Legendary Explorer’s Letter Found Behind Filing Cabinet in Tasmania

Though a recent expedition failed to find legendary polar explorer Roald Amundsen's lost plane, another relic of Amundsen's life recently re-surfaced—a letter Amundsen wrote soon after he became the first man ever to reach the South Pole in 1912. A Tasmanian yacht club discovered Amundsen's letter of acceptance to an honorary membership to the Derwent Sailing Squadron behind a filing cabinet, where it had been lost for years.

"Allow me to convey my very best thanks for the honour you have done me in electing me as an honorary member of the Derwent Sailing Squadron," Amundsen wrote in the letter. He was offered the membership while he stayed in Hobart, where local's discovered his identity after he telegraphed the news of the success of his Antarctic expedition to King Haakon of Norway.

The historic letter has been donated to the Tasmania Maritime Museum.

—Greer Schott