From Pole to Pole

by Garth James Cameron

  The man on the phone was the American Lincoln Ellsworth. He had met Amundsen in France in 1917 and he had a proposition for him. Ellsworth would supply the bulk of the money for a flight to the North Pole if he was allowed to fly with it. He had always wanted to be an Arctic explorer, although he started late in life. Amundsen had started his career as an explorer in 1897, at the age of 25. Ellsworth was 44 years old when he and Amundsen went into a partnership with the aim of being the first men to fly to the North Pole. Ellsworth had arranged an interesting life for himself. He always preferred to work outdoors at activities which required powers of endurance. These included some years with the United States Geological Survey and time in France during 1917–1918. In March 1917 (just before the United States declared war on the Central Powers), he joined an ambulance unit and sailed for France. During the voyage his ship dodged a torpedo from a surfaced German U-boat and engaged it with gunfire. He arranged a discharge from his unit, enlisted as a private in the French Air Service and was sent to Tours to train as an aviator with other Americans who would form Franco-American units. He was 37 in 1917, 14 years above the age limit for pilots. He passed his medical as fit for duties as an observer, but not as a pilot. Initially his training was conducted by the French but later the Americans took over. As the truck carrying the trainees entered the grounds of the airfield, two aeroplanes collided overhead, killing one of the pilots. The recruits were given the job of clearing away the wreckage and removing the body. Surprisingly, his training included piloting, and after instruction in a dual-controlled Caudron he was sent solo to make several take off attempts and a landing during which a wing-tip brushed the ground and the impact broke a strut. He persevered, and a week later he was awarded his élève pilot’s insignia and promoted to sergeant. He continued flying at Tours for three months, and while he was there Eddie Rickenbacker learned to fly and was sent to the front to become America’s most successful fighter pilot of World War I. Probably because of his age, Ellsworth, who wanted a combat assignment, was sent to Paris to undertake clerical work. One day in March 1918, he heard an explosion and, on investigating, found a crater caused by a shell from the Paris Gun which was bombarding Paris from more than 100 km away. He never got to the Front Line but, importantly, met Roald Amundsen, who was in Paris preparing for the voyage of the Maude. Ellsworth had arranged a meeting and asked to be included in the Maude expedition which was due to sail in mid-1917 and would involve a drift embedded in the ice, hopefully across the North Pole, and might last for many years. Amundsen had listened politely but smiled, noted that it was a bit late in life for Ellsworth to start exploring, and said no. It was this meeting that Ellsworth reminded Amundsen of and they were soon deep in discussions of an expedition to be mounted in the spring of 1925. Ellsworth’s proposal was simple: he would make a major contribution to the next expedition and his only condition was that he went along with it.

  Ellsworth did not have to work because he was the son of a multi-millionaire industrialist, James W Ellsworth, and was in receipt of a generous allowance. Ellsworth Sr. had wanted Lincoln to take part in running the family businesses, but Ellsworth Jr. had preferred to indulge in his outdoor activities. These activities had left him lean, fit, and up for adventure. He was a little shorter than Amundsen and photographs show a tanned, confident man with a ready smile. Ellsworth admired Amundsen for his many achievements in the Arctic and Antarctic, and Amundsen respected Ellsworth for his courage and willingness to endure any hardship. The professional relationship between Amundsen and Ellsworth blossomed into a friendship which would endure until they were separated by the death of Amundsen in 1928. Lincoln Ellsworth negotiated with his father for an $85,000 advance on his inheritance and his father agreed but insisted that Lincoln give up smoking.

  There was a curious footnote to the negotiation between father and son for money with which to make the flight. Ellsworth senior insisted that parachutes be purchased and carried for each of the six air crew. Ellsworth junior agreed to make his father happy. Reliable parachutes for civilian and military airmen had only become generally available since the end of World War I. There were regular reports of their successful use in newspapers and magazines, and it would make perfectly good sense to a non-pilot to insist that they be carried. However this was not the case if the big picture was considered. Only structural failure or fire in the air would require escape by parachute. If they jumped they could not take any survival equipment with them. If they survived the descent they would either die in minutes in the frigid Arctic sea or in days on the pack ice. It follows that it would be better if they left the parachutes behind and carry the equivalent weight in fuel which would increase the range and endurance of the aircraft and increase the safety factor.

