Aeronautics -- Flights; Arctic regions; North Pole
People on the pier are waving their hats. We hear hurrahs and shouts
and see a new vessel lying alongside the quay. We know immediately
that they have come. We dash along the short distance so that the mud
splashes over us whilst the cheers from down below increase. We spring
on board the “Heimdal,” which lies nearest the quay, then onto the
“Hobby,” which is lying outside.
Lord! it is true!
From “Hobby’s” rail we look down upon the deck of a small sealer
which lies alongside. There they are, all six! Amundsen, Dietrichson,
Ellsworth, Feucht, Omdal, Riiser-Larsen, dirty and grimy, but living
and safe and sound, surrounded by workers and seamen, a motley crowd
who shout hurrah, clap their hands and carry them shoulder high. We
jump down on to the overfilled deck, we cry and we laugh, we pat their
cheeks, we embrace them and words fail us. Not a sensible word could be
spoken. Surely it can’t be true! We must be dreaming! Is it really they?
We reflect about matters a little, and then Director Knutsen takes them
up to his house. The rooms are filled both by invited and uninvited
guests who suddenly begin to sing “Ja vi elsker.” Little by little we
get to know what has happened to them. We don’t learn much to begin
with.
We learn enough, however, to understand why they seem to have two
different mentalities. A present one which sees and understands all
that happens around about them,--and a past which is part of their life
in the north, and which will not leave them for a long time to come.
They get food, a hot bath and a bed with fresh white sheets. In the
course of the day their long four-weeks-old whiskers disappear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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