The Polar Flight 1925

Roald Amundsen’s 1925 attempt to fly to the North Pole was full of big dreams, money trouble, international politics, and plenty of drama.

The online exhibition The Polar Flight 1925 takes you through the whole story leading up to the expedition’s takeoff.

The Polar Flight 1925

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Esther Klausen’s oatmeal biscuits

Esther was married to Trygve Klausen, one of the owners and founders of Kings Bay Kull Compani AS (Kings Bay Coal Company Ltd). The couple lived in Kings Bay (Ny-Ålesund) in Svalbard. Trygve Klausen died in 1924, but Esther stayed in Kings Bay.

Before heading north in flying boats N 24 and N 25, Amundsen and the crew were given a box of Klausen biscuits. According to Amundsen, they were “a delicious product” and came in handy when the expedition was marooned in the ice near 88 degrees north.

Recipe:

500 g oatmeal
500 g butter
100 g sugar
6 heaped large teaspoons of baking powder
5 dl cold milk
500 g wheat flour

Melt the butter and sugar, mix in the milk, pour over the oatmeal and leave overnight. Mix in baking powder and flour. Roll out and shape the biscuits, but make sure they are not too thin. Fry on low heat.

In the years that followed, Esther Klausen held several lectures and demonstrations on food and nutrition, at which “Roald Amundsen’s Pole biscuits” would be served.📜

1925 To 88 degrees north

Personal equipment

Rucksack with:

• Sleeping bag
• 1 change of underwear (shirt, wool trousers, one pair of socks, and one pair of ragg socks)
• Compass
• Matches in watertight bag
• Mechanical firelighter
• Snow goggles
• Sewing kit (housewife)
• One cup and one spoon
• Ski boots and one pair of boots of own choice
• 1 pair skis, 1 pair ski poles and 1 harness for hauling sledges, 1 knife
• They could also take up to 2 kilos in total of such things as tobacco, pipe, diary, headwear or other personal items

Sources:

Amundsen, Roald, and others: Our Polar flight : the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar flight, 1925 📜.
Roald Amundsen’s equipment list for the polar flight : a note from the expedition diary [In Norwegian] 📜.

1925 To 88 degrees north

Personnel

The expedition to 88 degrees north involved the efforts of a range of people: the crews on board Hobby and Farm 📜 and were essential to carrying the expedition safely from Tromsø to Svalbard; the inhabitants of Kings Bay (Ny-Alesund) assisted the expedition in the days before it headed north; and several personnel from the Dornier factory in Italy worked on the flying boats. The meteorologists, Jakob Bjerknes and Ernst Calwagen, were central to determining the optimum moment of departure, and through it all the journalists James W. Wharton and Fredrik Ramm, together with the photographer and film-maker Paul Berge, worked to convey news of the expedition to the outside world.

The crews of flying boats N 24 and N 25 themselves were:

N 24

Lincoln Ellsworth, navigator

Leif Dietrichson, pilot

Oskar Omdal, mechanic

N 25

Roald Amundsen, navigator

Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, pilot

Karl Feucht, mechanic

1925 To 88 degrees north

Provisions

Pemmican
Donated by De danske Vin- & Konservesfabriker (Danish Wine and Preserves Factories). When mixed with hot water, 80 grams was enough to feed a man for a day.

Chocolate
Donated by Freia Chokoladefabrik. During the expedition’s time on the ice, this was made into a drink using one third of a slab to 400 grams of hot water and supplemented with Molico dried milk tablets provided by De Norske Melkefabrikker. “Chocolate then became a drink for the gods,” wrote Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen 📜.

Oatmeal biscuits
From Sætre biscuit factory in Oslo and specially made for the expedition. These were supplemented in Kings Bay by two boxfuls made by Esther Klausen.

Malted milk
In tablet form from Horlicks, USA.

