Amundsen continued in his own relentless quest for experience, so next he volunteered to participate without pay, on a Belgian expedition to the Antarctic, which set sail in 1897. The Belgians at the time were not exactly what you would call a seafaring people, but in the colonial scramble for Africa they had done quite well to carve out a chunk of the Congo and with the sudden interest in Antarctica, they felt it was only fair that the Belgian flag should number among those laying claim to the frozen southern continent.
So it was that an expedition quickly materialised – an eclectic, poorly thought out hodge-podge of scholars and sailors, drawn from a number of European countries. It might have seemed a romantic multi-national venture at the time, but few of the party had any arctic experience – save for a couple of Norwegian Sailors and the ships surgeon – American doctor, Frederick Cook.
Now Dr Cook was a font of knowledge on the arctic, having accompanied Mathew Peary on his unsuccessful attempt at crossing Greenland in eighteen ninety two. But despite their failure, the two Americans later spent a great deal of time with the Inuit, learning about their clothing, transportation and most importantly, diet. You see, the good doctor was a thinker well ahead of his time. Vitamins, as I’ve mentioned, had yet to be discovered, but he was quick to realise that fresh meat – in particular offal (or internal organs) seemed to stave off the onset of scurvy in the eskimo- who were generally in excellent health, in an environment that European explorers were becoming sick in, and advocated the consumption of seal meat to supplement the diet of explorers. Amundsen knew a master when he saw one, and stuck to him like glue the two becoming close friends.
The little Belgian boat eventually wound its way south past Cape Horn and entered dangerous Antarctic waters. The dodgy charts they possessed failed to prevent a near wreckage on a reef, and a sailor had been knocked overboard and lost in a storm. Despite this ominous start, miraculously they got through, and inched their way south into uncharted waters, discovering a passage that would eventually be named after the Captain – De Gerlache Sound. The team of resident scientists eagerly swarmed over islands and rock formations, dragging and man-hauling sleds over the icy crevasses and slippery slopes, collecting samples, all the time lumping heavy equipment ill-suited to the terrain, as they began surveying the newly discovered coastline. Amundsen saw first-hand the exhaustion and inefficiency of this method of transport, and was appalled at the waste of time and resources.
#bélgica #belgica #expedition #amundsen #degerlache #antarctica #antarctique #frederickcook #robertpeary #exploration

ERRATUM:
****In the video i mention that the Polar Sun rose in June. It was actually in September. Apologies for the blunder

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