Fram drift

Fridtjof Nansen · 1893 CE – 1896 CE · Earth

Fram drift — Fridtjof Nansen · 1893 CE – 1896 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Freeze a ship into the pack north of Siberia and drift with the ice across the unknown polar sea, through or near the North Pole.

Historical context

Relics of the American ship Jeannette, crushed north of Siberia in 1881, turned up three years later on the ice off south-west Greenland. Nansen bet that a ship frozen into the Arctic pack would drift the same way, across or near the pole. Colin Archer built the Fram for him, shaped to be lifted by the ice rather than crushed by it.

The voyage, step by step

  1. The Fram sets out

    24 June 1893

    On 24 June 1893 Nansen sails from Christiania intending to freeze his ship into the ice and drift toward the pole.

  2. Frozen into the pack

    22 September 1893

    On 22 September 1893, north of the New Siberian Islands, the Fram makes fast to a floe; the ice closes round her, and she is lifted by the ice rather than crushed.

  3. Farthest north

    8 April 1895

    Leaving the Fram on 14 March 1895, Nansen and Johansen push north on skis with dogs and sledges; on 8 April, at a record northern latitude by their reckoning, they turn back.

  4. Rescue in Franz Josef Land

    17 June 1896

    After a winter in a stone hut, on 17 June 1896 Nansen meets Frederick Jackson, leader of a British expedition, on the ice near Cape Flora.

Outcome

The Fram drifted from the New Siberian Islands to the sea north of Spitsbergen; Nansen and Johansen reached 86° 13.6′ N by Nansen’s reckoning, a farthest north, and all thirteen men came home in August 1896.

Fridtjof Nansen

Norwegian scientist and explorer who crossed Greenland on skis and drifted the Fram across the Arctic Ocean.

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Sources

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