THE AMUNDSEN - ELLESWORTH NORTH POLAR FLIGHT, 1925

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THE AMUNDSEN - ELLESWORTH NORTH POLAR FLIGHT, 1925
Two albums containing a total of 129 gelatin silver prints, each approx. 3½ x 5¼ in. or the reverse, one inscribed in ink.My dear Mr. Ellsworth! Please accept this photograph - book as a small acknowledgement for all genialness you have shown us. Yours very truly Odd Arnesen. Ingo Möllerstad on front free page, string bound leather covers, one titled Til Minde om. Amundsen - Ellsworth Polflyvning 1925 [In memory of the Amundsen - Ellsworth's Polar flight 1925] on upper cover, oblong 4to. (2)

Lot Essay

With the developement of aviation in the early 20th century, Roald Amundsen had declared in a lecture in 1914 that 'the future of Arctic exploration lay inevitably with the aeroplane'. Over the next ten years Amundsen made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the Poles in various aeroplanes. On the verge of financial ruin as a result of these attempts, he managed to obtain further funds from Lincoln Ellsworth, an accomplished sportsman and son of a millionaire, and in May 1925, set of once again to conquer the North Pole by aeroplane.

Lieutenant Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was in charge of fitting out the two Dornier-Wals seaplanes. Amundsen and his men took off from Spitsbergen on May 21, 1925, planning to explore the area between Spitsbergen and the Pole for the first time, leave one of the Seaplanes at Pole and fly on to Alaska. They ran short of fuel and had to land at sea after eight hours, 136 nautical miles short of the Pole. After compacting snow and ice from a runway and leaving most of their equipment, their plane took off on June 15. Within sight of Spitsbergen the flight was aborted at sea near North Cape and the crew was rescued by a sailing ship.

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