ROUND 6: HISTORY - Polar Explorers

ROUND 6: HISTORY - Polar Explorers

This round is about Arctic and Antarctic explorations in the 19th and 20th centuries.  
In the interest of fair credit, we point out that every one of the journeys in 
this round involved a team or crew of men, often sizable numbers of them; 
but in the interest of convenience, we will mostly speak as if the expedition 
leaders had traveled alone.

1. After sailing from Norway to Siberia in 1893, this explorer got his specially 
   designed ship trapped deliberately in the oceanic pack ice, whose drift he hoped 
   would take him near the North Pole.  Instead it went mainly westward, over 1,000 
   miles in three years until the ice released the ship.  Name either the explorer 
   or the ship, which was later used on the first expedition to reach the South Pole.

	Fridtjof Nansen
	"Fram"

2. In 1909 two explorers each claimed to have been the first to reach the North Pole.  
   The second of these claims was generally accepted at the time, although it's been 
   disputed in later years.  But what you have to tell us is who made the first claim, 
   which enjoyed only brief acceptance before it was dismissed as fraudulent.

	Frederick Cook

3. The other claimant in 1909 was Robert Peary.  According to those who reject 
   Peary's claim as well as Cook's, the North Pole was not reached by travel over 
   the ice until 1968.  Name either the man who did it then, or his mode of travel.

	Ralph Plaisted
	snowmobile (Ski-Doo)

4. Which pilot claimed in 1926 to have been the first to fly over the North Pole?  
   Again, this claim has been generally accepted, but is disputed by some.

	(the aptly named) Richard Byrd

5. Name the explorer, then aged 59, who in 1845 set out with two shiploads of 
   men in search of the Northwest Passage, and never returned.  Numerous search 
   expeditions were then conducted, most of them returning no information whatever 
   about the fate of this man or his party, but contributing greatly to knowledge 
   of the Arctic islands and passages.

	John Franklin

6. During the search for Franklin, this explorer traveling from the west came 
   within sight of a location that had previously been reached from the east, 
   thus confirming one relatively direct route of the Northwest Passage: from 
   Baffin Bay via Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, and 
   a strait named for him, passing north of Banks Island.  Name him.

	Robert McClure

7. The first expedition to actually traverse the Northwest Passage reached Alaska's 
   north coast in 1905 and the Pacific in 1906.  In between, the leader traveled 500 
   miles inland to reach a telegraph office and send word of his success -- collect.  
   Name either this explorer or his ship, which is now in the same museum as the "Fram".

	Roald Amundsen
	"Gjöa"  (properly something like GYUH-ah)

8. The first ship to traverse the Northwest Passage eastward completed the 
   journey in 1942, and followed this with a return trip westward.  Name either 
   the captain or the ship, or the organization that owned it.

	Henry Larsen
	"St. Roch"
	RCMP

9. In 1910 Roald Amundsen committed a significant act of deception that made his 
   trip to the South Pole possible.  What was it?

	Everyone thought he was going to the Arctic.

	(He had intended exploring the Arctic Ocean and perhaps trying for the North Pole, 
	and all his funding and equipment -- including the use of the "Fram" -- were obtained 
	on that basis.  After Peary allegedly reached the North Pole, he decided to try for 
	the South Pole instead.  But he chose to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, 
	keeping the change of plans a secret even from most of his crew.)

10. One of those who failed to reach the South Pole before Amundsen was Ernest 
    Shackleton.  In 1914 he returned to Antarctica only to see his ship, ironically 
    named "Endurance", crushed by ice; his rescue of the entire crew was a heroic 
    feat of leadership.  But his original goal in this ambitious expedition was to 
    be the first to do what?

	cross Antarctica