included the addition of collapsible rubber boats for emergency use. Although expected to leave Gatchina as soon as the weather allowed after 24 April, the departure was delayed one week as the mooring mast at King's Bay, Spitsbergen had not yet been completed due to adverse weather. Although Nobile was anxious to leave for Spitsbergen even if the mast and shed were not completed as he was concerned about the weather, the departure from Gatchina was postponed once again. The Norge finally left Gatchina at 09:40 on 5 May to proceed to Vadsø in northern Norway, where the airship mast is still standing today. The expedition then crossed the Barents Sea to reach King's Bay at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. There Nobile met Richard Evelyn Byrd preparing his Fokker Trimotor for his North Pole attempt. Nobile explained the Norge trip was to observe the uncharted sea between the Pole and Alaska where some believed land was; at the time he thought Robert Edwin Peary had already reached the pole. This would be the last stop before crossing the pole. The dirigible left Ny-Ålesund for the final stretch across the polar ice on 11 May at 9:55. The 16-man expedition included Amundsen, the expedition leader and navigator; Umberto Nobile the dirigible's designer and pilot; Wealthy American outdoorsman, polar explorer and expedition sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth; as well as polar explorer Oscar Wisting who served as helmsman. Other crew members were 1st Lt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, navigator; 1st Lt. Emil Horgen, elevatorman; Capt. Birger Gottwaldt, radio expert, Dr Finn Malmgren of Uppsala University, meteorologist; Fredrik Ramm, journalist; Frithjof Storm-Johnsen, radioman; Flying Lt. Oscar Omdal, flight engineer; Natale Cecioni, chief mechanic; Renato Alessandrini, rigger; Ettore Arduino, Attilio Caratti and Vincenzo Pomella, mechanics. Nobile's little dog, Titina, also came aboard as mascot. On 12 May at 01:25 (GMT) the Norge reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice. Relations between Amundsen and Nobile, which had been lukewarm at best, were further strained by the freezing and noisy conditions in the dirigible's cramped control car, and became even worse when Amundsen saw that the Italian flag dropped by Nobile was larger than either of the others. Amundsen later recalled with scorn that under Nobile, the Norge had become "a circus wagon of the skies", an occurrence Nobile claimed Amundsen had greatly exaggerated. After crossing the pole,