The daily ration per man during the expedition was planned to be:
Pemmican 400 grams
Chocolate 2 slabs of 125 grams
Biscuits 125 grams (12 biscuits)
Molico dried milk powder 100 grams
Malted milk 125 grams

During the expedition’s time on the ice, rations had to be reduced. Both breakfast and supper consisted of a cup of chocolate and three oat biscuits. Lunch was soup cooked with 80 grams of pemmican.

Sources:
Amundsen, Roald, and others: Our Polar flight : the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar flight, 1925 📜.
Roald Amundsen’s equipment list for the polar flight : a note from the expedition diary [In Norwegian] 📜.

1925 To 88 degrees north

Expedition equipment for each flying boat

• 1 canvas boat
• 1 sledge
• 1 medicine case
• 1 tent

• Spare ski bindings
• Spare pigskin reins for sledge
• 1 primus with aluminium pan (large)
• 1 box of spare parts and prickers for primus
• 30 litres of petrol
• “Meta” stove and one box of fuel tablets
• 1 kg boot dubbin
• Sailmaker’s palm, sewing rings, large needles and sail twine
• 1 bubble sextant (for air navigation)
• 1 pocket sextant (for sledge travel)
• 1 artificial horizon
• Chart, chart plate, dividers, 2 protractors, pencils and navigation tables
• 1 logbook
• 1 pair binoculars
• 6 small and 4 large smoke bombs
• 1 smoke bomb pistol
• 1 current meter
• 1 solar compass

• 1 shotgun with 200 cartridges
• 1 rifle with 200 rounds
• 1 Colt pistol with 50 rounds
• 1 electric flashlight
• Spare parts and specialist tools for the engine
• 1 axe
• 1 snow shovel
• 1 saw
• Rope
• Ice anchor
• 1 spare ski pole
• 1 petrol bucket and funnel
• 1 oil funnel
• 1 kg of aniline dye
• ½ sack of sedge grass
• Ski wax
• 3 filled pilot balloons (for measuring wind speed/direction)
• 3 pairs of snowshoes

Also, between the two aircraft:

• 1 large and 1 small film camera
• 600 meters of film
• 2 still cameras with film and plates
• 1 fuel pump with hose
• Behm depth-sounding equipment with cartridges
• Polar postcards

Source:

Amundsen, Roald, and others: Our Polar flight : the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar flight, 1925 📜.

1925 To 88 degrees north

Clothing

Workwear

• The expedition members had two layers of woollen underwear that were provided by the Norske Trikotagefabrikanters Forening (Norwegian Knitwear Manufacturers Association). The base-layer consisted of a thin woollen shirt and long pants of the same material. Outside of this was a thicker layer of wool on the legs and an Icelandic wool sweater.
• An outer clothing layer combined long trousers with a hooded windproof smock, sewn by Martin Rønne from fabric provided donated by A/S William Schmidt, Oslo.

Flying gear

• Jacket and trousers made of thin leather and lined with camel hair, provided by sports company S. Adam of Berlin.
• Sealskin anorak as an outer layer.
• Fur-lined leather flying hat.
• Large woollen scarf.
• Mittens of double sheepskin with wool facing both inside and out, and over these a pair of windproof mittens that went up to the elbow.
• One pair of glasses with clear lenses, one pair of goggles, plus sunglasses and a face mask.

Footwear:

Several options were offered. Amundsen, Omdal and Feucht preferred felt boots with a pair of thin socks, outside of which they wore canvas boots filled with sedge grass (an idea borrowed from the Sami people). Ellsworth and Dietrichson took short kamiks. Riiser-Larsen took thigh-length rubber boots. Everyone also took ski boots for a possible journey across the ice.

Sources:

Amundsen, Roald, and others: Our Polar flight : the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar flight, 1925 📜.
Roald Amundsen’s equipment list for the polar flight : a note from the expedition diary [In Norwegian] 📜.

