the time Amundsen returned, Norway had gained its independence, and he and his crew were among the new country's first national heroes. Amundsen served as the expedition leader and Gjøa's master. His crew were Godfred Hansen, a Danish naval lieutenant and Gjøa'''s first officer; Helmer Hanssen, second officer, an experienced ice pilot who later accompanied Amundsen on subsequent expeditions; Anton Lund, an experienced sealing captain; Peder Ristvedt, chief engineer; Gustav Juel Wiik, second engineer, a gunner in the Royal Norwegian Navy; and Adolf Henrik Lindstrøm, cook.Gjøa left the Oslofjord on June 16, 1903, and made for the Labrador Sea west of Greenland. From there she crossed Baffin Bay and navigated the narrow, icy straits of the Arctic Archipelago. By late September Gjøa was west of the Boothia Peninsula and began to encounter worsening weather and sea ice. Amundsen put her into a natural harbour on the south shore of King William Island; by October 3 she was iced in. There she remained for nearly two years, with her crew undertaking sledge journeys to make measurements to determine the location of the North Magnetic Pole and learning from the local Inuit. The harbour, known as Uqsuqtuuq ("much fat") in Inuktitut, has become the only settlement on the island – Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, which now has a population of over a thousand people (1,279 at the 2011 census).Gjøa left Gjoa Haven on August 13, 1905, and motored through the treacherous straits south of Victoria Island, and from there west into the Beaufort Sea. By October Gjøa was again iced-in, this time near Herschel Island in the Yukon. Amundsen left his men on board and spent much of the winter skiing 500 miles south to Eagle, Alaska to telegraph news of the expedition's success. He returned in March, but Gjøa remained icebound until July 11. Gjøa reached Nome in Alaska on August 31, 1906. She sailed on to earthquake ravaged San Francisco, California, where the expedition was met with a hero's welcome on October 19. San Francisco Rather than sail her round Cape Horn and back to Norway, the Norwegian American community in San Francisco prevailed on Amundsen to sell Gjøa to them. The ship was donated to the city of San Francisco, and the ship was dragged up the beachThe Gjoa – Western Neighborhoods Project – San Francisco History – The Roald Amundsen Monument – Or The Ship That Isn't There to