
[16:40] Speaker 1: he decided that he would borrow heavily and head south
[16:44] Speaker 1: in secret, using money already pledged for a northern expedition.
[16:49] Speaker 1: If he succeeded in his South Pole coup, all would
[16:53] Speaker 1: be forgiven only when Amunson was out of reach of
[16:57] Speaker 1: his creditors. Did he tell his own crew that they
[16:59] Speaker 1: were heading to the South Pole, as I said, ruthless.
[17:06] Speaker 1: And there was one deception that occurred three months before
[17:10] Speaker 1: his secret departure to Antarctica. In March nineteen ten, Amunson
[17:16] Speaker 1: was at home in Christiana modern day Oslo. He received
[17:21] Speaker 1: a call from the concierge of a hotel downtown. Captain
[17:27] Speaker 1: Robert Falcon Scott was in Christiana too. He had visited
[17:32] Speaker 1: Norway to supervise trials of his motorized sledges, and he
[17:36] Speaker 1: had purchased fifty pairs of skis and even hired a
[17:39] Speaker 1: Norwegian ski instructor. Now he wanted to arrange to meet Amunson.
[17:45] Speaker 1: Amunson cringed, I see this wasn't a surprise. Scott had
[17:52] Speaker 1: written to suggest a meeting so they could coordinate their
[17:55] Speaker 1: scientific work, Amunson in the north and Scott in the south. Scott,
[18:02] Speaker 1: of course, never suspected for a moment that Amunson was
[18:06] Speaker 1: planning to race him to the South Pole. Please tell
[18:11] Speaker 1: Captain Scott that Amundson is unfortunately unavailable. Amundson's legendary courage
[18:19] Speaker 1: failed him. He couldn't look Scott in the eye and
[18:22] Speaker 1: tell him the truth. And he couldn't lie to his
[18:25] Speaker 1: face either, and so he hid. For decades. British children
[18:33] Speaker 1: were taught that Amunson had cheated. That's not true. Polar
[18:39] Speaker 1: exploration has had its share of cheats, but Amunson wasn't
[18:43] Speaker 1: one of them. Amunson's journey to the poll was brave
[18:47] Speaker 1: and brilliant, yet he left some casualties behind him, such
[18:52] Speaker 1: as truth, trust, and eighty nine faithful dogs. Amunson regarded
[19:01] Speaker 1: those dogs as tools to be cherished, to be treated well,
[19:06] Speaker 1: but to be discarded without sentiment when they had outlived
[19:10] Speaker 1: their usefulness. Amonson bought a hundred dogs for his expedition,
[19:15] Speaker 1: and most of them arrived safely at his base camp.
[19:18] Speaker 1: He set out for the pole with fifty two, but
[19:22] Speaker 1: at a single camp about two thirds of the way
[19:25] Speaker 1: to the pole, Amonson and his men shot and skinned
[19:30] Speaker 1: twenty seven dogs to provide a store of food for
[19:33] Speaker 1: those who remained. Shot. Now followed shot. It sounded gruesome
[19:38] Speaker 1: over the waists. A faithful servant lost his life with
[19:43] Speaker 1: each shot. There was something oppressive, miserable in the air.
[19:48] Speaker 1: We called the place the butcher's shop. But he didn't hesitate,
[19:54] Speaker 1: and by the time he left Antarctica, only eleven dogs
[19:58] Speaker 1: had survived. Still to win. As the long shot outsider,
[20:04] Speaker 1: you can't afford to be squeamish. Amonson's ruthless choices paid
[20:10] Speaker 1: off handsomely. His final victory when it came seemed effortless.
[20:17] Speaker 1: Here he is approaching the pole, heading into the wind
[20:19] Speaker 1: at a temperature of nearly minus twenty degrees fahrenheit. A
[20:25] Speaker 1: little cool to go against with our sore faces, but
[20:28] Speaker 1: nothing to make a song about. There was no great
[20:32] Speaker 1: outpouring of emotion when he reached the pole. It was
[20:35] Speaker 1: all very matter of fact. So we arrived and were
[20:40] Speaker 1: able to plant our flag at the geographical South Pole. Helga,
[20:45] Speaker 1: one of the favorite dogs, had all but collapsed. He
[20:50] Speaker 1: had been almost dragged in harness the last few miles
[20:53] Speaker 1: to the pole, to die with the honor of a
[20:56] Speaker 1: goal achieved. After eating Helga, the other dogs basked in
[21:03] Speaker 1: the sun. The men spent four days of the pole,
[21:08] Speaker 1: measuring the sun as its span in a circle around
[21:11] Speaker 1: their heads, making sure of their position. It was a
[21:14] Speaker 1: time to relax. They smoked cigars. Amundson's team rearranged their
[21:20] Speaker 1: ever lighter provisions Amuson left a letter for Scott and
[21:25] Speaker 1: some spare supplies in case Scott could use them. And
[21:28] Speaker 1: then Amundson took a last fateful decision. He pondered leaving
[21:34] Speaker 1: Scott some extra fuel, and then decided against it. For
[21:40] Speaker 1: some time, I debated with myself whether or not to
[21:43] Speaker 1: leave behind two five gallon drums of oil I did
[21:46] Speaker 1: not expect to need. In the end, I did not
[21:50] Speaker 1: leave the oil. It's hard to blame Amuson for being cautious.