1925 To 88 degrees north

N 24 and N 25

• Aircraft type: Dornier Do J Wal (“Whale”)
• Registrations: N 24 and N 25
• Length: 17.25 m
• Wingspan: 22.5 m
• Height: 5.2 m
• Weight: 3630 kg
• Maximum take-off load: 2600 kg (specific recommendation)
• Top speed: 185 km/h
• Range: 800 km
• Engines: Rolls-Royce Eagle (two in tandem facing fore and aft)
• Manufacturer: Dornier Flugzeugwerke

Roald Amundsen records that N 24 and N 25 eventually took off from Kings Bay with loads of 3100 kg, thus exceeding the maximum recommend by the Dornier technical director on the ground by some 500 kg.

The duralumin fuselage had a flat and strengthened underside. From either side projected Claude Dornier’s patented large sponsons, which served both to stabilise the aircraft on the water and to support the single wing by means of strong struts. As a monoplane, the flying boat was well suited for landing on sea and ice.

Neither N 24 nor N 25 has survived to the present day. N 24, of course, was abandoned on the ice. N 25 was later used for various flights, including one in 1930 from Germany to New York via Iceland, Greenland and Labrador. It was transferred to the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 1932 but destroyed during a bombing raid on the city in 1944. The Dornier museum in Friedrichshafen now has a full size replica of N 25 on display.

Fortunately, the model Amundsen received from the Dornier factory before the flight in 1925 has survived and still hangs from the ceiling of the Uranienborg living room.

Sources:
Amundsen, Roald, and others: Our Polar flight : the Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar flight, 1925 📜

Dornier Museum

Letter, 9.7.1925, from Bjørn Rock Bjørge

Object reference: RA 318B28

Type: Letter

Sender / Author: Bjørn Rock Bjørge

Recipient: Roald Amundsen

Date: 9.7.1925

Language: Norwegian

🔍Large image, RA 318B28

Translation

                        SEVILLA 9-7-1925

Mr Roald Amundsen,

                                   O s l o .

The small Norwegian colony here in Seville, consisting of 2 men, has with admiration and anticipation followed you and your brave companions on your journey through the ice, and we allow ourselves now, albeit tardily, and so all the more heartily, to congratulate and compliment you on the results achieved and express our deepest admiration for the strength and endurance, and unfailing energy, that the deed amply demonstrates. Some of the old glory has come again over the Viking land, and it is with joy and pride we call ourselves your countrymen.

            But not only we Norwegians, the Sevillanos too have followed the reports of the expedition with admiration and intense interest, and now sincerely hope that one of your brave aviators will also include Seville in his lecture tour. The enthusiam and support would no doubt be tremendous.

            With regard to your book about the escape, it would be my pleasure to translate it into Spanish, if you or your publishers have not already made other arrangements.

                                   Yours faithfully

                                   pr. Bjørn Rock Bjørge

Related resources

Letter, 11.8.1925, from Karl Bergmann

Letters and documents

Letter, 14.8.1925, from Felix Boucher

Letters and documents

Letter, 14.7.1925, from Gustav Thuve

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Letter, 5.8.1925, from Mikhail Alekseevich Diakonoff 

Object reference: RA 318B42

Type: Letter

Sender / Author: Mikhail Alekseevich Diakonoff 

Recipient: Roald Amundsen

Date: 5.8.1925

Language: Norwegian

🔍Large image, RA 318B42

Translation

<indistinct notes written in pencil>

Mr Roald Amundsen

“Svartskog”

Bunnefjord

—————-   

Since, according to the contract between the Norwegian Aeronautical Association and the State Publishing House in Leningrad, I shall be translating your new book into Russian, I take the liberty here of asking if you would be so kind as to write a short preface to the Russian edition. This preface will be reproduced photographically in the book, as well as translated into Russian. If I were also to be allowed to photograph you for reproduction in the book, I would be deeply grateful.

If you are so gracious as to grant my request, I venture to ask you kindly to fix a time when you can receive me.

Thanking you in advance for your hospitality, I remain

Yours respectfully

<signed>

Related resources

Letter, 11.8.1925, from Karl Bergmann

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Letter, 13.7.1925, from Harald Liljedahl

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Letter, 15.7.1925, from Sigvard Abrahamsen

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