January 1895, in the heart of the polar night, the pack ice creaks and creaks all around the hull of the Fram, stuck in the ice in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. On board, the crew contemplates with concern this formidable natural barrier which imprisons the ship. It is -39°C. It’s been a year and a half since this crazy expedition started and the Fram is slowly drifting north, towards the pole. Explorer Fridjof Nansen’s confidence is waning. Are his calculations regarding polar drift correct? And most importantly: will the Fram withstand the enormous pressure of the ice?
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In February 1890, the Norwegian Fridjof Nansen unveiled his somewhat crazy ambition: to approach as close as possible to the North Pole by letting himself drift with the pack ice for several years. This announcement made a lot of noise and was far from getting the votes of the community of explorers, who called Nansen crazy and reckless. And for good reason, the previous attempts to explore the polar basin Arctic ended in failure, the ships ending up either crushed by the ice or carried south by the ocean current dominating the region. But Nansen has analyzed the situation well. The error of previous explorers was to approach the pack ice arctic too far to the west, in regions where the current gate already south.
Any attempt to explore the pack ice by sled was also doomed, as the drifting ice continually pushed men southward. Based on this observation, Nansen therefore developed an ambitious plan. Instead of fighting against the current, he plans to use it. The starting point of the expedition must therefore be as far east as possible, at the level of New Siberia. The ship would then progress as far as the currents and temperatures allow towards the north, then let itself be caught by the ice and carried away by the drift of the pack ice towards the northwest. A very simple project… in theory.
The voyage of the Fram: a ship designed to withstand the pressure of the ice
In practice, Nansen is well aware of the difficulty of such an expedition. First, he needs a boat capable of withstanding the pressure of the ice. The explorer thus designed, with the help of the Norwegian engineer Colin Archer, an atypical small ship: short but wide, with very rounded shapes and uniform surfaces. The ship, christened Fram, which means “forward” in Norwegian, has a good thermal insulationof a wind turbine and an engine to generate electricity, as well as a kerosene stove. Nansen and his crew will need it to survive these winterings in the middle of a frozen environment. Many scientific instruments also join the expedition, because it is not only intended to explore new territory. Nansen plans to document this largely unknown arctic environment as accurately as possible.
On July 21, 1893, the Fram left the Norwegian coast with thirteen men on board. He joined Kabarova on the Russian coast, where the crew embarked a pack of thirty-four dogs of sled. Then the Fram weighs anchor heading north. At the beginning of August, the boat arrived in the Kara Sea, where the ice began to make navigation difficult. But that’s only north of thearchipelago of New Siberia that the challenge is really felt. On September 23, the Fram, which lies beyond 78° north, was caught in rapidly thickening ice. It is -13°C. It’s the moment of truth for the ship. And it is clear that its design is particularly well suited to the situation.
Long months of passive drift now await the crew, which is not inactive for all that. The Fram, converted into a comfortable district ofwinter, fully fulfills its function and men can get down to the various scientific activities that await them. The position of the ship is determined astronomically every two days and the meteorological data carefully recorded. The crew lacks nothing: cheese, bread, drinks, biscuits, green vegetables, not to mention meat and fish from hunting and sin. But the movements of the pack ice are capricious. After a month of drifting, the Fram finds itself at its starting point. Outside the ship, winter intensifies and the landscape turns into a frozen hell, plunged into polar night. At the beginning of March 1894, the temperature reached -51°C… outside. Inside their shelter, Nansen and his teammates live at a comfortable 22°C. Despite the extreme cold, men go out every day on the ice floe to hunt or carry out their scientific observations. The Fram has finally passed 80° N.