[21:55] Speaker 1: The Antarctic is unpredictable. He didn't expect to need the oil,
[21:59] Speaker 1: but he might anyway. Scott and his well funded expedition
[22:04] Speaker 1: couldn't possibly need one or two extra cans, could he.
[22:11] Speaker 1: And then, without realizing quite what a weighty decision he
[22:15] Speaker 1: had made, Amuson and his men headed north. It was
[22:20] Speaker 1: time to go. Two sledges remained and sixteen dogs. Bjaland
[22:25] Speaker 1: the great Skier no longer drove a sledge. Instead, he
[22:29] Speaker 1: was to lead the dogs, chasing him all the way
[22:32] Speaker 1: across the plateau towards home. They were in a hurry,
[22:36] Speaker 1: not for lack of food and fuel there more than enough,
[22:39] Speaker 1: and not because of the cold, but for fear that
[22:42] Speaker 1: Scott might somehow reach the pole, then overtake them on
[22:46] Speaker 1: the way home. Amuson couldn't have known quite how far
[22:50] Speaker 1: behind Scott was, nor that the Norwegians were traveling twice
[22:54] Speaker 1: as fast as the British. They tore across the snow,
[22:58] Speaker 1: led by a champion, Rations being increased as they made progress,
[23:02] Speaker 1: and Amonson became more confident of his margin of safety.
[23:06] Speaker 1: Even better was the descent from the plateau to warmer
[23:09] Speaker 1: temperatures and richer air. The small teams soon reached thirty
[23:14] Speaker 1: miles a day. Their final sprint for home was pure joy,
[23:20] Speaker 1: and perhaps one of the last times Roald Amonson was
[23:25] Speaker 1: truly happy. It was a full year before the news
[23:44] Speaker 1: arrived from Antarctica that Robert Falcon, Scott, and the men
[23:48] Speaker 1: had led to the South Pole were all dead. Their
[23:52] Speaker 1: bodies had been found, along with Scott's diary, giving a
[23:56] Speaker 1: lyrical account of the struggle and the courage and their
[24:00] Speaker 1: calm acceptance of death. We shall stick it out to
[24:05] Speaker 1: the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and
[24:08] Speaker 1: the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but
[24:12] Speaker 1: I do not think I can write more. When Amunson
[24:19] Speaker 1: first heard the news, interrupting a hectic schedule of lectures
[24:23] Speaker 1: and celebrity appearances. He was incredulous. I am unwilling to
[24:30] Speaker 1: believe the report is true. I was reported to have perished,
[24:34] Speaker 1: so was Shackleton. But soon the weight of it hit him. Horrible, horrible.
[24:42] Speaker 1: I would gladly forego any honor or money if thereby
[24:46] Speaker 1: I could have saved Scott his terrible death. Amunson must
[24:51] Speaker 1: have remembered the fuel can he had pondered leaving for
[24:54] Speaker 1: Scott up a South Pole. But Scott was to haunt
[24:59] Speaker 1: Amunson's reputation as well as his conscience. The British had
[25:04] Speaker 1: been looking for a hero, and now that found one.
[25:08] Speaker 1: Amunson's can't matter of fact account of his success was
[25:12] Speaker 1: eclipsed by Scott's epic description of his failure. Amunson had
[25:18] Speaker 1: won the race to the pole. Scott, in death, was
[25:23] Speaker 1: winning the race to become a legend. Amuson started to
[25:29] Speaker 1: realize that he had made a serious mistake. He had
[25:33] Speaker 1: made his achievement look too easy. Amuson had led the
[25:38] Speaker 1: first team to navigate the Northwest Passage, then the first
[25:42] Speaker 1: team to reach the South Pole, but he couldn't settle
[25:46] Speaker 1: for a quiet, comfortable retirement, he had accumulated debts, financial debts,
[25:52] Speaker 1: and a debt of obligation to the explorer Fritschoff Nansen,
[25:56] Speaker 1: who'd lent him a ship after Amuson promised to use
[25:59] Speaker 1: it for scientific work in the Arctic, only to see
[26:03] Speaker 1: Amunson dash for the South Pole. He had also accumulated enemies.
