Andreas Beck (seaman)

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Andreas Beck in 1900

Andreas Beck (born October 8, 1864 in Balsfjord , Norway , † March 18, 1914 at sea off Montevideo , Uruguay ) was a Norwegian seaman and participant in the South Pole expedition (1910-1912) of the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen .

Life

Andreas Beck was born as the son of a captain in Northern Norway . At the age of 17 he also went to sea and worked on ships operating in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway. In 1896 he acquired the captain's license before he worked as a harpooner on various whaling ships for several years . In 1903 he became a shareholder in a sloop ; However, he sold his shares again in 1906. He then worked in the Norwegian coastal shipping industry , before he hired in 1908 as an ice pilot on a Schmack , who undertook a short exploration trip to Spitsbergen . This trip was one of the first that eventually led to the establishment of the Norwegian Polar Institute . In 1909 Beck again took part in a geological research trip to Spitzbergen as an ice pilot.

It was through this previous knowledge that the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen became aware of him. Amundsen recruited Beck as an ice pilot on the Fram for his research expedition originally planned as a North Pole expedition. Amundsen changed the objective of his expedition at short notice to want to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. Beck piloted the Fram through the Antarctic pack ice belt in three days and 14 hours, a route that took Amundsen's rival Robert Falcon Scott with the Terra Nova at about the same time as three weeks. While Amundsen and the landing crew were stationed in the Framheim camp on the Ross Ice Shelf and finally undertook the successful march to the geographic South Pole, Beck was involved in the oceanographic research trip with the Fram in the South Atlantic .

After resuming the landing crew, the Fram first went to Hobart and then to South America. A planned passage as the first ship through the Panama Canal did not materialize due to the delayed completion of the canal. The Fram set course for Buenos Aires . Beck died on this voyage before reaching the intermediate port of Montevideo, presumably of a tropical disease and was buried at sea . He left behind his wife and six children. Beck Peak in the Antarctic Queen Maud Mountains is named in his honor .

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personal data
SURNAME Beck, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian sailor and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Balsfjord , Norway
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1914
Place of death at sea off Montevideo , Uruguay