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Centennial of the Norwegian Polar Expedition on Board of the M. Fram 1893-1896

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Centennial of the Norwegian Polar Expedition on Board of the M. Fram 1893-1896 Stefan M. Matalewski XX Polar Symposium Arctic Club of Szczecin, Poland Lublin, 1993 CENTENNIAL OF THE NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPEDITION ON BOARD OF THE FRAM, 1893-1896 It was during a meeting of the Norwegian Geographical Society in Christiania on 18 February 1890 that Fridtjof Nansen presented, for the first time in public, his plan of arranging a pioneering voyage on board a pack ice-bound ship. The basic objective of the trip was to explore the so far unvisited central region of the Arctic; Nansen did not exclude a possibility of reaching the North Pole. The scientific aspects of the expedition included collecting meteorological, oceano- graphic, geophysical (atmospheric electricity and Earth magnetism), and marine biological data; additionally, it was hoped to check whether a vast land surrounded by ice-free water did really exist in the central Arctic Ocean, a hypothesis promoted with a particular vigour by the German geographer August Petermann. The expedition was to begin where, in June 1881, the Jeanette, a vessel belonging to an American North Pole expedition was crushed by ice NE of New Siberian Islands (77° 15' N, 154°59' E). Nansen planned to reach his starting point by travelling through Bering Strait. The expedition was to take 3 years, with the supplies allowing a 5-year duration. Nansen was to be the expedition leader, while Captain Otto N. Sverdrup was to command a crew of 11 and Sigurd Scott-Hansen was in charge of scientific data collection. The idea of a ship drifting with pack ice was nothing new; however, using a vessel specially designed for such a trip was a real breakthrough in the history of marine polar exploration. For the expedition to succeed, the ship—propelled by sails and engine — had to be small, but having an extremely strong wooden hull, able to withstand the winter among the moving Arctic pack ice. The hull design was based on the coconut shell shape. Should the ice pressure be particularly forceful, such a hull was expected to pop the ship up above the water level instead of letting the ice crush it. The expedition had been conceived when young Nansen, while sailing on board the Viking, a hunting boat, observed numerous trunks of Siberian trees carried by the Arctic ice and realized the presence of a trans-Arctic current flowing from Bering Strait to Greenland Sea. The finding, in August 1884, of about 50 objects belonging to the Jeannette's crew on a floe off Julianehaab (SW Greenland) strengthened Nansen's 95 conviction that his plan was very sound. Mr Lytzen, the Danish administrator of Julianehaab who made an inventory of the objects found among other things a commissionary invoice, signed by George W. de Long, the expedition leader, and personal belongings of two crew members marked with their names: Louis Noros and F. C. Nindemann. Morgenbladet, a Norwegian newspaper, brought information about the Julianehaab finding in its Sunday, 30 November 1884, edition and published a commentary by Professor Henrik Mohn. The floe carrying the objects took 1100 days (3 years) to cover the distance from where Jeannette had sunk to Julianehaab (about 2900 nautical miles) and travelled with an average speed of 2.6 Nm per day. Assuming the shortest route, over the North Pole, the average speed would be 2.0 Nm per day. That last value would correspond to the velocity of Jeannette's drift in its final stage, that is from 1 January through 12 June 1881. The data referred to by Mohn allowed Nansen to calculate the duration of his planned trip. Nansen's project proved quite controversial. A particularly negative response came from the United States; General A. Greely referred to „a suicidal plan of Dr. Nansen" and considered the Julianehaab finding a fake. George Melville, de Long's deputy was of the opinion that no wooden boat was capable of withstanding the pressure of ice. On the other hand, Nansen's plan won a support of numerous prominent European scientists, including Professors Supan and Koldewey in Germany and J. Payer in Austria. The Russian Edward Toll provided Nansen with meteorological data collected at Station Sagastyr in the mouth of the Lena, supplied a team of Siberian sledge dogs, and persuaded Nansen to reach the New Siberian Island through Barents, Kara, and Laptyev Seas instead of taking the Bering Strait route. Admiral S. Makarov of St. Petersburg shared with Nansen his observations and practical knowledge of the area. Norwegians responded to Nansen's plan with