Amundsen made his name as a polar explorer when he became the first to navigate the North‐west Passage in the small sailing vessel Gjöa (1903–06), during which expedition he also travelled over the ice by sledge and located the site of the magnetic North Pole. In 1911 he beat the British explorer Robert F. Scott in the race to be the first to reach the South Pole. In the 1920s Amundsen devoted himself to aerial exploration of the polar regions, eventually disappearing on a search for the missing Italian airship expedition led by Umberto Nobile (1885–1978).