  Chapter Six

  Toward the North Pole

  Marina di Pisa–Tromso–Kings Bay–Arctic Ocean, February 25–May 21, 1925

  At about 17:10 on May 21, 1925, two Dornier Wal flying boats took off from the ice of Kings Bay, on the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago. They flew in a loose formation and shaped a course for the North Pole. The crews consisted of Amundsen, Riiser-Larsen, Dietrichson, and Omdal from Norway, Ellsworth from the United States and Feucht who had flown in the German Army and Navy Zeppelins in World War I. In the days of sailing ships a ship was said to be sailing “toward” rather than “to” its destination and this seems an appropriate way to describe this flight. They were aware that the machines did not have the range to fly to the Pole and back non-stop. Sextants were used to observe the sun and obtain position lines which gave them the longitude. If the horizon was indistinct the sextants were useless for navigation. They had no radios and would be on their own the moment they crossed the southern boundary of the sea ice which lay just to the North of Svalbard.

  Amundsen and Ellsworth had chosen Ny-Ålesund, a settlement on the southern shore of Kings Bay as their base. There were several reasons for this decision. It was close to the Pole, 665 nm away, and although it was isolated by the Arctic pack ice during the winter, it was accessible early in spring because of the warm Gulf Stream current. The expedition was planned to take place in the months that the sun was above the horizon 24 hours per day. In 1916 Peter S. Brandal had started a coal mine at Ny-Ålesund and mining was in full swing when the Amundsen-Ellsworth expedition arrived in 1925. The settlement consisted of a wharf, machine shops, barracks, bathhouse, hospital, houses, and a narrow gauge railway operated by horses. The machine shops and man-power were particularly valuable and might be needed for unloading and assembling the aeroplanes.

  They had chosen Dornier Wal flying boats for the expedition. Their requirement was for a machine that could take off and land on water, ice or packed snow and be durable enough to survive in the Arctic environment. Amundsen had visited Marina di Pisa in Italy during 1924 and inspected the all-metal Dornier Wal flying boats that were manufactured under license from Dornier in Germany. Germany was prohibited from manufacturing large aeroplanes by the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, which had terminated World War I (1914–1918). Italy allowed Germany to circumvent this provision even though it had fought against Germany in the war.

  Amundsen was favorably impressed as the all metal structure seemed ideal, and the bottom of the hull was almost flat and the machine used sponsons, (which looked like a small wings attached to each side of the hull beneath the wing) rather than tip floats to keep the aeroplane from capsizing at low speed, or stationary, on the water. The large monoplane wing was placed on struts well above the fuselage, and the two engines were mounted on the center section of the wing, in tandem, where the propellers were as far away as possible from the spray which was part of every take-off and landing on water. The placing of the engines also had the advantage that if one failed the remaining engine was on the center line and did not cause yaw and extra drag. The Wal was made in civil and military versions. They chose the military version as its empty weight was lower than the civil, and it was easier to
convert to a long range machine with extra fuel tanks located in the fuselage below the engine nacelles. A significant factor in the choice was probably the Rolls-Royce Eagle engines of 380 hp each. The name Rolls-Royce was synonymous with quality and reliability. The plan was to have a crew of three in each aircraft. The navigator would occupy the open cockpit in the nose, the pilot in the open cockpit behind the navigator and the mechanic managed the fuel and engine in an enclosed position in the fuselage below the engine nacelle. The Wal was an advanced design and would prove to be exceptionally robust on the 1925 Arctic flight, and on other pilot’s long distance flights over water and ice. The Rolls-Royce engines on Amundsen’s Wal started up time after time.

