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Speaker 1: Pushkin. The headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society is a

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Speaker 1: grand building in the heart of Victorian London, amidst Palaces

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Speaker 1: in the Royal Albert Hall. The society was founded in

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty and became an icon of Britain's scientific and

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Speaker 1: imperial ambitions. And to Roald Amundson, the invitation to visit

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Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society for a lecture and banquet late

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, well, it must have felt like an

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Speaker 1: invitation from souron to come and have a picnic in Mordal.

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Speaker 1: This cautionary tale is part two of a three part story.

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Speaker 1: If you've listened to part one, you'll know that the

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Speaker 1: Norwegian Amundson was a brilliant adventurer. He'd astonished the world

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Speaker 1: by announcing that there'd be a slight detour in his

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Speaker 1: plans to explore the Arctic. He would first dash to

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Speaker 1: the Antarctic with one simple aim, being the first man

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Speaker 1: to set foot on the South Pole. His British rival,

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Speaker 1: Captain Robert Falcon Scott, had also headed south with the

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Speaker 1: same mission, but with other missions too. Scott was going

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Speaker 1: to make maps in Antarctica and do serious science with

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Speaker 1: funding from the Royal Geographical Society. He was testing out

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Speaker 1: an innovation, a new kind of motorized snow sledge. He

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Speaker 1: would plant the British flag symbolically at the south Pole,

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Speaker 1: but not only that, he would show off British grit

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Speaker 1: and courage by getting there the hard way on foot.

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Speaker 1: Amunson had no such distractions. He wasn't going to do

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Speaker 1: science or pioneer technology. Although his navigation was precise, he

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Speaker 1: had no interest in making maps. That was a chore

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Speaker 1: for those who would come, Nor did he want to

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Speaker 1: prove a point about endurance. Amunson knew that a place

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Speaker 1: in the history books awaited the first man to the poll,

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Speaker 1: and he knew the most sensible way of getting there

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Speaker 1: on sledges pulled by teams of dogs. In this unexpected race,

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Speaker 1: Amunson had comprehensively defeated Captain Scott and his patrons at

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Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society. He returned triumphant in March nineteen twelve,

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Speaker 1: leaving behind him an Antarctica cut off by the southern winter.

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Speaker 1: Nobody even knew if Scott or any of his companions

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Speaker 1: were alive or dead. When the Society invited Amunson to

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Speaker 1: tell his story he could hardly refuse. He had wounded

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Speaker 1: his host's pride, he knew, but their respect his achievement,

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Speaker 1: wouldn't they After the lecture, the Banquet Societies President, Lord

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Speaker 1: Curzin stood to give the after dinner speech. I almost

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Speaker 1: wish that in our tribute of admiration we could include

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Speaker 1: those wonderful, good tempered, fascinating dogs, the true friends of man,

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Speaker 1: without who Captain Amundson would never have got to the pole.

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Speaker 1: With that, Lord Curzin raised his glass and turned to

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Speaker 1: look down on Amundson. I therefore propose three cheers for

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Speaker 1: the dogs. Amundson felt I had been slapped across the face.

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Speaker 1: His blood began to boil. I'm Tim Harford, and you're

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Speaker 1: listening to cautionary tales. A year earlier, life had seemed

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Speaker 1: simpler out there on the ice. Amonson's team certainly faced challenges,

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Speaker 1: but each challenge was overcome with something closer to exhilaration

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Speaker 1: than endurance. For example, the Cruel Range of Mountains stood

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Speaker 1: in his way, a brutal obstacle for both Amonson and Scott.

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Speaker 1: Scott slogged grimly up, demonstrating British stubbornness that as Amonson

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Speaker 1: and his team explored the snow clad slopes. He almost

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Speaker 1: seemed to be on a skiing holiday. I made all

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Speaker 1: the preparations for an elegant Telemark turn. A Telemark turn

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Speaker 1: allows a skier to turn sharply. The technique was invented

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Speaker 1: in the Norwegian town of Telemark. But I went head

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Speaker 1: over heels brilliantly. I was on my feet again with

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Speaker 1: surprising speed, and shuffled over to Biala. Bearland was a

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Speaker 1: former Norwegian cross country skiing champion, one of the best

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Speaker 1: skiers in the world. He was from Telemark. I am

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Speaker 1: not sure if he saw me tumble. However, I collected

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Speaker 1: myself after the unfortunate exhibition, and he undoubtedly believed that

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Speaker 1: I managed the Telemark At any rate. He was tactful

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Speaker 1: enough to give that impression. You see what I mean fun.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing like this in the diaries of the British

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Speaker 1: Navy Captain Scott and his companions. There's courage and adversity,

