The Norwegian explorer, Captain Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (1872-1928), captured almost every polar geographical prize of his day:

1. He was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage by ship in 1905.

2. In 1911 he was the first to reach the South Pole. (He had assembled an expedition for the North Pole, but turned it south upon news that Robert Peary had beaten him to it.)

3. He explored unknown parts of the Arctic - and in the process became the second to navigate the NorthEAST Passage (Swedish explorer Nils Nordenskjold did it first in 1878-79).

4. In 1925 he attempted to fly over the North Pole, but his planes were forced down less than 100 miles / 150 km from the Pole. The safe return of all six men caught the imagination of the world, and Amundsen was again a hero.

5. The following year, 1926, he made the first intercontinental airship flight over the North Pole and Arctic Ocean (in the dirigible Norge with Umberto Nobile and Lincoln Ellsworth).

In 1928, while searching for survivors of Umberto Nobile's North Pole airship disaster, Amundsen's plane crashed and he disappeared without a trace.

PICTURE: (Above) Amundsen makes a claim for Norway.