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The Polar Vessel Fram
1992 marked the centenary of the year in which the polar
vessel Fram was launched. The name Fram - which means "forward" in
Norwegian - is inseparably linked with some of the most significant achievements in
Norwegian and international polar history, and with some of the greatest explorers of
recent times.
By Kåre Berg, Director of the Fram Museum
After having crossed the Greenland icefield with five men in
1888, the Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen decided to investigate the unexplored
inner waters of the Arctic by letting a ship freeze into the ice near the Bering Strait.
He was convinced that a strong northwesterly current ran from Siberia to the North Pole
and from there southward along the coast of Greenland, and he set out to prove the truth
of his theory. He further calculated that the current would bring him within reach of the
North Pole, and that within three years he would be the first to set up the Norwegian flag
there.
In 1890 he formulated his plan: "I shall build a vessel as small
and as strong as possible ... which will bear up under pressure from the ice and which
will be lifted up instead of being pushed down by the screwing action of the ice" he
wrote. To design such a ship he approached Colin Archer's shipbuilding yard in Larvik,
which was known throughout Norway for the quality of its pilot and rescue vessels.
No effort was spared to equip the Fram for her task. The ribs
were hewn out of stout logs and strengthened to withstand pressure from the ice, the
70-centimeter thick sides of the vessel were given three shells, the two innermost of oak
and the outermost of greenheart. As an extra protection, the ship was reinforced with
sheets of metal fore and aft, and had a rudder and propellers that could be raised.
Nansen's requirement that the ship should be pushed upwards by the expanding ice as it
froze was met by giving the hull very rounded lines. The 400-tonner was rigged as a
three-masted schooner and equipped with an auxiliary steam engine of 220 hp. There was
also an electricity supply, produced by a small windmill. The specially designed vessel
was christened Fram and launched in 1892 from Larvik.
1. The 1893-96 Expedition (led by Fridtjof Nansen, 1861-1930)
In 1893, with a crew of 12 men and five years' supplies, Nansen left
the shores of Norway and sailed through the Northeast Passage to the New Siberian Islands,
where he allowed the Fram to become frozen into the ice. The ice floe drifted
westward, carrying the ship with it, but it never came as close to the North Pole as
Nansen had hoped. In March 1895 he therefore left the Fram together with Hjalmar
Johansen and tried to reach the pole on skis. After many vicissitudes they arrived at 86o14'N,
further north than any explorer before them, but here they were forced to turn back. After
a dramatic journey home again, they reached Norway on 13 August 1896, the same day that
the ice loosened its grip on the Fram north of Svalbard. Thus Nansen was able to
vindicate his theory of a westward current, and the success of the expedition made the
names of Nansen and the Fram known throughout the world.
2. The 1898-1902 Expedition (led by Otto Sverdrup, 1854-1930)
The Fram was not left to rest on her laurels for long. Less
than two years after her return to Norway she was on her way north again, this time under
the command of Otto Sverdrup. Sverdrup had previously crossed the Greenland icefield
together with Nansen, and it was Sverdrup whom Nansen left in charge of the expedition in
1895, when he set off to reach the North Pole. It was also Sverdrup, incidentally, who
later took the initiative to preserve the Fram as a historical monument.
The 1898 expedition intended to explore the northernmost tip of
Greenland, but the ice was too thick for the Fram to sail through the narrow sound
between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. For four years, from 1898 to 1902, the Fram
lay at anchor in various fjords in Ellesmere Island, serving as a base for expeditions by
sled into the unknown areas to the west and north. The distances covered by the expedition
were enormous, amounting to a total of 18,000 kilometers travelled and over 700 nights
under canvass. A 200,000 square-kilometer group of islands was surveyed and given
Norwegian names, and the scientific findings were considerable. Sverdrup annexed the
islands but they later became part of Canada, which, however, has retained the Norwegian
names.
3. The 1910-12 Expedition (led by Roald Amundsen, 1872-1928)
The Fram left Norway again in August 1910, on its third
expedition. This was under the command of Roald Amundsen and was officially on course for
the North Pole. During the preparations for the expedition, however, word had arrived that
the American Robert Peary had reached the pole on 6 April 1909, and Amundsen secretly
changed his plans and decided to try for the still unconquered South Pole, in competition
with the British explorer Captain Robert Scott. It was not until the expedition reached
Madeira that Amundsen revealed his plans to the other expedition members and to Scott
himself.
On arriving at Hvalbukta in Rosshavet, Amundsen went ashore and
established a station for the winter which he called Framheim. The rest of the story is
well known: he and four companions reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, where he
planted both the Norwegian flag and the Fram pennant, just one month before Scott.
In the meantime other members of the expedition were using the Fram
to explore the Antarctic Ocean, where they sailed as far south as 78o41'.
Therefore, the Fram became the ship which had sailed the furthest north and the
furthest south. The Fram covered 54,000 nautical miles, a distance corresponding to
two and a half times the circumference of the earth.
Amundsen dedicated his life to polar exploration. He was one of the
first to spend the winter in Antarctica, as mate on the Belgica in 1897-99, and in
1903-06 he sailed through the Northwest Passage in the Gj›a and in 1918-25
through the Northeast Passage in the Maud. In 1925 he almost reached 88oN
in the seaplanes N 24 and N 25, and in 1926, together with the American
explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian aviator Umberto Nobile, he made the first
transpolar flight. He disappeared in 1928 along with the French aeroplane Lathan
while attempting to rescue Nobile's Italia expedition.
Fram Museum
After Fram's homecoming in 1914, the fate of the ship was
uncertain for many years. The breakout of the First World War gave people other things to
think about.
In 1916, the first Fram committee was established, at the
initiative of the Kristiania Seamen's Association. The committee agreed that the ship had
to be repaired and preserved for posterity. Otto Sverdrup was, as mentioned, one of the
most active spokespersons for the ship. Money was collected, and in 1929 Fram was
towed to Sandefjord for repairs at Framn‘s Mek. Verksted. In 1935, the vessel
returned to Oslo and was put ashore at Bygd›ynes, where it lies today. A building was
erected over the venerable vessel, and that same year the Fram Museum was
ceremoniously opened with HM King Haakon and then Crown Prince Olav as honored guests.
In 1990-92 the museum was expanded in order to make the permanent
exhibitions more informative. A focus was placed on the classic expeditions to the North
and South Poles, with special displays dedicated to animal life in the Arctic and
Antarctic. Exhibits on Amundsen's journeys with Gj›a, Maud, the
airboats N.24 and N.25 and airship Norge, and the Latham
tragedy were also set up.
Further improvements took place in connection with the museum's 60th
anniversary in 1996, an event that coincided with the 100th anniversary of Fram's
homecoming from the Arctic Ocean.
To commemorate the first journey of Fram, a five kroner coin and
a commemorative medal in silver were struck by the Royal Norwegian Mint in conjunction
with the 60th anniversary of the museum. Over the course of the summer of 1996, the
anniversary was observed in various ways, including a special exhibition at the Norwegian
Information Centre at Vestbanen in Oslo and an anniversary sailing race in the Oslofjord.
In recent years the Fram Museum has attracted around 250,000 visitors a
year.
Produced by Nytt fra Norge for the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The author is responsible for the contents of the article. Reproduced from the Official Documentation and Information from Norway. Printed in June 1996.