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Speaker 1: some gallows, humor, soulful conversations late at night in the tent,

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Speaker 1: But goofing around on fresh powder, horrid, overcast, gloomy. Slowly

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Speaker 1: our spirits became very low. That's Scott expressing how a

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Speaker 1: journey to the South Pole is supposed to feel. Hamundson

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Speaker 1: was having none of it, even when facing the most

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Speaker 1: treacherous terrain and the most perilous dangerous The wildness of

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Speaker 1: the landscape from above is indescribable. Pit after pit, crevasse

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Speaker 1: after crevass, and huge ice blocks scattered helter skelter. It

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Speaker 1: was not without satisfaction that we surveyed the scene. Our

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Speaker 1: tent in the middle of this chaos gave us a

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Speaker 1: feeling of strength and power. This was supposed to be

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Speaker 1: the worst journey in the world, but Amunson, who was

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Speaker 1: loving it. Last episode, I framed the race between Amunson

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Speaker 1: and Scott as a battle between David and Goliath. Scott,

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Speaker 1: like Goliath, was weighed down, sluggish, and unable to focus,

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Speaker 1: But what about David. David was brave and skillful, but

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Speaker 1: neither of those qualities really account for David's victory. David

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Speaker 1: won because he decided he didn't want to play by

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Speaker 1: Goliath's rules. Goliath expected an epic duel of champions, in fact,

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Speaker 1: everybody expected that on both sides, but David decided instead

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Speaker 1: to do it the easy way by using a sling

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Speaker 1: slings are highly effective weapons, and with Goliath's open faced helmet,

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Speaker 1: he had no protection against a bone crushing slingshot right

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Speaker 1: between the eyes. When David picked up some smooth pebbles

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Speaker 1: to slip into his bag, his fellow Israelites would have understood, Oh,

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Speaker 1: David's playing by his own rules, and he's probably going

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Speaker 1: to win. One of the most famous moments in cinema

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Speaker 1: is in Raiders of the Lost Art. In front of

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Speaker 1: a crowd of onlookers, our hero Indiana Jones faces off

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Speaker 1: against the terrifying swordsman with an enormous scimitar. With a

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Speaker 1: look of irritation, he pulls out a pistol and shoots

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Speaker 1: the guy, and before his foe has even hit the floor,

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Speaker 1: Indy has turned his back to get on with his

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Speaker 1: next challenge. The scene caused a sensation because we all

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Speaker 1: know that's not how the story is supposed to go.

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Speaker 1: They're supposed to be an epic battle. In fact, an

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Speaker 1: epic battle was in the original script, but with the

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Speaker 1: lead actor Harrison Ford, feeling unwell and the filming running

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Speaker 1: behind schedule, they came up with a short cut. That

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Speaker 1: unforgettable scene is the best depiction we have of what

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Speaker 1: the battle between David and Goliath might actually have seemed like.

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Speaker 1: Indy had a gun, David had a sling. Both were

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Speaker 1: powerful weapons that could drop a heavily armed opponent from

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Speaker 1: a safe distance. The question wasn't whether they would work.

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Speaker 1: The question was whether our supposed hero would be so

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Speaker 1: outrageous as to use a missile weapon in what was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be hand to hand combat. Amunson, like David,

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Speaker 1: and like Indiana Jones, didn't want to play the game

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Speaker 1: Goliath's way. He brought a metaphorical sling, and he knew

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Speaker 1: exactly how to use it, and if some people thought

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Speaker 1: it was unfair, that was their problem. So yes, Amuson

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Speaker 1: was very good at what he did, just like David.

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Speaker 1: But skill wasn't his only advantage. His real edge was

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Speaker 1: his ruthlessness. He wasn't going to play the game by

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Speaker 1: British rules, and if the British didn't like that, he

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Speaker 1: didn't care. At least he thought he didn't care. In

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Speaker 1: his lecture to the Royal Geographical Society, Amunson described how

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Speaker 1: he'd won his David and Goliath battle with Captain Scott's

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Speaker 1: far bigger, better funded expedition. It was simple. Really, It'd

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Speaker 1: taken almost one hundred dogs who were perfectly adapted to

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Speaker 1: the cold conditions, along with a small team of highly

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Speaker 1: skilled skiers. They prepared supply depots every ten miles, marking

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Speaker 1: them with lines of flags planted every half mile. The

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Speaker 1: small flags were just as they had been left, standing

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Speaker 1: out beautifully against the white background. Amunson stored lots of supplies,

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Speaker 1: as it later turned out, ten times more per man

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Speaker 1: than Scott. He set aside plenty of spares of equipment

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Speaker 1: and instruments. His men expended less physical energy than Scott's team,

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Speaker 1: which meant that they sweated less, and you really don't

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Speaker 1: want to sweat in the Antarctic because it turns to

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Speaker 1: ice in your clothes. Amunson covered more ground per day

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Speaker 1: than Scott in much less time, leaving plenty of leeway

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Speaker 1: to rest and recover. With his dog fulled sledges, Amunson

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Speaker 1: could travel in conditions that pinned Scott down in his tent.

