FLASH NEWS
He was the first to conquer the South Pole, which was the secret of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amudsen
2024-12-01 21:23:41 / BOTA
Enduring the extreme climatic conditions of Antarctica is not something that everyone can handle. This was well known to Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott, who challenged each other to the race of who would be the first to reach the South Pole at the beginning of the last century.
The Norwegian Amundsen triumphed over the British Scot, who in that expedition died of cold, hunger and fatigue, physically crushed by scurvy (a disease caused by the lack of vitamin C in the human body).
Yes What enabled Amundsen to survive and be the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911? In his new book Madness at the End of the World, researcher Julian Senkton says Amundsen managed to avoid scurvy, and survived thanks to the consumption of penguin meat.
Thirteen years before setting out for the South Pole, the Norwegian explorer had first experienced the dangers of the Antarctic winter during a Belgian expedition. On that voyage he and the rest of the crew contracted scurvy and were in danger of dying. The doctor on board the ship, Frederick Cook, had spent quite a bit of time with the Inuit (the inhabitants of the Arctic), and had realized that they never got scurvy, since they ate almost exclusively the raw meat of the animals they had just hunted.
Combining both pieces of information, Cook came to a conclusion: the only solution to not getting sick with scurvy was to eat the raw meat of animals that could be hunted on the ice, i.e. penguins and seagulls. Thanks to Cook, the crew managed to save themselves. "Any type of meat, if it is raw enough, supplies the body with the necessary amount of vitamin C to protect against scurvy," said Senkton for the British "The Guardian".
So when Amundsen started in 1911 his mission to Antarctica, he had quite a bit of additional information of great value compared to Scott, who actually died in 1912, weakened by scurvy.
"Amundsen's diet was undoubtedly the reason that gave him the opportunity to beat his rival," says Senkton. The Norwegian did not feed only on the flesh of penguins and seals, but he killed and ate even the weakest dogs of his sled.
Meanwhile, Scott rejected the possibility of eating dog meat, calling this idea "cruel and unsportsmanlike". "I can't even think of killing animals so intelligent and full of quality, which I see as my friends and companions," he wrote. But this choice cost him his life, at a time when Amundsen returned to his homeland as a hero, forever remembering Cook as the man who "saved his life". / Focus – Bota.al
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