ROALD AMUNDSEN

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1932, Page 4

ROALD AMUNDSEN

GAVE LIFE TO AID HIS ENEMY. 1928 ARCTIC FATALITY ECHO. The story of the wreck of the airship Italia on its Arctic flight in 1928 will be remembered as a history of actions ranging all the way from petty jealousy to the greatest heroism. The wreck itselt, the events before it, amt the events after it were ready the story of the clash of two great personalities.

Captain Roald Amundsen, greatest of all Polar explorers, lias emerged as ahero. His friend, Umberto Nobile, scientist and aviator, after being loaded with honours, lias been stripped of his distinctions and discredited in the eyes of the world and his fellow countrymen.

Two years before the Italian disaster Amundsen and Nobile had been tile closest of friends. Working together, they made possible the successful flight of the airship Norge over the Pole from Spitzbergen. Nobile brought to the combination his aeronautical knowledge—he, designed and built the Norge —and Amundsen lent his unrivalled knowledge of the Arctic, amassed

through years of work in Polar regions. The friendship ended in both the explorers making violent attacks upon one another, and for a time the newspapers of the world gave prominence to the allegations and recriminations of the Italian and the Norwegian.

Matters stood thus when the Italia made its final flight, and Nobile was reported missing. Amundsen was among the first to dash to the assistance of his enemy. He left Tromsoe in a seaplane on June 18, 1928, and has not been heard of since,

In October of that year an aeroplane petrol tank was found in the sea near Trondhjem, with undecipherable pencilled writing on it, and hope was immediately raised that the great Norwegian wa s not dead. It was then recalled that Amundseu had previously returned from the Arctic two years after ho had been given lip for lost. It was liis contention always that any man with sufficient experience of Polar conditions could manage to live almost indefinitely in those regions. Amundsen emerged a s a hero, acclaimed .by all the world, but Nobiie returned to Italy to face a commission of liis countrymen, who- displayed great bitterness towards him. The commission found that the wreck was due to Nobile’s faults in handling both tne ship and the crew; that his iesi;ue could only be explained but not justified by the physical and moral depression in which he was at he time. His countrymen welcomed the survivors, but loudly blamed Nobile lor having wantonly sacrificed the lives ot the seven who perished. He was forced to resign liis rank and commission, and was forbidden to publish in Italy a book in his own defence.

The Italia’s flight will be remembered !n future not so much as a history of heroism, as a collection of sinister allegations concerning the behaviour of the Italian leader and some others of his party. Above all, it will be remembered a.s a clash between two groat men.