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Speaker 1: For example, during one storm in early December, Scott wrote

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Speaker 1: in his diary, one cannot see the next tent, let

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Speaker 1: alone the land. I doubt if any party could travel

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Speaker 1: in such weather. Certainly no one could travel against it,

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Speaker 1: couldn't they? At that very moment Amuson was moving through

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Speaker 1: the same blizzard. It has been an unpleasant day, but

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Speaker 1: we have advanced thirteen miles closer to our goal. Of course,

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Speaker 1: nobody in the audience at the Royal Geographical Society knew

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Speaker 1: yet how unremittingly grim it had all been for Scott.

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Speaker 1: His diaries would be discovered only later. For now they

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Speaker 1: were just hearing how straightforward Amuson had found it. Scott's wife,

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Speaker 1: Kathleen or was she his widow, sat discreetly up in

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Speaker 1: the balcony. Ammonson's speech was plucky and modest, but dull

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Speaker 1: and of a dullness. And that's the problem with winning.

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Speaker 1: Like David or Indiana Jones, epic battles make for great stories,

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Speaker 1: quick and easy victories, not so much. Amunson had thought

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Speaker 1: that merely being first to the poll would bring him

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Speaker 1: the glory he craved. He hadn't understood that there was

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Speaker 1: a deeper, more important objective to come back with an

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Speaker 1: interesting and admirable tale to tell. After the break, Goliath's

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Speaker 1: friends complained that David has cheated. When Captain Scott's two

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Speaker 1: year old son, Peter Markham Scott heard about Amunson's victory

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Speaker 1: over his father, Peter asked his mother Kathleen, mummy, is

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Speaker 1: Amunson a good man? The British didn't think so they

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Speaker 1: called him a cheat, a professional, certainly, not a gentleman,

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Speaker 1: or a scientist or a hero. Some British objections were

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Speaker 1: just silly. They fulminated that Amunson was an impostor, as

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Speaker 1: though he was trespassing or jumping the line, or both.

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Speaker 1: But the British didn't own Antarctica. There was no line

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Speaker 1: to jump. There were stronger grounds for complaining about Amunson's deception.

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Speaker 1: He had told the world he was sailing north, but

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Speaker 1: he had long been intending to sail south. He revealed

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Speaker 1: his true plans at the last possible moment, after both

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Speaker 1: expeditions had already set sail. Scott was almost in Antarctica

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Speaker 1: when he received a notoriously brief telegram, I'm going south, Amunson.

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Speaker 1: That was crafty, but was it shameful? The last minute

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Speaker 1: revelation was viewed with some bitterness by the British. Here's

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Speaker 1: Scott's companion, absolutely, Cherry Garrard. Nothing makes a more unpleasant

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Speaker 1: impression than a faint and here's the diary of Birdie Bowers.

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Speaker 1: As he trudged miserably towards the South Pole alongside Captain Scott.

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Speaker 1: Amonson has probably reached the pole by now. I hope

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Speaker 1: he has not, as I regard him as a sneaking,

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Speaker 1: backhanded ruffian. But another of Scott's team, Captain Oates, just shrugged.

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Speaker 1: In a letter to a friend, he wrote, Bloody Norski

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Speaker 1: is coming down south as a bit of a shock.

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Speaker 1: They say Amonson has been underhand in the way he's

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Speaker 1: gone about it, but personally, I don't see it as underhand.

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Speaker 1: To keep your mouth shut as so often Oates was

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Speaker 1: a realist. Amuson was under no obligation to explain his

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Speaker 1: plans in public, but I do think some moments must

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Speaker 1: have troubled Amunson's conscience. He accepted a hundred pounds from

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Speaker 1: the Royal Geographical Society to help fund his expedition, more

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Speaker 1: than ten thousand dollars in today's terms. But they gave

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Speaker 1: him that funding because they believed he was heading to

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Speaker 1: the Arctic, rather than racing their own man, Scott to

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Speaker 1: the South Pole. Captain Oates had said of Amuson, I

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Speaker 1: don't see it as underhand to keep your mouth shut.

