Lesson 13:Louise Arner Boyd and Glaciers

Roald Amundsen,
1872–1928
In 1911, Amundsen became the first
person to reach the South Pole. He raced
an English team led by Robert Scott to the
pole. Amundsen got there first. Scott and
his team got caught in a blizzard on the
way back and perished.
Boyd knew she loved the Arctic, but she still was not
prepared for the power of its beauty. She later wrote:
“I understood for the first time what an old seaman meant when
he told me that once you had been in the Artic and in the ice, you never
could forget it, and always wanted to go back.”
Two years later, Boyd hired the Hobby for a return trip to
the Arctic. This time, she had a different purpose. Boyd brought
scientists to help her explore the region’s glaciers and wildlife.
However, an Italian explorer of the Arctic, General Umberto
Nobile, and his crew had recently gone missing. Roald Amundsen,
a famous Norwegian explorer, had gone off in a plane looking
for Nobile. Now Amundsen had disappeared as well.
Boyd sacrificed her scientific goals to help with the rescue.
The Hobby set sail to look for the missing explorers. For three
months, the Hobby sailed all over the Arctic, often enduring
harsh storms.
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