The slow drift of the Fram
But Nansen is not fooled: according to his calculations, at this speed the expedition could last eight years. Fortunately, in the spring of 1894, the drift accelerated and the path that the Fram followed towards the north corresponded to its initial forecasts. Summer is coming, but the ship is still stuck in the ice. Scientific surveys are going well on the pack ice. Nansen regularly probes the depth of the Arctic Ocean and discovers that it is much deeper than we thought: between 3,300 and 4,000 meters. Temperature and salinity are also recorded at various depths. Magnetic measurements are carried out. All this data will then make it possible to establish the first maps of this hitherto unexplored ocean.
We are now at the end of August 1894 and a new winter is looming. Since the start of the drift, a year earlier, the Fram had progressed only 350 kilometers towards the north, which turned out to be less than the predictions of Nansen, who began to consider the possibility of abandoning the ship and undertake a raid on skis towards the pole. At the beginning of January 1895, the situation became more complicated. The ice pressure is getting extreme. On March 14, 1895, the Fram passed 84° N.
Nansen leaves the Fram and undertakes a ski raid towards the pole
Nansen, accompanied by one man, Johansen, leaves the boat, puts on his skis and heads north. They take twenty-eight dogs, three sleds each carrying 660 kilos, two kayaks, weapons, ammunition and food. Nansen’s plan is as follows: while he and Johansen set off on skis towards the pole, which is 770 kilometers away, the rest of the crew continue their drift aboard the Fram until they reach open waters. Once at the pole, Nansen and Johansen will head for Franz Joseph Land, and from there set sail for the Spitsbergen. The whole route stretches over 1,500 kilometres, but Nansen is confident. He estimates that it will take them 50 days to reach the pole from the landing. It was without counting on the state of the pack ice. At first, everything goes as planned. The two men passed 85° N less than ten days after their departure. But the state of the pack ice is rapidly deteriorating. Progress becomes laborious. In early April, a month after landing, they are still 400 kilometers from the pole.
Nansen understands that they will never be able to reach it and decides to go directly to François-Joseph Land, located 670 kilometers away. The two men thus headed south on April 8, 1895, after having exceeded 86° North. A record. Finally, they reached one of the islands of François-Joseph Land on August 16, 1895, five months after leaving Fram. A new winter is approaching and the two men must quickly build a shelter and build up a reserve of food.
On May 19, 1896, they were finally able to leave the hut and continue their journey south, towards Spitsbergen. In June, they finally reach open water, which allows them to sail on their kayaks and they reach Cape Flora of François-Joseph Land. As they prepare to begin a new perilous crossing towards Spitsbergen, the two men come across an encampment of English scientists and their journey suddenly comes to an end. On August 7, 1896, the English mission’s supply ship brought them back to Norway. Nansen and Johansen will have spent more than a year alone on the ice of the arcticunder terribly hostile conditions.
And the Fram in all this?
While Nansen and Johansen fought for their survival on the pack ice, the ship quietly continued to drift, as planned. In November 1895 he reached the latitude of 85°55′ N. A feat unequaled since. The crew dutifully continued their scientific measurements while spending their third winter stuck on the ice. Eventually the drift took them south and in July 1896 the Fram reached open water and began to float. The ship and its full crew quickly reached the Norwegian coast, just four days after Nansen and Johansen had returned. The entire crew will meet in Tromsö to celebrate the end of the expedition, which lasted more than three years.
Despite the fact that they failed to reach the pole, Nansen’s trip is a success. The scientific data acquired made it possible to paint a portrait of the Arctic polar basin and to understand the route and dynamics of the transpolar current. This expedition, however, will be Nansen’s last. It becomes, after the First World War, Norway’s representative to the League of Nations, precursor to the UN. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his humanitarian involvement in favor of refugees and prisoners of war. His heart, yet so resistant in the cold of the Arctic and committed to human cruelty, will eventually abandon him at the age of 69. It goes out of a heart attack in Oslo, May 13, 1930.
His boat, the Fram, will continue to take new explorers on board to ever-so-extreme territories. Having become famous, it was quickly used for new expeditions in Arctic waters, but not only… National pride, the Fram is now exposed to the oslo maritime museum.
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