File:Bjornwerring.jpg

Summary
Date: 1983 Location: South Pacific en route to McMurdo Station, Antarctica Photographer: Randy C. Bunney

The late Capt. Bjorn Werring, a polar navigator in his own right, was the great nephew of Roald Amundsen, first to the South Pole in 1911. Norwegian-born Werring commanded the freighter USNS Southern Cross when it made the first known non-stop voyage from Port Hueneme, Calif., to Antarctica in 1983.

Werring retraced his uncle's passage to Ross Island as master of the Southern Cross during multiple voyages as part of Operation Deep Freeze to resupply McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Capt. Werring built a scale model of the Southern Cross that he launched in Winter's Quarters Bay in McMurdo Sound.

Werring served with the Norwegian Navy during WW II and emigrated to the United States in 1955.