“Bestepappa” – Grandfather

On Roald Amundsen’s desk there are photographs of two young girls, each sitting on a donkey.

Amundsen called them Kakonita and Camilla.
They called him Bestepappa — “Grandfather.”

This is the story of those two girls, based on what Amundsen left behind in his home.

Maud Expedition 1921

It was the expedition’s third winter. The expedition ship Maud was frozen fast near Cape Serdtse-Kamen, on the Siberian side of the Bering Strait.

It was January 1921, more than two years have passed since the expedition left Norway. Still, Maud had not begun her drift across the Arctic Ocean.
There were now only four men aboard: Amundsen, Wisting, Sverdrup, and Olonkin.

Yet, there was life in and around the Maud. Local traders and Chukchi people often came to visit, and some even found work on board.

One of them was Kakot, who joined the ship in the autumn of 1920.

«At first, he slept down in the workroom, where he spent the night on a couple of reindeer skins. During the day, he chopped firewood» 📜, wrote Harald Ulrik Sverdrup.

But Kakot made a good impression and was promoted.

«The next step was that he learned to wash the dishes, and at the same time he was moved up to a vacant cabin. Thus began his career as a cabin boy.»📜

A few weeks later, Kakot revealed that he had a daughter. Her mother was dead, and she was living with strangers. He asked permission to bring her on board.

January 2nd became a memorable day. In his diary, Roald Amundsen wrote:

«This evening came his little daughter — five years old — here to live. Her mother has been dead for a long time.»📜

We do not know her original Chukchi name, but on board Maud she was called Kakonita, often shortened to Nita.

Sverdrup described here as: «a small, frozen, frightened girl of about five years, who disappeared into one of the big wicker chairs and did not dare say a word — only looked at us with large brown eyes.».📜

But she was in poor health.

Two days later, Amundsen wrote:

«Kakonita, Kakot’s little 4-year-old daughter — I treated her today. Laid her stark naked on the dining table, washed her with permanganate. She has eczema all over her body — large sores.»📜

The days and weeks went by, and everyone adjusted to a new routine. For Nita, it was an entirely new world.

The crew gave her clothes, made her tiny sunglasses, shoes, mittens, and a reindeer-skin suit with a hood.

At night, she slept in Amundsen’s cabin.

Amundsen began mentioning her more and more often in his diary. 

January 21, 1921:

«[…] She is a funny little child — terribly ugly — frightfully mischievous, but extremely comical. We compete to spoil her. She goes about the house making herself strangely useful, at her four or five years. She is washed every evening, all over. When she is done and neatly combed, she comes out to the galley to show herself to ‘Grandfather».📜

By mid-February, another change occurred. Kakot, who had been a widower for five years, wished to go find a new wife. Amundsen sent him off with “a small bottle of spirits, a box of socks, and a tin of tea, which he was to bring instead of a bouquet of flowers.»📜 When Kakot returned the next day, it was to report that his proposal had been accepted.

Amundsen wrote in his diary:

«On that occasion I have taken Kakonita entirely to myself. I have grown fond of her and would not wish to see her in the hands of a stepmother».📜

In the mornings, when Amundsen went for his daily walk, little Nita toddled after him, and when he met her on the way back, they went aboard hand in hand.

She also assisted the scientist Harald Ulrik Sverdrup. One day she was photographed on the ice, holding a small balloon that Sverdrup used to study different air layers.

March 7, 1921, Amundsen wrote in his diary:
«Now I am alone again, with no one to talk to — except little Kakonita. She understands me better than the others.».📜

Thirteen days later, March 20, he added:
«Kakonita — my little foster daughter — is now completely devoted to me. I believe she loves ‘Bestepappa.’».📜

Little Miss Carpendal

 «At about four in the afternoon W. returned from East Cape and brought one of Carpendale’s daughters with him. She is a very sweet girl, quiet and calm, and moreover quite pretty — about ten years old. My intention is to send her home with Kakonita and have them both well brought up.»📜

It was April 19, 1921, when Amundsen wrote this in his diary.

That same day, Oscar Wisting returned from a sled journey to East Cape, where he had visited the trader Charles Carpendale. With him came one of Carpendale’s daughters.

April 21, Amundsen noted in his diary:
«… Little Miss Carpendal — she is, by the way, quite large for her age — I have given her the name Camilla. This is as close as I can come to her Chukchi name. Translated, it means: ‘Little cunt’ — which, in itself, could be considered charming enough, though my friends and acquaintances might feel somewhat uncomfortable when she is introduced.»📜

Only a few days after her arrival, Camilla began to study reading with Sverdrup. Soon, however, she fell ill — vomiting and diarrhea, they fear it might be appendicitis. Amundsen cared for her personally, administering opium for the pain. Fortunately, she recovered quickly.

In May, Amundsen made a decision that would change everything. He resolved to leave the ice for a time — to travel to Seattle, seek financial support from the Norwegian Parliament, and, if possible, realize his plan to obtain an airplane.
He decided that Camilla and Nita would go with him.

May 25, Amundsen wrote in his diary:
«I have, namely, decided to take my little darling with me myself. I am very fond of her, and she of me, so it would be a loss for us both to be separated. Moreover, this little creature would suffer greatly on the voyage south aboard this rolling tub».📜

In a letter to his brother Leon, Amundsen explained his plans:

«It is my intention to give Camilla about five years of upbringing, chiefly of a practical nature — reading, writing, all kinds of household work, and health care.»
As for Nita, the plans were different:
«Cakonita will stay at home and be brought up for comfort and usefulness to ‘Bestepappa’ in his old age.»

