THINGS ARE MOVING

25 June 2012 » Uncategorized | respond

The last few months after having finally received a formal go ahead from the Canadian Cultural Heritage Authorities to bring “Maud” out of Canada and back to Vollen and Norway, we have again been able to focus on the real object of the Maud Returns Home initiative, namely to organize a repatriation of the old Polarship of Roald Amundsen. This is modestly speaking a challenging task.

Allready in the autum of 2010 we started the process of investigating the possibility of bringing “Maud” finally back home nearly 100 years after her departure from Norway in the summer of 1918. Now in the summer of 2012 we are in the middle of the process of planning the Maud Returns Home rescue expedition of 2013. This will physically involve two major elements, which will be a submersible barge for the salvage operation and the home transport as well as a tugboat that will pull the barge first from Norway to Canada, and then the return trip from Cambridge Bay all the way to Norway with “Maud” on top of the barge. This is a trip of around 7000km in challenging conditions.
A few weeks ago we did a first little physical action by moving the barge from the westcoast of Norway to the Oslo area where we will have the “basecamp” for our expedition preparations over the next 12 months. The barge performed very well on the three days journey behind the tugboat “Chanko” which also possibly can be the tug to be used for the expedition next year.

“Jensen” the raft, heading into the open ocean for the first time – out og Haugesund on the westcoast of Norway bound for Asker.






















The raft called “Jensen” and the tug “Chanko” ancored in Asker after the three days trip from the west coast of Norway. All worked well.