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Speaker 1: But Amuson wasn't keeping his mouth shut. He poured a

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Speaker 1: stream of plausible lies into the ears of journalists, explaining

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Speaker 1: all the details of his plans to explore the North

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Speaker 1: Polar basin. He lied to others too, the Norwegian Parliament,

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Speaker 1: the Norwegian King, and his own mentor, Fritjof Nansen, whose

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Speaker 1: ship he was borrowing. He was even lying to his

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Speaker 1: own crew. Amon's lives were fueled by desperation. He had

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Speaker 1: already secured some funding to go north. When two American explorers,

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Speaker 1: Frederick Cook and Robert Peery, both claimed to have reached

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Speaker 1: the North Pole. That put Amunson in a pinch. Going

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Speaker 1: north felt pointless, and his backers had lost enthusiasm. Now

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Speaker 1: that race seemed to be over. But few backers would

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Speaker 1: give him money to go south either, not with the

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Speaker 1: world's eyes on the formidable British expedition of Captain Scott,

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Speaker 1: he decided that he would borrow heavily and head south

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Speaker 1: in secret, using money already pledged for a northern expedition.

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Speaker 1: If he succeeded in his South Pole coup, all would

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Speaker 1: be forgiven only when Amunson was out of reach of

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Speaker 1: his creditors. Did he tell his own crew that they

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Speaker 1: were heading to the South Pole, as I said, ruthless.

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Speaker 1: And there was one deception that occurred three months before

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Speaker 1: his secret departure to Antarctica. In March nineteen ten, Amunson

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Speaker 1: was at home in Christiana modern day Oslo. He received

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Speaker 1: a call from the concierge of a hotel downtown. Captain

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Speaker 1: Robert Falcon Scott was in Christiana too. He had visited

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Speaker 1: Norway to supervise trials of his motorized sledges, and he

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Speaker 1: had purchased fifty pairs of skis and even hired a

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Speaker 1: Norwegian ski instructor. Now he wanted to arrange to meet Amunson.

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Speaker 1: Amunson cringed, I see this wasn't a surprise. Scott had

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Speaker 1: written to suggest a meeting so they could coordinate their

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Speaker 1: scientific work, Amunson in the north and Scott in the south. Scott,

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Speaker 1: of course, never suspected for a moment that Amunson was

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Speaker 1: planning to race him to the South Pole. Please tell

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Speaker 1: Captain Scott that Amundson is unfortunately unavailable. Amundson's legendary courage

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Speaker 1: failed him. He couldn't look Scott in the eye and

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Speaker 1: tell him the truth. And he couldn't lie to his

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Speaker 1: face either, and so he hid. For decades. British children

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Speaker 1: were taught that Amunson had cheated. That's not true. Polar

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Speaker 1: exploration has had its share of cheats, but Amunson wasn't

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Speaker 1: one of them. Amunson's journey to the poll was brave

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Speaker 1: and brilliant, yet he left some casualties behind him, such

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Speaker 1: as truth, trust, and eighty nine faithful dogs. Amunson regarded

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Speaker 1: those dogs as tools to be cherished, to be treated well,

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Speaker 1: but to be discarded without sentiment when they had outlived

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Speaker 1: their usefulness. Amonson bought a hundred dogs for his expedition,

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Speaker 1: and most of them arrived safely at his base camp.

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Speaker 1: He set out for the pole with fifty two, but

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Speaker 1: at a single camp about two thirds of the way

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Speaker 1: to the pole, Amonson and his men shot and skinned

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Speaker 1: twenty seven dogs to provide a store of food for

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Speaker 1: those who remained. Shot. Now followed shot. It sounded gruesome

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Speaker 1: over the waists. A faithful servant lost his life with

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Speaker 1: each shot. There was something oppressive, miserable in the air.

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Speaker 1: We called the place the butcher's shop. But he didn't hesitate,

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Speaker 1: and by the time he left Antarctica, only eleven dogs

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Speaker 1: had survived. Still to win. As the long shot outsider,

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Speaker 1: you can't afford to be squeamish. Amonson's ruthless choices paid

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Speaker 1: off handsomely. His final victory when it came seemed effortless.

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Speaker 1: Here he is approaching the pole, heading into the wind

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Speaker 1: at a temperature of nearly minus twenty degrees fahrenheit. A

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Speaker 1: little cool to go against with our sore faces, but

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00:20:28,610 --> 00:20:32,050
Speaker 1: nothing to make a song about. There was no great

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Speaker 1: outpouring of emotion when he reached the pole. It was

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Speaker 1: all very matter of fact. So we arrived and were

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Speaker 1: able to plant our flag at the geographical South Pole. Helga,

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Speaker 1: one of the favorite dogs, had all but collapsed. He

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Speaker 1: had been almost dragged in harness the last few miles

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Speaker 1: to the pole, to die with the honor of a

