Sverre Helge Hassel (30 July 1876 – 6 June 1928) was a Norwegian polar explorer and one of the first five people to reach the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

Biography

Sverre Hassel was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. As soon as he was old enough, he went to sea, earning his mate's certificate. Between 1898 and 1902, Hassel participated on board the '' Fram'' in Otto Sverdrup's attempt to circumnavigate

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Along with Helmer Hanssen, Hassel was picked as an expert dog driver to take part in

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

's South Pole expedition 1910–1912. On 14 December 1911, Hassel together with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Olav Bjaaland and Oscar Wisting were the first to reach the

. For his participation in the expedition, he was awarded the South Pole Medal (''Sydpolsmedaljen''), the Royal Norwegian award instituted by King Haakon VII in 1912 to reward participants in Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition. Hassel was constable of the Maritime Military Corps in 1904 before he was hired as an assistant at the customs authorities in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

. In 1922, Hassel became customs inspector and office manager in

Grimstad Grimstad () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county, Norway. It belongs to the geographical region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the Grimstad (to ...

. Sverre Hassel died in 1928 during a visit to Amundsen's home in Svartskog.

Legacy

* Mount Hassel: peak at the northeasternmost summit of the massif at the head of Amundsen Glacier, in the

Queen Maud Mountains The Queen Maud Mountains () are a major group of mountains, ranges and subordinate features of the Transantarctic Mountains, lying between the Beardmore Glacier, Beardmore and Reedy Glaciers and including the area from the head of the Ross Ice Sh ...

in Antarctica. * Hassel Sound: strait between Amund Ringnes Island and Ellef Ringnes Island in northern Canada * Cape Sverre: northernmost point on Amund Ringnes Island, which he circumnavigated in 1900 * Hassel was portrayed by Erik Hivju in the 1985 television serial '' The Last Place on Earth'', and by Kenneth Åkerland Bergas in the 2019 film '' Amundsen''.

Sources

Roald Amundsen wrote about the expedition in ''Sydpolen'' published in two volumes in 1912–1913. The work was translated from the Norwegian into English by A. G. Chater, and published as ''The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the "Fram," 1910–1912''

References

Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hassel, Sverre 1876 births 1928 deaths Explorers from Oslo Norwegian explorers of Antarctica Amundsen's South Pole expedition