  The two Dornier Wal flying boats were shipped to Kings Bay, on the arctic island of Spitsbergen, in six enormous packing cases as deck cargo aboard Hobby. They could not dock at Ny-Ålesund. They were unpacked aboard ship and the components were lowered on to the ice and man-hauled to the shore. The engine nacelle is being mated to the fuselage of N24.

  They chose to ship the aircraft to Kings Bay and assemble them there. There were conflicting reports of their intentions; at one point it was reported that they intended to fly from Spitsbergen to the North Pole and on to Alaska. Each aircraft carried fuel for 16 hours of flight. The only way they could fly to Alaska would be to land on the ice at the Pole after flying for about eight hours and transfer the remaining fuel from one aircraft to the other. They would then load all six crew members to one aircraft and take off with 16 hours fuel and fly on to Alaska. Eventually they decided to fly from Kings Bay to the North Pole and back to Kings Bay. In late 1925 (after the flight of that year), Amundsen wrote:

  “Our hope to get right along to the Pole was very small, for that, our radius of action was too limited. Apart from that I had not any great interest in reaching the Pole, as I had always regarded Peary as being the first on the spot.”

  The general understanding of the aims of the flight was that it was to be to the Pole and back. There is no evidence that they intended, when they took off, to fly to a point South of the Pole and then turn around with enough fuel for a non-stop return. They aimed for the Pole, but were shy about how they were going to do it. The explorers always gave the impression that they might have to land and transfer fuel from one aircraft to the other, but in fact this would be inevitable. The realities of endurance, range, navigation, and weather made it so. The Wal had an endurance of 16 hours at an airspeed of 81 kt. giving a range in still air of 1,296 nm. The distance from Kings Bay to the North Pole and return is 1,330 nm. The figures are not far apart, but in reality the endurance and range required to fly to the Pole and back were far in excess of the aircraft’s capability. With no wind and perfect navigation the Wal could not complete the flight before running out of fuel. The true situation was even worse because flight planning for long distance flights have to assume some adverse wind. In 1925, air navigation was an evolving art and some inaccuracy in navigation was to be expected. A five percent allowance for adverse winds plus a further five percent for small cumulative errors in navigation and five percent for a reserve increase the range and endurance required to 1,530 nm and 19 hours. It followed that there was no chance of a return flight without landing to transfer fuel and crew and abandoning one of the Wals on the ice. This basic fact would make the flight a near death experience for all concerned.

  Amundsen appointed Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen (1890–1965) as the expedition’s second-in-command, and relied on him to arrange the technical matters. After going to sea in merchant ships as a teenager, Riiser-Larsen had entered the Norwegian Naval Academy at Horten, near Kristiania, as a 19-year-old cadet in 1909. He was commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1912, and was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1915. He joined the Royal Norwegian Naval Air Service in 1915, and ultimately became proficient in flying both land planes and seaplanes. He was inspector at the Naval Aircraft Factory from 1916–1919, and had flown in Great Britain and Germany to broaden his experience and select aircraft for Norway. On July 13–14, 1922, he flew a Hansa-Brandenburg seaplane from Kristiania to Kirkenes near the Finnish border and back, a distance of around 1,950 nm in less than 48 hours.

  Riiser-Larsen with the Goerz drift meter fitted to both Wals. When there was a clear view of the surface it could measure both drift and groundspeed. The navigator used the information to update his dead reckoning.