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Speaker 1: goal achieved. After eating Helga, the other dogs basked in

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Speaker 1: the sun. The men spent four days of the pole,

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Speaker 1: measuring the sun as its span in a circle around

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Speaker 1: their heads, making sure of their position. It was a

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Speaker 1: time to relax. They smoked cigars. Amundson's team rearranged their

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Speaker 1: ever lighter provisions Amuson left a letter for Scott and

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Speaker 1: some spare supplies in case Scott could use them. And

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Speaker 1: then Amundson took a last fateful decision. He pondered leaving

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Speaker 1: Scott some extra fuel, and then decided against it. For

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Speaker 1: some time, I debated with myself whether or not to

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Speaker 1: leave behind two five gallon drums of oil I did

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Speaker 1: not expect to need. In the end, I did not

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Speaker 1: leave the oil. It's hard to blame Amuson for being cautious.

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Speaker 1: The Antarctic is unpredictable. He didn't expect to need the oil,

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Speaker 1: but he might anyway. Scott and his well funded expedition

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Speaker 1: couldn't possibly need one or two extra cans, could he.

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Speaker 1: And then, without realizing quite what a weighty decision he

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Speaker 1: had made, Amuson and his men headed north. It was

286
00:22:20,290 --> 00:22:25,450
Speaker 1: time to go. Two sledges remained and sixteen dogs. Bjaland

287
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Speaker 1: the great Skier no longer drove a sledge. Instead, he

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Speaker 1: was to lead the dogs, chasing him all the way

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Speaker 1: across the plateau towards home. They were in a hurry,

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00:22:36,010 --> 00:22:38,890
Speaker 1: not for lack of food and fuel there more than enough,

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Speaker 1: and not because of the cold, but for fear that

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Speaker 1: Scott might somehow reach the pole, then overtake them on

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Speaker 1: the way home. Amuson couldn't have known quite how far

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Speaker 1: behind Scott was, nor that the Norwegians were traveling twice

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Speaker 1: as fast as the British. They tore across the snow,

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Speaker 1: led by a champion, Rations being increased as they made progress,

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Speaker 1: and Amonson became more confident of his margin of safety.

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Speaker 1: Even better was the descent from the plateau to warmer

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Speaker 1: temperatures and richer air. The small teams soon reached thirty

300
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Speaker 1: miles a day. Their final sprint for home was pure joy,

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Speaker 1: and perhaps one of the last times Roald Amonson was

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00:23:25,330 --> 00:23:44,410
Speaker 1: truly happy. It was a full year before the news

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00:23:44,530 --> 00:23:48,410
Speaker 1: arrived from Antarctica that Robert Falcon, Scott, and the men

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Speaker 1: had led to the South Pole were all dead. Their

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00:23:52,770 --> 00:23:56,290
Speaker 1: bodies had been found, along with Scott's diary, giving a

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00:23:56,410 --> 00:24:00,370
Speaker 1: lyrical account of the struggle and the courage and their

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00:24:00,450 --> 00:24:04,970
Speaker 1: calm acceptance of death. We shall stick it out to

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Speaker 1: the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and

309
00:24:08,650 --> 00:24:12,810
Speaker 1: the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but

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Speaker 1: I do not think I can write more. When Amunson

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00:24:19,370 --> 00:24:23,770
Speaker 1: first heard the news, interrupting a hectic schedule of lectures

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Speaker 1: and celebrity appearances. He was incredulous. I am unwilling to

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Speaker 1: believe the report is true. I was reported to have perished,

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00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:42,210
Speaker 1: so was Shackleton. But soon the weight of it hit him. Horrible, horrible.

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Speaker 1: I would gladly forego any honor or money if thereby

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00:24:46,770 --> 00:24:51,530
Speaker 1: I could have saved Scott his terrible death. Amunson must

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Speaker 1: have remembered the fuel can he had pondered leaving for

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Speaker 1: Scott up a South Pole. But Scott was to haunt

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Speaker 1: Amunson's reputation as well as his conscience. The British had

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Speaker 1: been looking for a hero, and now that found one.

