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 Fram inAntarctica during Roald Amundsen's expedition | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Norway | |
| Name | Fram |
| Builder | Colin Archer,Larvik,Norway |
| Launched | 26 October 1892 |
| In service | 1893 |
| Out of service | 1912 |
| Status | Preserved; on display at theFram Museum,Oslo |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Schooner |
| Tonnage | 402 GRT[1] |
| Length | 127 ft 8 in (38.9 m) |
| Beam | 34 ft (10.36 m) |
| Draft | 15 ft (4.57 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 7knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) |
| Complement | 16 |
Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of theArctic andAntarctic regions by theNorwegian explorersFridtjof Nansen,Otto Sverdrup,Oscar Wisting, andRoald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwrightColin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freezeFram into theArctic ice sheet and float with it over theNorth Pole.
Fram is preserved as amuseum ship at theFram Museum inOslo, Norway.
Nansen's ambition was to explore the Arctic farther north than anyone else—to the North Pole, if possible. To do that, he would have to deal with a problem that many sailing on the polar ocean had encountered before him: the freezing ice could crush a ship. Nansen's idea was to build a ship that could survive the pressure, not by pure strength, but because it would be of a shape designed to let the ice push the ship up, so it would "float" on top of the ice.
Fram is a three-mastedschooner with a total length of 39 metres (127 ft 11 in) and width of 11 metres (36 ft 1 in). The ship is both unusually wide and unusually shallow in order to better withstand the forces of pressing ice. A disadvantage of this design is that itrolled more than most ships in heavy seas.
Nansen commissioned the shipwrightColin Archer fromLarvik to construct a vessel with these characteristics.Fram was built with an outer layer ofgreenheart wood to withstand the ice and with almost nokeel to handle the shallow waters Nansen expected to encounter. Therudder andpropeller were designed to be retracted. The ship was also carefully insulated to allow the crew to live on board for up to five years. The ship also included awindmill, which ran a generator to provide electric power for lighting byelectric arc lamps.[2]
Initially,Fram was fitted with a steam engine. Prior to Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole in 1910, the engine was replaced with adiesel engine, a first for polar exploration vessels. The new engine allowed for a longer voyage without refueling.
The ship waslaunched on 26 October 1892.[4]
Fram was used in several expeditions:
Wreckage found at Greenland fromUSS Jeannette, which was lost off Siberia, and driftwood found in the regions ofSvalbard andGreenland, suggested that anocean current flowed beneath the Arctic ice sheet from east to west, bringing driftwood from theSiberian region to Svalbard and further west. Nansen hadFram built in order to explore this theory.
He undertook an expedition that came to last three years. When Nansen realised thatFram would not reach the North Pole directly by the force of the current, he andHjalmar Johansen set out to reach it on skis. After reaching 86° 14' north, he had to turn back to spend the winter atFranz Josef Land. Nansen and Johansen survived onwalrus andpolar bear meat andblubber. Finally meeting British explorers, theJackson–Harmsworth expedition, they arrived back in Norway only days before theFram also returned there. The ship had spent nearly three years trapped in the ice, reaching 85° 57' N.[6]
In 1898,Otto Sverdrup, who had broughtFram back on the first Arctic voyage, led a scientific expedition to theCanadian Arctic Archipelago.Fram was slightly modified for this journey, itsfreeboard being increased.Fram left harbour on 24 June 1898, with 17 men on board. Their aim was to chart the lands of the Arctic Islands, and to sample the geology, flora and fauna. The expeditions lasted until 1902, leading to charts covering 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi), more than any other Arctic expedition.[7]
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Fram was used byRoald Amundsen in his southern polar expedition from 1910 to 1912, the first to reach the South Pole, during whichFram reached 78° 41' S.
The ship was left to decay in storage from 1912 until the late 1920s, whenLars Christensen,Otto Sverdrup andOscar Wisting initiated efforts to preserve it via the Fram Committee. In 1935, the ship was installed in theFram Museum, where it now stands.
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