enthusiasm. In June 1890, the parliament appropriated 200,000 kroner to support the expedition, the govern- ment presented 80,000 kroner and King Oskar the Second supported Nansen with 20,000 kroner. Funds were also raised by the Norwegian Geographical Society and individuals (for example, a Norwegian living in Riga donated 1000 rubles). The Royal Geographic Society in London presented the expedition with 300 pounds sterling. In December 1890, Nansen and Sverdrup went to Larvik to visit Colin Archer, a well known ship builder, and to secure his support. They placed an official order for the ship in Archer's shipyard in Rekvik. Although hesitant at first, Archer — who had so far built small boats only — eventually accepted the order and on 10 July 1891, following numerous meetings and discussions on models of different versions of a polar vessel, the construction of Nansen's new ship began. The construction materials included the Italian oak timber, used by Navy shipbuilders, seasoned during 30 years. 96 During a solemn launching ceremony on 26 October 1892, Eva Eva named the new ship Fram. At the end of that year, the ship was towed to Christiania to be provided with masts, sails, steam engine, and other parts of the rigging. The Fram was designed as a three-mast gaff schooner with two head yards. The technical details of the ship are as follows: total length 39.0 m length at water-line 36.25 m total width 11.0m width at water-line 10.4 m draught 4.75 m displacement 800.0 t gross tonnage 402.0 RT sail surface area 600.0 m2 steam engine power 220.0 HP crew 13 It is noteworthy that the sides in the lower part of the hull were built of several layers of timber with a total thickness of 70-80 cm. On 24 June 1893, the Fram left Piperviken Bay in Christiania and began her extraordinary voyage. The history of the expedition can be divided into four stages. STAGE 1. Navigation from Christiania to Laptyev Sea, 24 June — 22 September 1893 On 21 July, the Fram left Vardo, her last Norwegian port, steaming towards Yugorskiy Shar Strait where in the Russian village of Khabarovo the dogs purchased by Toll had been waiting. Having failed to meet the Urania, a coal supplying vessel, the Fram left Khabarovo a few days later, heading towards the New Siberian Islands. On 22 September, before the Islands could be reached, the ship was surrounded by compact pack ice and moored to a large thick floe (78°50'N, 133°30'E). STAGE 2. Drift of ice-bound Fram, 22 September 1893 — 16 July 1896 On 7 October 1893, the vessel experienced the first serious pressure of ice and, to quote Nansen, behaved in a wonderful way as was expected of her. As the sea currents in that area were weak, the ship was pushed by the wind to the south-east to reach, on 7 November, her southernmost position (77°43'N, 138°08'E). On 25 December, the temperature dropped to -38°C. Meteorological observations were being carried out every 4 hours; the ship's position was taken every other day. On 2 February 1894, the Fram crossed the 80° N parallel drifting slowly WNW, her stern turned north. On 12 March, the temperature dropped to -51.6°C, the lowest during the entire voyage. On 6 April, the crew witnessed the total solar eclipse the timing of which had been calculated by Scott-Hansen. On 97 7 August, the Arctic Ocean depth of 3850 m was measured, the largest throughout the trip. During sampling within 13-17 August, the following thermal stratification of the sea water, involving 3 layers, was revealed: 2-200 m layer with temperature of -1.32° to -0.03°C; 220-800 m layer with temperature of +0.19° to + 0.07°C; 900-3800 m layer with temperature of -0.04° to -0.64°C. In Nansen's opinion the middle layer was of Atlantic origin. On 5/6 January 1895, the ship experienced an exceptionally strong pressure of a moving, 2-3 m thick pack ice against her port side and the crew got ready to abandon ship; food supplies and life saving equipment had earlier been placed in a safe place on ice. The resultant deck damage was soon repaired; a thorough inspection of the Fram's interior revealed no leaks. On 14 March, Nansen and Lieutenant F. Johansen left the ship (84°04' N, 102°27' E) with the intention of reaching the North Pole. Captain Sverdrup took over the leader's position. On 15 November, the Fram attained her northernmost latitude of 85°55'30" N (lon- gitude 66°31' E) from where she drifted to the south-west. The drift was ended on 17 July at 82°30' N. STAGE 3. The North Pole party Having left the ship on 14 March 1895, Nansen and Johansen who had with them 3 sledges to carry about 800 kg of luggage (including 2 kayaks), pulled by 28 dogs, turned north and covered 120 km during the first week of their trek.
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