THE COURSE OF THE SHIPS ON WATCH, “FRAM” AND “HOBBY,” DURING THE COURSE OF THE EXPEDITION
The dotted area indicates the pack ice.
Furthermore, in the English, French and Norwegian despatches there were a certain number of observations from ships in the Atlantic, which in themselves formed a bridge between the American and European stations. The whole station system therefore formed an almost complete circle round the polar regions, with the exception of Northeast Siberia, where telegraphic communications are still bad, and this of course makes a wide gap.
THE DOTTED AREA, ABOUT 12,000 SQUARE MILES, SHOWS THE TERRITORY EXPLORED BY THE FLIGHT EXPEDITION
The point now was (with the assistance of this net of stations round the Arctic regions) to control an account of conditions moving inside the polar area, and thereby draw conclusions as to what the weather might be like along the flight route. With this in view the weather chart for the whole region was drawn twice a day. Besides this, two charts were prepared daily showing the reports of the European net of stations, so that the weather conditions were being calculated every six hours.
The drawing up of the weather charts took place in one of “Fram’s” afterholds, which (with this end in view) had been prepared as a “weather forecast salon.” There was not overmuch room for all the charts, instruments and other apparatus which had to be kept there, especially as the hold also served the purpose of an office for Dr. Matheson, the expedition’s doctor. But with goodwill from both sides it worked smoothly the whole time, combining the weather forecasting with the doctor’s practice in the same room.
After the weather forecasting was properly established I often had the pleasure of receiving visits from the members of the expedition who were housed on land. During the quiet periods when nothing special was being accomplished, our two journalists were frequent visitors. In lieu of something better to do, they wrote about the weather, simply because it is always possible to say something regarding this subject. As the time for starting approached, Captain Amundsen and the other polar flyers often visited me in order to see what the prospects were. During the times that “Fram” was not lying in safe harborage Captain Hagerup was constantly in communication with the weather-forecasting station in order to ascertain in good time whether wind was approaching which might drive the drift-ice towards us. On the whole I could not complain about the amount of faith that was placed in the weather forecasts, but it was often necessary to reduce this trust by reminding every one how little we really knew.
All the outside observations were made by the meteorologist, Calwagen, Manager of the Meteorological Observatory in Bergen. His duties were so numerous that they deserve a whole chapter in this report, but as it has so far been impossible to make any preparation of the observations, Mr. Calwagen’s calculations must be reserved for later publication in scientific journals. With Mr. Calwagen’s permission I shall only mention here that part of his activity which was of direct use in the weather forecasts.
In order that nothing which happened concerning the weather conditions should pass us unnoticed, Mr. Calwagen made observations as far as possible each hour of the day, continuing until late at night. These observations included wind, sky, cloud movements, cloud structure, cloud altitude, rainfall, atmospheric visibility, atmospheric temperature and dampness, the readings of the barometer, etc. Further we had brought with us a case of self-registering instruments for measuring the atmospheric temperature and the dampness. Inside were two barographs—one in the ship’s instruments’ compartment, and one in the weather-forecast compartment, which both gave information about the changes in the air pressure.