Oscar Wisting
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Oscar Adolf Wisting (June 6, 1871 - December 5, 1936) was a Norwegian polar explorer. Together with Roald Amundsen he was the first person to reach both to the North and South Poles.
Wisting was born in Larvik, and he was working as a naval gunner in 1909 when Roald Amundsen asked him to go north with him on his forthcoming North Pole expedition. Amundsen later secretly changed his plans. Wisting went to sea believing they where heading for the North Pole. Instead he learned that they where going south to pick up the race with Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole.
On December 14, 1911 along with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Olav Bjaaland and Sverre Hassel, Wisting planted the Norwegian flag on the geographical South Pole, the first explorers to have reached that point.
From 1918 to 1925 Wisting was chief officer onboard Maud in Roald Amundsen's attempt to traverse the Northeast passage. From 1923 to 1925 Wisting more or less acted as leader of the expedition after Amundsen left to try to fly to the pole instead.
In 1926 Wisting participated in Amundsen's successful attempt to fly over the North Pole. In the airship Norge they reached the pole on May 12, 1926. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole – by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge) – are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole. In addition Wisting, along with Amundsen, was one of the two first persons who had been to both the North Pole and the South Pole.
He later wrote about his years with Amundsen in his book: 16 aar med Roald Amundsen, (1930). (16 years with Roald Amundsen).
In later years Oscar Wisting was an active force behind the preparations and building of the Fram house in Oslo, a museum built to store and display the polar ship Fram. On December 5, 1936 Wisting was found dead from heart attack in his old bunk on board Fram, a few days before the 25 anniversary of the successful South Pole expedition.