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00:25:08,010 --> 00:25:12,330
Speaker 1: Amunson's can't matter of fact account of his success was

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00:25:12,370 --> 00:25:18,810
Speaker 1: eclipsed by Scott's epic description of his failure. Amunson had

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00:25:18,810 --> 00:25:23,610
Speaker 1: won the race to the pole. Scott, in death, was

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00:25:23,650 --> 00:25:29,210
Speaker 1: winning the race to become a legend. Amuson started to

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00:25:29,210 --> 00:25:33,090
Speaker 1: realize that he had made a serious mistake. He had

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00:25:33,090 --> 00:25:38,410
Speaker 1: made his achievement look too easy. Amuson had led the

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Speaker 1: first team to navigate the Northwest Passage, then the first

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Speaker 1: team to reach the South Pole, but he couldn't settle

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00:25:46,130 --> 00:25:52,170
Speaker 1: for a quiet, comfortable retirement, he had accumulated debts, financial debts,

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Speaker 1: and a debt of obligation to the explorer Fritschoff Nansen,

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Speaker 1: who'd lent him a ship after Amuson promised to use

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Speaker 1: it for scientific work in the Arctic, only to see

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00:26:03,010 --> 00:26:08,370
Speaker 1: Amunson dash for the South Pole. He had also accumulated enemies.

334
00:26:10,090 --> 00:26:14,090
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighteen, six years after returning from the South Pole,

335
00:26:14,570 --> 00:26:17,850
Speaker 1: Amuson brought a new ship and tried to please Nanson

336
00:26:17,890 --> 00:26:22,090
Speaker 1: by navigating the northeast passage between Russia and the North Pole.

337
00:26:23,050 --> 00:26:27,370
Speaker 1: It was a grim seven year voyage in which Amunson

338
00:26:27,490 --> 00:26:31,210
Speaker 1: broke his shoulder, was mauled by a polar there, and

339
00:26:31,370 --> 00:26:34,810
Speaker 1: eventually left the command of the ship to someone else.

340
00:26:35,970 --> 00:26:40,330
Speaker 1: At the end of the expedition, Amunson's creditors seized the ship.

341
00:26:41,370 --> 00:26:47,050
Speaker 1: Amuson by then looked prematurely aged. In one famous photograph,

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00:26:47,170 --> 00:26:50,210
Speaker 1: he looks like a grizzled seventy year old, but it

343
00:26:50,250 --> 00:26:53,650
Speaker 1: was taken in nineteen twenty three, when he was only fifty.

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00:26:54,730 --> 00:27:00,370
Speaker 1: One account described him as distinguished, but somehow a little decayed.

345
00:27:02,290 --> 00:27:06,410
Speaker 1: Amundson's dog sledging skills were already obsolete, but he was

346
00:27:06,530 --> 00:27:11,090
Speaker 1: determined to stay relevant. Having left his crew behind attempting

347
00:27:11,090 --> 00:27:16,610
Speaker 1: the northeast passage, he hatched a new, expensive plan to

348
00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:19,570
Speaker 1: be the first man to fly to the North Pole.

349
00:27:20,690 --> 00:27:25,090
Speaker 1: It did not go well. There were setbacks and embarrassing crashes.

350
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Speaker 1: His debts were mounting still further. He fell out with

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00:27:30,850 --> 00:27:36,650
Speaker 1: his financial manager, his brother Leon. They stopped speaking. He

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00:27:36,730 --> 00:27:41,890
Speaker 1: declared himself bankrupt, despite being advised not to. The Norwegian

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00:27:41,930 --> 00:27:46,530
Speaker 1: press increasingly treated Amunson as a fallen hero. Some said

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Speaker 1: he was a coward, others a madman, and others claimed

355
00:27:50,370 --> 00:27:52,730
Speaker 1: he had no real plan to fly to the North Pole.

356
00:27:53,010 --> 00:27:56,770
Speaker 1: The crashes were deliberate, part of a publicity seeking hoax.

357
00:27:58,210 --> 00:28:01,850
Speaker 1: I have so terribly few friends, he wrote to one

358
00:28:01,890 --> 00:28:05,810
Speaker 1: of the few who remained. He had even less money.

359
00:28:08,090 --> 00:28:11,730
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty, Amerson visited New York to try to

360
00:28:11,850 --> 00:28:16,530
Speaker 1: raise funds for more polar flights. All seemed lost until

361
00:28:16,930 --> 00:28:22,610
Speaker 1: a gentleman named Lincoln Ellsworth appeared at Amuson's hotel. Ellsworth

362
00:28:22,730 --> 00:28:26,570
Speaker 1: was a young adventurer desperate to attach himself to Amunson's

363
00:28:26,610 --> 00:28:30,530
Speaker 1: fame and experience. But Ellsworth was also the heir to

364
00:28:30,570 --> 00:28:34,570
Speaker 1: a fortune that meant he could solve Amunson's all too

365
00:28:34,690 --> 00:28:38,850
Speaker 1: apparent money problems. In his room at the Waldorf, I

366
00:28:39,050 --> 00:28:42,410
Speaker 1: frequently heard a mysterious rustling of paper on the floor.

