Maud Returns Home – Facebook

For several years, we have been following the attempts to raise Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen‘s research ship Maud from where it has been sitting in ice and mud for close to 90 years. To say that the conditions in Cambridge Bay off the Nunavut territory of northern Canada have been challenging would be an understatement. Over the last eight summers, a team of Norwegians has been working to raise and ultimately return Maud back to Norway. In the summer of 2017, they achieved a major milestone — successfully towing the Maud on the barge Jensen out of  Cambridge Bay to Aasiaat on West Greenland. They are now preparing for the final leg of the journey.

Maud was built for Roald Amundsen in 1916 for polar exploration. In an expedition between 1918 and 1924, Amundsen attempted to let Maud be caught in pack ice and drift across the North Pole, while those aboard collected scientific data. The attempt was not successful and the Maud was sold in 1925 to Hudson’s Bay Company, which used her as a supply vessel for Company outposts in Canada’s western Arctic. She sank in Cambridge Bay in 1930.