CHAPTER X
THE NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPEDITION (1893−96)
In many respects this expedition is unique. It was planned by Dr. Nansen after careful consideration of many scientific facts connected with the Polar Sea, and although his theories and conclusions were opposed by many of the leading authorities of the day, the expedition was carried out almost to the letter.
The Jeannette expedition had a very important bearing on that of Dr. Nansen. In 1884, Professor Mohn published a paper in which it was stated that various articles which must have come from the wreck of the Jeannette had been found on the south-west coast of Greenland. He believed that they must have drifted on a floe right across the Polar Sea. These articles included a list of provisions signed by De Long, the commander of the Jeannette; an MS. list of the Jeannette’s boats; and a pair of oilskin breeches marked “Louis Noros,” the name of one of the Jeannette’s crew who was saved.
It occurred to Dr. Nansen that a ship might be allowed to be frozen in the ice and to drift as the articles from the Jeannette must have done. This idea was propounded in an address before the Christiania Geographical Society on 18th February 1890.
In this address Dr. Nansen brought forward various evidences in support of the theory that a current flows across or near the North Pole from Bering Sea on the one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the other. A “throwing-stick” used by the Alaskan Eskimo in hurling their bird-darts had been found among the drift-timber on the west coast of Greenland. It was also known that the driftwood that is carried down by the polar current along the east coast of Greenland and up the west coast consists largely of wood from the coast of Siberia.
After discussing the various possible routes by which this drift might take place, Dr. Nansen came to the conclusion that a current flows at some point between the Pole and Franz-Josef Land from the Siberian Arctic Sea to the east coast of Greenland.
Nansen’s plan was to build a ship as strong as possible, so as to enable it to withstand the pressure of the ice. The sides were to slope sufficiently to prevent the ice, when it presses together, from getting firm hold of the hull, as was the case with the Jeannette and other vessels. Nansen’s idea was that the ice, instead of nipping the ship, must raise it out of the water.
The Fram was built on the principles suggested by Nansen: its sides were from 24 to 28 inches in thickness, of solid water-tight wood. The inside of the ship was also shored up and strengthened in every possible way. The equipment was of the best, and special attention was devoted to the commissariat; most of the provisions were soldered down in tins, as a protection against damp.
The members of the expedition numbered thirteen. Several places were visited in passing up the coast of Norway, and the party received a great reception. Norway was left at Vardo; and about four days afterwards, on the 27th July 1893, ice was met with.
It was Nansen’s intention to pass through Yugor Strait and make his way along the coast until he reached the New Siberian Islands, and then up the west coast of these as far as possible before he allowed the Fram to be frozen in.