According to a June 1928 dispatch, experts were still hopeful that Roald Amundsen, the great polar explorer, would be found. “They recall the times in the past when he disappeared into the ice wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic, only to come out safely when hope for him had reached its lowest ebb.” But there was no finding Amundsen, despite a sea and air search that went on into the autumn....

In August, the Norwegian Navy will launch a new expedition to find the remains of Amundsen’s twin-engine seaplane. There is a Web site (searchforamundsen.com) with a digital clock slowly ticking off the seconds till the search begins. Once it is under way there will, no doubt, be daily news and video feeds, perhaps from the unmanned submarine that will be going along.