[26:10] Speaker 1: In nineteen eighteen, six years after returning from the South Pole,
[26:14] Speaker 1: Amuson brought a new ship and tried to please Nanson
[26:17] Speaker 1: by navigating the northeast passage between Russia and the North Pole.
[26:23] Speaker 1: It was a grim seven year voyage in which Amunson
[26:27] Speaker 1: broke his shoulder, was mauled by a polar there, and
[26:31] Speaker 1: eventually left the command of the ship to someone else.
[26:35] Speaker 1: At the end of the expedition, Amunson's creditors seized the ship.
[26:41] Speaker 1: Amuson by then looked prematurely aged. In one famous photograph,
[26:47] Speaker 1: he looks like a grizzled seventy year old, but it
[26:50] Speaker 1: was taken in nineteen twenty three, when he was only fifty.
[26:54] Speaker 1: One account described him as distinguished, but somehow a little decayed.
[27:02] Speaker 1: Amundson's dog sledging skills were already obsolete, but he was
[27:06] Speaker 1: determined to stay relevant. Having left his crew behind attempting
[27:11] Speaker 1: the northeast passage, he hatched a new, expensive plan to
[27:16] Speaker 1: be the first man to fly to the North Pole.
[27:20] Speaker 1: It did not go well. There were setbacks and embarrassing crashes.
[27:27] Speaker 1: His debts were mounting still further. He fell out with
[27:30] Speaker 1: his financial manager, his brother Leon. They stopped speaking. He
[27:36] Speaker 1: declared himself bankrupt, despite being advised not to. The Norwegian
[27:41] Speaker 1: press increasingly treated Amunson as a fallen hero. Some said
[27:46] Speaker 1: he was a coward, others a madman, and others claimed
[27:50] Speaker 1: he had no real plan to fly to the North Pole.
[27:53] Speaker 1: The crashes were deliberate, part of a publicity seeking hoax.
[27:58] Speaker 1: I have so terribly few friends, he wrote to one
[28:01] Speaker 1: of the few who remained. He had even less money.
[28:08] Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty, Amerson visited New York to try to
[28:11] Speaker 1: raise funds for more polar flights. All seemed lost until
[28:16] Speaker 1: a gentleman named Lincoln Ellsworth appeared at Amuson's hotel. Ellsworth
[28:22] Speaker 1: was a young adventurer desperate to attach himself to Amunson's
[28:26] Speaker 1: fame and experience. But Ellsworth was also the heir to
[28:30] Speaker 1: a fortune that meant he could solve Amunson's all too
[28:34] Speaker 1: apparent money problems. In his room at the Waldorf, I
[28:39] Speaker 1: frequently heard a mysterious rustling of paper on the floor.
[28:42] Speaker 1: Ellsworth recalled another court summons for Amunson being sleared under
[28:48] Speaker 1: the door. Ellsworth put up the money to keep amuson flying. Together,
[28:54] Speaker 1: they flew towards the North Pole and had to make
[28:58] Speaker 1: an emergency landing on the ice cap. The rest of
[29:01] Speaker 1: the world gave them up for dead, but they were
[29:05] Speaker 1: desperately hacking ice and shoveling snow near a runway off
[29:09] Speaker 1: against Three weeks later and flew back to civilization Amunson,
[29:15] Speaker 1: who was back from the dead. It was a sensational
[29:19] Speaker 1: return to the spotlight. The year afterwards, Amunson and Ellsworth
[29:28] Speaker 1: flew to the North Pole in an airship with the
[29:32] Speaker 1: Italian aviator Umberto Nobile. Amunson had been to the North Pole,
[29:38] Speaker 1: the South Pole, through the Northwest Passage, and through the
[29:42] Speaker 1: Northeast passage. Surely his legacy was assured, and yet Amunson
[29:50] Speaker 1: still needed money, and he still felt bitter. Having fallen
[29:56] Speaker 1: out with his brother Leon, he also fell out with
[29:59] Speaker 1: fellow adventurer Umberto Nobile. He wrote a memoir my life
[30:04] Speaker 1: as an explorer, which tried to settle old scores and
[30:08] Speaker 1: simply reopened old wounds. His young friend Lincoln Ellsworth defended him.
[30:14] Speaker 1: He was like a child whose confidence has been betrayed
[30:17] Speaker 1: so often that it finally trusts nobody. So he's encased
[30:22] Speaker 1: himself in a shell of ice. But added Ellsworth, if
[30:26] Speaker 1: you knew him well, nobody was warmer hearted. Maybe, but
[30:32] Speaker 1: there was nothing warmhearted about the sour memoir. Many of
[30:37] Speaker 1: Amunson's rivals and former friends found themselves injured by his words.
