Jetrader - Spring 2014 - 33

Since the flying-boat aircraft could glide across
the ice with little friction, as compared to taking
off from water, they would be able to take off
with an extra ton of fuel. The Dorniers were
pushed out onto the ice and away they went,
heavily overloaded but nevertheless climbing.
the North Pole had still not been reached
by an aircraft.

Postscripts
Archival video from the AmundsenEllsworth flight can now be found on
YouTube by searching for "Amudson Polar
Flight (1925)" with Amundsen's name misspelled. The silent video shows the two
aircraft being assembled at Kings Bay, the
takeoff, views from the aircraft as they
flew north, the salvaging of fuel and food
from the abandoned aircraft, and the heroic
efforts to create the runway on the ice for
the takeoff to escape back home. There is
no video of the takeoff-the camera was
left behind to lighten the aircraft-but
at least the film up until that point was
saved. The video also includes newsreels
of Amundsen's Dornier-Wal later arriving
over Oslo with an escort of Norwegian Air
Force planes, and taxiing into Oslo harbor
that was choked with small craft coming
out to greet Amundsen, and a celebratory
parade to the king's palace.
The Maud, Amundsen's ship that left
Oslo in 1918 and headed into the Arctic
north of Siberia, was an unlucky disappointment. After dropping Amundsen and
his JL-6 aircraft at Wainwright in 1922,
it continued north to the ice again with
the Curtiss Oriole aboard and was frozen
in near Wrangel Island. Once again, the
Maud failed to drift towards the North
Pole, so it went back to Nome in 1924.
In 1925, it was sold to the Hudson Bay
Company to satisfy Amundsen's creditors.
Renamed the Baymaud, she served as a
supply vessel for the company's outposts
in the western Canadian Arctic. She was
frozen in the ice at the Inuit settlement
of Cambridge Bay in 1926 and sank in the
shallows there in 1930. It now lies without
any superstructure and its decks awash just
offshore from the former Hudson Bay store.
It can be seen on Google Earth at 69°7.145'
N, 105°1.244' W. In 2011, the wreck was

bought by a Norwegian enterprise that
plans to raise the hulk and transport it
by barge back to Norway. If the salvage is
successful, the Maud/Baymaud will have
passed through both the Northeast Passage
above Siberia and the Northwest Passage
through the Canadian Arctic.
The Curtiss Oriole that went onward
north from Wainwright aboard the Maud
made only two reconnaissance flights
before being wrecked.
Amundsen's Dornier-Wal aircraft, number N25, that failed to reach the North Pole
but later returned to Oslo, was one of about
300 Wals manufactured between 1922 and
1937. After passing through several subsequent owners (one of whom failed in
an attempt to fly it across the Atlantic to

675607_Rockwell.indd 1

To Dig Deeper
The Arctic Grail, the Quest for the
Northwest Passage and the North Pole,
1818-1909, by Pierre Burton, Viking
Penguin, 1988.
Oceans, Poles and Airmen, the First Flights
over Wide Waters and Desolate Ice, by
Richard Montgue, Random House, 1971.
The Last Viking, the Life of Roald
Amundsen, Biography by Stephen
R. Bown, Da Capo Press, 2012.

New York and another who succeeded), N25
was put on display in the Deutsch Museum
in Munich in 1932. It was destroyed in a
bombing raid there during World War II.
A hand-made, non-flying replica of N25
was constructed in 2012, and is now on display at the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen
in Germany.
Next, in Part 2 of this story, Amundsen
and Ellsworth reappear, Americans and
Italians arrive at Kings Bay, and the North
Pole is successfully reached by air, not
once but twice (or maybe not) within
one week.

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1/16/14 4:45
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