Airship Mooring Mast, Ny-Ålesund (Kings Bay)
From this steel mast at 79° North the Norge left on 11 May 1926 for the first verified journey to the North Pole, and the Italia followed in 1928 into triumph and disaster. The mast still stands at the edge of the settlement.
At a glance
Ny-Ålesund, on Kings Bay in Svalbard, was the Arctic base of both Italian-built polar airships. The Norge — Nobile’s semi-rigid craft, with Amundsen leading and Ellsworth funding — arrived on 7 May 1926, was walked into the hangar, and left on 11 May; at 01:25 GMT on 12 May it crossed the North Pole, completing the first verified trip of any kind to reach it, and flew on to Teller, Alaska. In May 1928 Nobile returned in command of the Italia, supported by the ship Città di Milano anchored in the bay: the Pole was reached again on 24 May, the crash on the ice followed on the 25th, and Ny-Ålesund became the anchor of the rescue story of the Red Tent. The mooring mast still stands at the settlement’s edge.
Key facts
- Norge, 1926: arrived 7 May, departed 11 May; North Pole 12 May at 01:25 GMT; landed at Teller, Alaska, 14 May — the first verified attainment of the Pole
- Italia, 1928: based here from 6 May with the support ship Città di Milano; Pole 24 May at 00:24; crash on the pack ice 25 May
- The aftermath: eight Red Tent survivors rescued by the Soviet icebreaker Krassin on 12 July 1928; seventeen lives lost in the disaster and rescue, Roald Amundsen’s among them
- The craft: N-class semi-rigid airships by Umberto Nobile; the Norge 106 m long, 19,000 m³ of hydrogen
- Today: the mast still stands at the edge of Ny-Ålesund, one of the world’s northernmost settlements and now an international research station
History
The context, stated plainly: the airship ventures were joint Norwegian-Italian-American undertakings that the Italian regime of the day publicised as its own triumphs, and the quarrel between Amundsen and Nobile over the Norge’s credit was bitter and public. The Italia expedition of 1928 ended with a crash, a two-month drama on the drifting ice and seventeen dead, including Amundsen, lost in the search. This card records the site of both stories without taking a side in either.
Kings Bay was chosen because it offered the last solid infrastructure before the Pole: a coal-mining settlement with a harbour, to which the expeditions added a hangar and the mooring mast. The photographs of May 1926 show the Norge hanging nose-to-mast above the snow while the whole population of the settlement hauls on lines below — the image chosen for this card. Five days later, at 01:25 GMT on 12 May, the airship crossed the Pole; on 14 May it was down at Teller, Alaska, and the age of verified polar attainment had begun.
The Italia’s story ran the arc the other way: the Pole reached on 24 May 1928, flags and a papal cross dropped, then the control car torn off on the ice the next day. The survivors’ camp — the Red Tent — drifted for weeks while an international rescue converged; the Krassin took off the last of them on 12 July. Ny-Ålesund later exchanged mining for science, and the mast at its edge is the era’s most tangible survivor.
What you see
The mast is a slender lattice tower of 1920s steel, standing where the settlement’s buildings give way to the tundra of the Brøgger peninsula, with the mountains across Kings Bay behind — the same skyline visible in the 1926 photographs, minus the airship. Around it, Ny-Ålesund itself is a museum-piece of Arctic building: the timber houses of the mining era now serve research stations from a dozen countries.
Seen against the emptiness, the mast explains the expeditions better than any text: this thin tower was the whole of the infrastructure from which the first flight to the Pole departed.
Practical information
- Ny-Ålesund is a working international research settlement; most visitors arrive on summer expedition vessels from Longyearbyen, and movement in the settlement is typically organised and guided.
- The mast stands in open view at the settlement’s edge; respect any local signage — this is a scientific community, not a resort.
Getting there
Ny-Ålesund lies on Kings Bay (Kongsfjorden), Svalbard, at nearly 79° North; access is normally by sea or light aircraft from Longyearbyen. GPS: 78.92553, 11.92917 · Open in Google Maps.
Related places and reading
- Airship mooring mast, Vadsø — the mainland stop of both expeditions
- North by Airship: the Norge, the Italia and the Route to the Pole — the full story
- The Airship Route to the Pole — the two-stop historical route
Sources
- English Wikipedia, “Norge (airship)” (dates, route, first verified trip to the Pole, Teller landing, specifications).
- English Wikipedia, “Italia (airship)” (Ny-Ålesund base and Città di Milano, Pole 24 May 1928, crash, Red Tent, Krassin rescue of 12 July, Amundsen’s death, seventeen dead).
- National Library of Norway photographs, May 1926 (the Norge at the Ny-Ålesund mast, via Wikimedia Commons); 2023 photographs confirming the mast standing.
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim (coordinates).
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