367
00:28:42,930 --> 00:28:48,370
Speaker 1: Ellsworth recalled another court summons for Amunson being sleared under

368
00:28:48,410 --> 00:28:54,570
Speaker 1: the door. Ellsworth put up the money to keep amuson flying. Together,

369
00:28:54,890 --> 00:28:58,250
Speaker 1: they flew towards the North Pole and had to make

370
00:28:58,250 --> 00:29:01,610
Speaker 1: an emergency landing on the ice cap. The rest of

371
00:29:01,610 --> 00:29:05,050
Speaker 1: the world gave them up for dead, but they were

372
00:29:05,130 --> 00:29:09,450
Speaker 1: desperately hacking ice and shoveling snow near a runway off

373
00:29:09,450 --> 00:29:15,490
Speaker 1: against Three weeks later and flew back to civilization Amunson,

374
00:29:15,650 --> 00:29:19,450
Speaker 1: who was back from the dead. It was a sensational

375
00:29:19,530 --> 00:29:28,210
Speaker 1: return to the spotlight. The year afterwards, Amunson and Ellsworth

376
00:29:28,570 --> 00:29:32,050
Speaker 1: flew to the North Pole in an airship with the

377
00:29:32,090 --> 00:29:37,890
Speaker 1: Italian aviator Umberto Nobile. Amunson had been to the North Pole,

378
00:29:38,610 --> 00:29:42,170
Speaker 1: the South Pole, through the Northwest Passage, and through the

379
00:29:42,250 --> 00:29:50,450
Speaker 1: Northeast passage. Surely his legacy was assured, and yet Amunson

380
00:29:50,730 --> 00:29:56,170
Speaker 1: still needed money, and he still felt bitter. Having fallen

381
00:29:56,210 --> 00:29:59,010
Speaker 1: out with his brother Leon, he also fell out with

382
00:29:59,210 --> 00:30:04,170
Speaker 1: fellow adventurer Umberto Nobile. He wrote a memoir my life

383
00:30:04,370 --> 00:30:08,330
Speaker 1: as an explorer, which tried to settle old scores and

384
00:30:08,570 --> 00:30:14,530
Speaker 1: simply reopened old wounds. His young friend Lincoln Ellsworth defended him.

385
00:30:14,570 --> 00:30:17,650
Speaker 1: He was like a child whose confidence has been betrayed

386
00:30:17,730 --> 00:30:22,250
Speaker 1: so often that it finally trusts nobody. So he's encased

387
00:30:22,330 --> 00:30:26,610
Speaker 1: himself in a shell of ice. But added Ellsworth, if

388
00:30:26,650 --> 00:30:32,570
Speaker 1: you knew him well, nobody was warmer hearted. Maybe, but

389
00:30:32,610 --> 00:30:37,410
Speaker 1: there was nothing warmhearted about the sour memoir. Many of

390
00:30:37,490 --> 00:30:42,330
Speaker 1: Amunson's rivals and former friends found themselves injured by his words.

391
00:30:45,370 --> 00:30:50,170
Speaker 1: At the Royal Geographical Society, there was outrench when Amunson

392
00:30:50,290 --> 00:30:55,290
Speaker 1: recounted the story about the society's president, Lord Curzon, proposing

393
00:30:55,370 --> 00:31:00,530
Speaker 1: three cheers for the dogs. It never happened, said the Society.

394
00:31:00,970 --> 00:31:06,250
Speaker 1: Captain Amundson must be mistaken, and he should apologize. Captain

395
00:31:06,290 --> 00:31:11,490
Speaker 1: Amunson's secretary responded that Amunson would never forget the gross insult,

396
00:31:12,010 --> 00:31:16,690
Speaker 1: and he would neither withdraw his remarks nor apologize for them.

397
00:31:17,490 --> 00:31:20,930
Speaker 1: Amuson caused such a storm that the Norwegians had to

398
00:31:21,010 --> 00:31:25,930
Speaker 1: distance themselves from him. Good relations between Norway and Britain

399
00:31:26,130 --> 00:31:30,570
Speaker 1: couldn't be jeopardized. His old mentor Nansen was now a

400
00:31:30,650 --> 00:31:35,010
Speaker 1: statesman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But Nansen

401
00:31:35,130 --> 00:31:38,770
Speaker 1: took the step of writing to the Royal Geographical Society

402
00:31:38,810 --> 00:31:45,650
Speaker 1: to explain that Amunson was not of sound mind. It's

403
00:31:45,690 --> 00:31:51,370
Speaker 1: a bitter irony. Robert Falcon Scott, defeated and dead, was

404
00:31:51,490 --> 00:31:56,770
Speaker 1: viewed as one of Britain's greatest heroes. Rolled Amunson, victorious

405
00:31:56,810 --> 00:32:00,170
Speaker 1: and very much alive, was now being accused by the

406
00:32:00,210 --> 00:32:05,970
Speaker 1: Norwegian establishment of having lost his mind. But perhaps we

407
00:32:06,010 --> 00:32:10,850
Speaker 1: shouldn't be surprised. Amunson's skill and ruthlessness had brought him

408
00:32:10,930 --> 00:32:17,530
Speaker 1: brilliant success, but that same ruthlessness had helped to isolate him.

409
00:32:17,650 --> 00:32:20,970
Speaker 1: It was at this moment in his life, ostracized and

410
00:32:21,050 --> 00:32:25,570
Speaker 1: financially distressed, that Amunson received word that an airship had

411
00:32:25,650 --> 00:32:29,970
Speaker 1: crashed over the Arctic ice, stranding his former friend and

412
00:32:30,130 --> 00:32:35,450
Speaker 1: colleague Umberto Nobiley, who was radioing for help. Amunson was

413
00:32:35,490 --> 00:32:37,730
Speaker 1: asked by a journalist whether he would assist in the

414
00:32:37,810 --> 00:32:42,490
Speaker 1: airborne search for Nobiley. At once he declared he really

415
00:32:42,530 --> 00:32:46,330
Speaker 1: had no business flying out again over the Arctic. There

416
00:32:46,330 --> 00:32:50,090
Speaker 1: were at least twenty other teams trying to find nobiley

417
00:32:50,610 --> 00:32:54,490
Speaker 1: and Amunson was getting old. He didn't have a robust

418
00:32:54,570 --> 00:32:58,370
Speaker 1: enough plane, but perhaps it was the last chance to

419
00:32:58,450 --> 00:33:03,090
Speaker 1: remind people that he wasn't a madman but a hero,

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Speaker 1: or the last chance to win what might be the

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Speaker 1: final polar race. Before he left, he told a journalist, AH,

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Speaker 1: if you only knew how splendid it is up there

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Speaker 1: in the north, That's where I want to die. And

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Speaker 1: I wish only the death would come to me chivalrously,

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Speaker 1: that it will find me during the execution of some

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00:33:25,050 --> 00:33:30,450
Speaker 1: great deed, quickly and without suffering. And so on Monday

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00:33:30,570 --> 00:33:34,770
Speaker 1: June eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight, Amunson and his crew took

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Speaker 1: off in a seaplane from the northern reaches of Norway

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Speaker 1: looking for Nobele. They never returned. This is the second

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Speaker 1: part in a three part series about Amunson, Scott and

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00:34:04,770 --> 00:34:07,970
Speaker 1: the race to the South Pole. In the third part,

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00:34:08,450 --> 00:34:12,210
Speaker 1: I try to unlock a mystery which explains why Scott's

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00:34:12,250 --> 00:34:17,130
Speaker 1: expedition unraveled so catastrophically, which points to a much bigger

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00:34:17,210 --> 00:34:22,130
Speaker 1: question what happens when we discover new knowledge and then

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Speaker 1: lose faith in it. For a full list of our sources,

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00:34:33,650 --> 00:34:40,050
Speaker 1: see Tim Harford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by

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00:34:40,090 --> 00:34:44,130
Speaker 1: me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan

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00:34:44,170 --> 00:34:48,010
Speaker 1: Dilley with support from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughan. The

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00:34:48,170 --> 00:34:51,970
Speaker 1: sound design and original music is the work of Pascal Wise.

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00:34:52,490 --> 00:34:55,890
Speaker 1: It features the voice talents of Ben Crow, Melanie Gutridge,

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00:34:56,170 --> 00:35:00,090
Speaker 1: Stella Harford, and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have

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00:35:00,130 --> 00:35:03,650
Speaker 1: been possible without the work of Mea LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg,

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00:35:03,930 --> 00:35:09,010
Speaker 1: Heather Fane, John Schnas, Julia Barton, Carlie mcgliori, Eric Sandler,

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00:35:09,290 --> 00:35:14,890
Speaker 1: Royston Basserve, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Mrano, Danielle Lakhan and Maya Caaning.

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Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you

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00:35:19,730 --> 00:35:22,810
Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review,

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00:35:23,130 --> 00:35:25,570
Speaker 1: tell a friend, tell two friends, and if you want

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00:35:25,570 --> 00:35:27,970
Speaker 1: to hear the show, adds free and listen to four

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00:35:28,170 --> 00:35:32,930
Speaker 1: exclusive Cautionary Tales shorts. Then sign up for Pushkin Plus

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00:35:32,970 --> 00:35:36,170
Speaker 1: on the show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin

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Speaker 1: dot fm, slash plus