The return of Nordenskjöld in 1883, from his second remarkable journey to Greenland, determined Nansen upon a similar journey, the success of which he carefully planned. Nordenskjöld had made fifteen marches on the inland ice from Sophia Harbor south to Disco Bay, and reached an altitude of forty-nine hundred feet, sending skilled Lapps on skis a farther distance of one hundred and forty miles, where they reached an elevation of sixty-six hundred feet, on the marvellous ice-cap which still rose before them.
Accompanied by three Norwegians, Otto Sverdrup, Lieutenant Oluf Christian Dietrichson, of the Norwegian army, and Kristian Trana, and two Lapps, Balto and Ravna, Nansen sailed on the Danish steamer Thyra from Scotland, May 9, 1888. The Thyra was to carry the little band of explorers the first stage of their journey to Iceland. At the Faroe Islands, Nansen learned of the extremely bad condition of the ice round Iceland. The east coast of the island was reported inaccessible. By May 17 the Thyra stood off the Vestmanna Islands, and later she passed Reydjanaes, which carries the only lighthouse Iceland possesses.
Anchoring off Thingeyre, the party took leave of the Thyra, and, warmly welcomed by Herr Gram, the merchant of Thingeyre, they awaited the Jason, which was to convey them to the coast of Greenland. On the morning of June 3, the expectant party sighted a little steamer slowly working inwards. As she came nearer, she was found to be the Isafold of the Norwegian Whaling Company. She anchored and sent a boat on shore amid increasing excitement. “I had begun to suspect the truth,” says Nansen, “when, to my astonishment as well as joy, I recognized in the first man who stepped ashore Captain Jacobsen of the Jason. Our meeting was almost frantic, but the story was soon told. He had reached Isafjord, and, not finding us there, had thought of coming on to Dyrafjord with the Jason. But with the strong wind blowing it would have taken his heavily rigged ship a whole day to make the voyage, and, as the Norwegian Company’s manager most kindly offered to send the Isafold to fetch us, he had taken the opportunity of coming too.
“Farewells were hastily said; willing hands transferred the baggage, which consisted, in addition to the usual Alpine outfit, of Canadian and Norwegian snow-shoes, instruments, food, fuel, and sleeping gear, a load of twelve hundred pounds for their five sledges; and a restive and unwilling pony bought of Herr Gram, and the Isafold steamed out of the fiord and to the northwards.”
For six weeks the Jason made fruitless attempts to land the impatient explorers on this barren coast of Greenland, when, July 17, 1888, Nansen and his party attempted by boat to make Cape Dan, from which they were separated by an ice stream ten miles wide.
“When Ravna saw the ship for the last time,” writes Balto, the Lapp, “he said to me: ‘What fools we were to leave her to die in this place. There is no hope of life; the great sea will be our graves!’”
Sleeping upon the floes at night, dragging or rowing their boats by day, the journey to the coast was perilous and dangerous in the extreme. After several days they found themselves being carried south upon the floe and “straight away from shore, at a pace that rendered all resistance completely futile.”
“July 20,” says Nansen, “I was roused by some violent shocks to the floe on which we were encamped, and thought the motion of the sea must have increased very considerably. When we get outside we discover that the floe has split in two not far from the tent. The Lapps, who had at once made for the highest points of our piece of ice, now shout that they can see the open sea....
“The swell is growing heavier and heavier, and the water breaking over our floe with ever-increasing force. The blocks of ice and slush, which come from the grinding of the floes together and are thrown up round the edges of our piece, do a good deal to break the violence of the waves. The worst of it is that we are being carried seawards with ominous rapidity.”
Taking refuge upon a stronger and larger floe, the party awaited the issue with courage and resignation, though it must be confessed the poor Lapps were not in the best of spirits. “They had given up hope of life, and were making ready for death.” A night of fearful promise succeeded a day of imminent peril. Sverdrup took the watch and paced alone the sea-washed floe. Several times he had stood by the tent door prepared to turn his comrades out.