[30:45] Speaker 1: At the Royal Geographical Society, there was outrench when Amunson
[30:50] Speaker 1: recounted the story about the society's president, Lord Curzon, proposing
[30:55] Speaker 1: three cheers for the dogs. It never happened, said the Society.
[31:00] Speaker 1: Captain Amundson must be mistaken, and he should apologize. Captain
[31:06] Speaker 1: Amunson's secretary responded that Amunson would never forget the gross insult,
[31:12] Speaker 1: and he would neither withdraw his remarks nor apologize for them.
[31:17] Speaker 1: Amuson caused such a storm that the Norwegians had to
[31:21] Speaker 1: distance themselves from him. Good relations between Norway and Britain
[31:26] Speaker 1: couldn't be jeopardized. His old mentor Nansen was now a
[31:30] Speaker 1: statesman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But Nansen
[31:35] Speaker 1: took the step of writing to the Royal Geographical Society
[31:38] Speaker 1: to explain that Amunson was not of sound mind. It's
[31:45] Speaker 1: a bitter irony. Robert Falcon Scott, defeated and dead, was
[31:51] Speaker 1: viewed as one of Britain's greatest heroes. Rolled Amunson, victorious
[31:56] Speaker 1: and very much alive, was now being accused by the
[32:00] Speaker 1: Norwegian establishment of having lost his mind. But perhaps we
[32:06] Speaker 1: shouldn't be surprised. Amunson's skill and ruthlessness had brought him
[32:10] Speaker 1: brilliant success, but that same ruthlessness had helped to isolate him.
[32:17] Speaker 1: It was at this moment in his life, ostracized and
[32:21] Speaker 1: financially distressed, that Amunson received word that an airship had
[32:25] Speaker 1: crashed over the Arctic ice, stranding his former friend and
[32:30] Speaker 1: colleague Umberto Nobiley, who was radioing for help. Amunson was
[32:35] Speaker 1: asked by a journalist whether he would assist in the
[32:37] Speaker 1: airborne search for Nobiley. At once he declared he really
[32:42] Speaker 1: had no business flying out again over the Arctic. There
[32:46] Speaker 1: were at least twenty other teams trying to find nobiley
[32:50] Speaker 1: and Amunson was getting old. He didn't have a robust
[32:54] Speaker 1: enough plane, but perhaps it was the last chance to
[32:58] Speaker 1: remind people that he wasn't a madman but a hero,
[33:04] Speaker 1: or the last chance to win what might be the
[33:07] Speaker 1: final polar race. Before he left, he told a journalist, AH,
[33:14] Speaker 1: if you only knew how splendid it is up there
[33:17] Speaker 1: in the north, That's where I want to die. And
[33:19] Speaker 1: I wish only the death would come to me chivalrously,
[33:22] Speaker 1: that it will find me during the execution of some
[33:25] Speaker 1: great deed, quickly and without suffering. And so on Monday
[33:30] Speaker 1: June eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight, Amunson and his crew took
[33:34] Speaker 1: off in a seaplane from the northern reaches of Norway
[33:38] Speaker 1: looking for Nobele. They never returned. This is the second
[34:00] Speaker 1: part in a three part series about Amunson, Scott and
[34:04] Speaker 1: the race to the South Pole. In the third part,
[34:08] Speaker 1: I try to unlock a mystery which explains why Scott's
[34:12] Speaker 1: expedition unraveled so catastrophically, which points to a much bigger
[34:17] Speaker 1: question what happens when we discover new knowledge and then
[34:22] Speaker 1: lose faith in it. For a full list of our sources,
[34:33] Speaker 1: see Tim Harford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by
[34:40] Speaker 1: me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan
[34:44] Speaker 1: Dilley with support from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughan. The
[34:48] Speaker 1: sound design and original music is the work of Pascal Wise.
[34:52] Speaker 1: It features the voice talents of Ben Crow, Melanie Gutridge,
[34:56] Speaker 1: Stella Harford, and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have
[35:00] Speaker 1: been possible without the work of Mea LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg,
[35:03] Speaker 1: Heather Fane, John Schnas, Julia Barton, Carlie mcgliori, Eric Sandler,
[35:09] Speaker 1: Royston Basserve, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Mrano, Danielle Lakhan and Maya Caaning.
[35:15] Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you
[35:19] Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review,
[35:23] Speaker 1: tell a friend, tell two friends, and if you want
[35:25] Speaker 1: to hear the show, adds free and listen to four
[35:28] Speaker 1: exclusive Cautionary Tales shorts. Then sign up for Pushkin Plus
[35:32] Speaker 1: on the show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin
[35:36] Speaker 1: dot fm, slash plus

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.