Seattle, New York, and Svartskog

They left Maud on May 28, 1921. After a journey via East Cape, Amundsen and the girls crossed the Bering Strait to Nome. On June 26, they boarded the SS Victoria, bound for Seattle.

Camilla suffered badly from seasickness, often vomiting incessantly. Newspapers later reported that Nita had met a boy on board — Arden Sandstrom, age seven, who had a toy pistol. Each time he aimed at her, she pretended to drop dead; Amundsen laughed heartily every time.

On July 4, they went ashore in Seattle, where they would remain for the rest of the year.

In Seattle, they met Elise Wisting (Oscar Wisting’s wife) og Håkon Hammer, Amundsen’s right hand at the time.

The girls experienced a new world – going to the cinema, seeing fireworks, visiting zoos. They celebrated Christmas with gifts, and candy.

Just after New Year, the little “family” continued their journey — arriving in New York. They checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania, a 22-story building with 2,000 rooms, towering over the city.

There, new journalists were waiting. The girls clutched their dolls tightly as photographers and reporters crowded around them.

Amundsen proudly praised the girls, repeating that Nita was to live permanently in Norway, while Camilla would stay for only a few years.

After four days in New York, the girls boarded the DS Stavangerfjord together with Elise Wisting, Hermann Gade (Amundsen’s close friend), and his wife. Amundsen himself stayed behind in America.

In Kristiania (now Oslo), Leon Amundsen awaited their arrival two weeks later. Together with Elise Wisting and their families, he would be among those who spent the most time with the girls during their stay in Norway.

At Svartskog, they were shown into Uranienborg, Amundsen’s home. Their room lay upstairs, to the left, opposite Amundsen’s own bedroom.

Today, none of the girls’ belongings remain in that room; the items now there were added later.

From America, Leon had already received precise instructions from Roald on how the girls were to be cared for:

«You must make sure that whoever looks after them comes to love them. Without that, it’s no use. Above all, do not speak harshly to them. It is entirely unnecessary. To strike them would be a crime. I know you will all grow very fond of them. Get them good running shoes or beksøm boots so their feet are always dry. It is very important, as they easily catch cold.».

A few weeks later, Roald Amundsen returned home — but only for about a month. When he went out into the ice again, twenty months would pass before he came back.

For Camilla and Nita, life at Amundsen’s home was also a life largely without Roald Amundsen’s presence.
On November 1, 1922, they were enrolled at the local school at Svartskog – Bålerud Skole, where they made friends and impressed their teachers with their language skills. Some of their school books are still kept at Amundsen’s house today.

January 23, 1923, brought a rather strange experience for the two girls.
That day, they were sitting inside the Victoria Cinema on Karl Johans gate in Oslo. Together with the rest of the audience — including the King, government members, relatives, and friends of the expedition — they had come to see the premiere of the film from Amundsen’s expedition.

The film contained living images of both Kakot, Nita’s father, and of Camilla’s family — family members the girls had not seen for a long time.

When Amundsen returned in November 1923, the newspaper Dagbladet came to visit. During the interview, the journalist observed the two girls playing outside:

«Out in the garden play the two little Eskimo girls whom Amundsen has adopted. Through the window I can see them frolicking, happy to have a month’s holiday — a joy unknown to them in their distant homeland far to the north, where there was no such thing as school at all. […]
They were indeed much more arctic when I last greeted them — then the northern lights flickered in their eyes, and their hair smelled faintly of seal fat, figuratively speaking. Now they have become two lovely little Norwegian girls, who go to school and are familiar with the legends of Canaan, Snorre, Nordahl Rolfsen, and both multiplication tables». 📜

Separation

The year 1924 became a difficult one for Roald Amundsen.
In September, he declared personal bankruptcy, while family conflicts deepened — among them, disputes with his brother Leon, who was one of his major creditors.

During Christmas that year, the girls traveled to Denmark with Amundsen’s business associate Håkon Hammer and his wife. They were enrolled at Marie Mørk’s School and Home, a boarding school in Hillerød. They stayed there until June 1924, before returning to Norway. That autumn, they moved in with Elise Wisting in Horten.

But the greatest journey still awaited them.

The last day Amundsen and the girls spent together in Norway was September 20, 1924.

On December 4, 1924, the girls boarded the ship that would take them north — first to Antwerp, and then on the M/S Tonking to San Francisco. There, with help from the Norwegian consul Nils Voll, they were placed in an orphanage. However, they were unhappy there, and eventually moved in with the Voll family themselves.

The first months in America were difficult: the girls had no identification papers, and arranging the journey north toward the Bering Strait proved complicated.

At last, they were placed on a boat to Nome, Alaska.
It was there they met the Norwegian journalist Erling Bergendahl, with whom they were photographed. The photograph was later sent to Roald Amundsen.

After a long and difficult journey, the girls finally crossed the Bering Strait — back to East Cape, where they were welcomed by Camilla’s family, who also took in Nita.

A year later, the Carpendale family moved across the Bering Strait themselves. In 1926, Camilla and Nita were moved to Poulsbo, a Scandinavian settlement outside Seattle.

It was there, in Poulsbo, near Seattle, that the final meeting between Amundsen and the girls took place.

In the spring of 1927, while Amundsen was in America, he heard that the girls were living in Poulsbo.
They met — and were photographed together for the last time.