AMUNDSEN, ROALD (1872-1928), Norwegian explorer, was born July 16 1872, in Borge, a country district near Sarps borg in south-eastern Norway. Educated at Christiania (now Oslo) he took his B.A. degree in 18go and began to study medi cine, but gave it up and went to sea in 1894. During the follow ing nine years, Amundsen, with the tenacity of purpose which was one of his chief characteristics, prepared himself for his future career as an explorer, and in 1903-06 he led an expedition consisting of himself and six companions through the North-west Passage, on board the "Gjoa," a little sloop of 47 tons, and suc ceeded in fixing the position of the magnetic North Poke.
His next expedition, on board the "Fram," originally intended as a North Polar expedition, by a dramatic surprise, became a South Polar expedition (1910-12 ), and was the first actually to reach the South Pole.
After his return in 1913 he resumed his preparations for a North Polar expedition but was stopped by the outbreak of the World War. He remained inactive until 1918 when he left Norway on board the "Maud," a new vessel, with the aim of drifting from the North Siberian Islands across the Pole. Baffled in this undertaking owing to the fact that the Polar stream did not prove to be constant, he decided to force the Polar basin in an aeroplane.
On his fourth attempt he succeeded, using the semi-rigid dirigible "Norge," built in Italy. Starting with the American Ellsworth, from Spitsbergen, May II 1926, he flew to the Pole, which he circled twice, thence across the unexplored Arctic basin to Point Barrow, Alaska, and finally landed, May 14, at Teller on Bering Sea. The total distance traversed was 2,700 m., the time occupied in the flight being only 71 hours (see ARCTIC REGIONS) . When General Nobile's airship, "Italia," returning from the North Pole was wrecked on May 24, 1928, Amundsen chivalrously volunteered to go in search of him. He left Bergen for Spitsbergen in an aero plane on June 17, and was not heard of again. See R. Amundsen, My Life as an Explorer (1927); B. Partridge, Amundsen (1929).