Amundsen, Roald

Cablegram transcription in Norwegian code, written in pencil with interlineal decoded text added in Norwegian, 1 page (7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.; 190 x 235 mm), to the King of Norway, Hobart, Tasmania, 7 March 1912, on a printed form headed "Den norske Rijkstelegraf" with royal crest, received in Kristiana, Norway; dampstained, two small inkspots, tipped on to a board.

Dorthy Hager Rogers, and by descent in her family

See "The Vibrant Dorothy Rogers" in San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, 1 October 1967, p. 15

Cablegram transcription in Norwegian code, written in pencil with interlineal decoded text added in Norwegian, 1 page (7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.; 190 x 235 mm), to the King of Norway, Hobart, Tasmania, 7 March 1912, on a printed form headed "Den norske Rijkstelegraf" with royal crest, received in Kristiana, Norway; dampstained, two small inkspots, tipped on to a board.
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First news of Amundsen's arrival at the south pole.  The world was astounded by the cablegram from Hobart, Tasmania, on the morning of 8 March announcing that some time between 14 and 17 December, Captain Roald Amundsen had attained the South Pole. With four men and eighteen dogs, from his ship the Fram, he crossed the great Ice Barrier and reached the pole at 3:00 PM on the afternoon of 14 December, one month before the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of Robert Scott.

Amundsen's return to Tasmania took three months, driven with anxiety to be the first to announce his achievement and unaware of Scott's fate. On his arrival he sent four telegrams from Hobart announcing his success: to his brother Leon, to his patron Peter Christophersen, to his fellow explorer Fritjof Nansen, and to the King of Norway. The present cablegram is the transcription made at the Royal Norwegian Telegraph office from Amundsen's communication to the King. It reads (in English translation of the decoded Norwegian text):

"Sincere thanks for your Majesty's letter and assistance. The Pole reached Fourteenth Seventeenth December Nineteen Eleven. Good geographical results. Ask permission to use your Majesty's names. Leave for Buenos Aires from there San Francisco. Begin the icedrift Nineteen Thirteen. All well. Roald Amundsen."

Dorothy Hager Rogers (1903–1970), daughter of Alvah Hager, founder of the Canadian Fishing Co. Ltd, raised in Vancouver, was active in San Francisco public affairs, a director of the World Affairs Council, and a trustee of the American University of Beirut. As a young woman in the 1920s she was on a world tour stopping in Norway when the present document was, according to family lore, given to her by an admirer.