In the Danish Geographical Journal for 1885, Mr. Lytzen, Colonial Manager at Julianshaab, gave an interesting account of certain relics of the ill-fated Jeannette expedition picked up by Eskimos on the west Greenland coast. Among these articles was a list of provisions, signed by Captain De Long, a manuscript list of the Jeannette’s boats, a pair of oil-skin breeches marked “Louis Noros,” the name of a member of the Jeannette’s crew, the peak of a cap with F. C. Lindemann, or Nindemann, written on it.
It was plain to Dr. Nansen that these articles had drifted no less than twenty-nine hundred miles and in a period of eleven hundred days, nor could he escape the conviction that a current passes across or very near the Pole into the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. Upon this hypothesis Dr. Nansen urged his plan to take a well-provisioned ship, “built on such principles as to enable it to withstand the pressure of ice—for on this same drift-ice, and by the same route, it must be no less possible to transport an expedition.”
In spite of the madness of his scheme, its condemnation by many of the most eminent Arctic authorities of Europe and America, the Norwegian government extended its patronage, and the “Storthing” granted eleven thousand two hundred and fifty pounds toward the expenses of the expedition, the remainder being collected by private subscription.
The Fram, eight hundred tons displacement, was built with especial attention to the construction of the shape of the hull, so as to offer the greatest possible resistance to the attacks of the ice. She carried requisite provisions for dogs and men for five years, and coal for four months’ steaming at full speed.
The navigation of the Fram was given to Captain Otto Sverdrup; Lieutenant Sigurd Scott-Hansen, of the Norwegian navy, was tendered the management of the meteorological, astronomical, and magnetic observations. Dr. Henrik Blessing, physician and botanist, Chief Engineer Anton Amundsen, Lieutenant in the Reserve, Frederick Johannesen, whose eagerness to accompany the expedition led him to accept the position of stoker, and seven others, made up the personnel of the expedition.
VOYAGE ON THE “FRAM”
The Fram left Norway in June, 1893, skirted the north coasts of Europe and Asia, and put into the Polar pack ice near the New Siberia Island, September 22, 1893.
Frozen fast in the ice three days later, the Fram stood off northwest of Saunikof Land in 78° 50´ N., 134° E. It now behooved the company to ship rudder, clean the boilers, and prepare for winter. No idle moments could be spared, rigging must be cared for, sails inspected, provisions of all kinds got out from the cases down in the hold, and handed over to the cook, and the smithy called upon for his offices in repairing bear traps, hooks, knives, etc.