History

The context, stated plainly: the polar flights were international ventures — Norwegian, Italian and American — and they were also claimed loudly by the Italian regime of the day as national triumphs. The rivalry between Amundsen and Nobile over credit for the Norge flight, and the propaganda uses of both expeditions, are part of the record; so are the seventeen lives lost in the Italia disaster and its rescue, Amundsen’s among them. The mast is documented here as the shared heritage of that story.

Vadsø entered the route planning for a simple reason: it is about as far north-east as mainland Norway goes, the natural last anchorage before the open crossing to Svalbard. The Norge, having flown from Ciampino across Europe via Pulham, Oslo and Gatchina, rode at the Vadsøya mast before the final legs; the Italia repeated the pattern two years later, arriving from Stolp on the Baltic on 4 May 1928. Photographs from both visits show the airships hanging over the little island like weather balloons of impossible size, the whole town gathered beneath.

The two expeditions ended in opposite registers — the Norge in a record that stands (the first verified attainment of the North Pole, by any means), the Italia in the century’s most famous polar disaster, with the Red Tent on the drifting ice, the Krassin steaming to the rescue, and Amundsen vanishing in the search. The mast outlived them both. It was left standing when airships left history, and the town kept it.