THE RESCUE OF AMUNDSEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20190, 5 July 1928, Page 6

THE RESCUE OF AMUNDSEN

'pHE KE SEEMS no reason to doubt the authenticity of the report from Tromsoe regarding the rescue of Captain Amundsen. The news comes as a profound relief, after the pessimistic opinions so freely expressed, for the world could ill afford the premature loss of so notable a figure as Raold Amundsen. The great Norwegian may properly be described as one of the most courageous and successful explorers the world has known; for he has faced and conquered difficulties and hardships such as few men could overcome. When we remember his dash to the South Pole (in which he outraced the dauntless but lucklessly predestined Captain Seott), without the aid of •wireless, flying machines and other contrivances since supplied by science, we may marvel all the more at the endurance and resource shown by Amundsen and his companions in the most inhospitable region known to exist on this globe. To crown this thrilling enterprise, Amundsen gained another supreme honour at the other extremity of the earth, for he was the first actually to locate the North Pole, which he passed over in an aircraft. It is an astonishing coincidence that Captain Amundsen should have been brought so close to a tragic end while on an errand of mercy—the rescue of General Nobile, who was attempting a close scientific investigation of the North Pole in the airship Italia. And it is even more extraordinary that the man he set out to rescue had been one of his companions when he passed over the Pole, and with whom, on paper at any rate, he was at enmity, owing to Nobile’s ungenerous published disparagement of his former chief. But when another man is in danger, really great men do not remember enmity; they go forth, at whatever risk, to lend their aid. Such a man is Raold Amundsen, and now that he has literally been plucked from the grave, the world will honour him no less for his attempt to succour Nobile than for his remarkable feats as an explorer.