Polar exploration ship, Maud, creates a folk party in Asker

Vollen in Asker. Polarskuta Maud.Photo: Ørn Borgen / NTB scanpix

On Saturday, the polar ship, Maud, arrived in front of a large crowd at Vollen in Asker, the place where she was built and launched in 1917.

 

The ship’s arrival was celebrated at the Oslo Fjord Museum. Maud will visit the Bunnefjord and Roald Amundsen’s home on Sunday morning and then move on to Oslo city center in the early afternoon.

“It touches some emotions,but we hold the strong outlook. It is a story that deserves respect and it has affected the family quite a bit. It’s enough to restore her to the condition she was originally in, but I think it’s nice for her to be preserved,” said Johan Leon Amundsen, the grandson of Amundsen’s brother, to NRK news.

Long process

Maud is named after Queen Maud and was built on behalf of Roald Amundsen in connection with the expedition to the Arctic. The boat sank in shallow waters north of Canada in 1931, but was raised in 2016 after spending 85 years under water.

In 1990, the wreck was purchased by Asker Municipality for one dollar, and the project “Maud Returns Home” started in 2011 with the aim of getting the polar ship home to Asker. By 2016 the wreck was raised and has been on Greenland since last year. On June 23rd this year, the ship left the west coast of Greenland and reached Norwegian waters on Sunday the 5th of August.

“It’s wonderful, it’s a weight off your shoulders after sailing across the Atlantic this summer, which was a pretty big challenge. It is not often that you have such a big sense of relief,” said project manager, Jan Wanggard, to Aftenposten newspaper.

“It’s Amundsen’s style. If anyone was really doing this, then it’s Amundsen,”said Wanggard.

Film

A big movie about Amundsen will be made and it will premiere in February. The film is directed by Espen Sandberg, the man behind “Kon-Tiki” and “Max Manus”.

The film will have scenes from the long and demanding Maud expedition.

“Everyone knows that Amundsen was the first to the South Pole, but not everyone knows about the airship ‘Norge’ and the long journey with his own Polar ship Maud, so it’s great that this is now getting attention. That’s precisely why our film also deals with his entire life, he did so much that was exciting and was on many expeditions,” said Sandberg to NTB news.

“We built the interior of the polar ship and large parts of the deck while the rest is being built digitally. So the film will give the audience a unique opportunity to join

Maud’s journey through the Northeast Passage, where Roald, among other things, was attacked by polar bears,’’ he said.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today