  Riiser-Larsen’s first airship flight took place in 1919 in the German civil Zeppelin Bodensee, and in 1921 he was sent to Great Britain to train as an airship pilot. His training included flying in captive balloons (kite balloons), non-rigid and rigid airships, and ground school covering the theoretical aspects of lighter-than-air flight. He should have made flights in free balloons but none were available. He had been sent to Great Britain because the British government were planning an airship airline to link London with Stockholm and Copenhagen, and Norway wanted Oslo to be included in each round trip. They also wanted Oslo to be the first stop on the flight from London. His superiors instructed him to lobby General Edward Maitland (who was playing a major part in the project) while he was receiving instruction. Brigadier-General Edward Maitland had joined the British Army in 1900, served during the Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa, and taken up ballooning in 1908. He was aboard the balloon Mammoth in 1908 when it flew from England to Russia, covering 970 nm in 36½ hours. In September 1911 he was awarded Fédération Aéronautique (British Empire) airship certificate N.8. He served in the Air Battalion, the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and the Royal Air Force. He was aboard R34 during its double transatlantic crossing in 1919. Maitland was a keen golfer, and Riiser-Larsen agreed to receive golfing instruction so that he would have time alone with Maitland. He produced meteorological records which supported his contention that Oslo would be an appropriate port of call, and that Oslo should be the first stop, but the service was never started. Maitland was one of Riiser-Larsen’s instructors. When Maitland wished to get back to the office he would direct the airship back over the landing ground and parachute from it. An enthusiasm for parachuting was a very rare thing in the early 1920s. Maitland was killed when the new rigid airship R38 broke up in the air and burnt on August 24, 1921. Another instructor was Major Scott. Major George Herbert Scott was a major contributor to the British airship programme as both engineer and pilot. Scott trained as an engineer and worked in both Great Britain and Spain before World War I. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914, trained as an airship pilot and flew non-rigids before being appointed as Captain of HM Airship No. 9, the first British rigid airship to fly. After the war he commanded R34 on its double crossing of the North Atlantic which took place July 2–13, 1919. The east to west leg was flown on July 2–6, 1919, against the prevailing westerly winds and took 108 hours. On July 10–13, 1919, the west to east leg was flown in 75 hours. R34’s average groundspeed west bound was less than that of the fastest contemporary ocean liner over the same track.

  In the early days of aviation in Norway it was common for military pilots to do some civilian flying from time to time and Riiser-Larsen was no exception. He was probably the most experienced aviator in Norway at the time of his appointment by Amundsen. Riiser-Larsen was tall (6’4”), strongly built, and aged 35 in 1925. His combination of physical strength, endurance, and piloting skills saved his life and those of his companions during the 1925 expedition. He had visited the aircraft factory at Marina di Pisa to liaise with the manufacturers and inspect the Wal flying boats during their construction. He had to return home when Amundsen went bankrupt, but returned to the factory when Ellsworth’s money became available. He played a crucial role in organizing the expedition by liaising with Amundsen, SCMP (Societa di Costruzioni Meccaniche di Pisa; the aircraft manufacturers) at Marina di Pisa in Italy, and the Norwegian Luftseiladsforeningen, which was in overall charge of the expedition. As well as supervising the construction of the specially modified Wals, he had to select the flight and navigatio
nal instruments which were to be installed in the flying boats. Amundsen wrote this about Riiser-Larsen:

  “Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen had already taken part in the spring attempt to get the expedition going, so he was quite familiar with everything. It was therefore both with gladness and with trust that I was able to telegraph to him the $85,000 – James W, Ellsworth’s [Lincoln Ellsworth’s father] gift – asking him to order the two seaplanes. From this moment Riiser-Larsen got permission for leave and was able to give himself up entirely to the expedition. As a flying man he is so well known by every person in the land that it is superfluous and stupid to mention more. But he has dozens of other notable qualities which I need not enumerate and which made him specially qualified to fill the post he has. With such a second in command a difficult trip becomes for the leader a pleasant and light effort.”

  The other pilot was Leif Ragnar Dietrichson, who had attended the Naval Academy in 1908–11 before going to sea as a mate with the Bergens Steamship Company and serving in the Navy from 1914 onwards. He transferred to the Royal Norwegian Naval Air Service when it was established in 1915. He learnt to fly in 1916, and took further instruction in Great Britain in 1918, being appointed Chief of the flying boat base at Kristiansand in that year. He continued in that position, surviving a crash into Portør harbour in 1919. Amundsen wrote this about him: