Monday, March 02, 2009

When giants walked the earth ...

Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, Nobile ... not the same breed as me ...

Looking for Amundsen - NYTimes.com

... In March 1912, before it was clear that Amundsen had beat Scott to the South Pole (and that Scott had died after reaching it), the explorer Ernest Shackleton sent a cable to The Times, wondering whether Amundsen had marched to the pole “in northern furs or in the light, windproof burberry that we found successful.” The answer was northern furs. In the end, the most important equipment for all these explorers was their indomitability.

What will we learn if Amundsen’s plane is found? Where things went wrong and perhaps also what. The tribute we pay to great explorers is to send other explorers out in search of them. That’s how it is for Amundsen. As for Nobile, he was eventually rescued and died at the age of 93 in 1978.

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