Fridtjof Nansen
Encyclopedia
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (ˈfrɪd.tʃɒf ˈnænsən; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian
explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition
of 1893–96. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.
Nansen studied zoology at the Royal Frederick University
, and later worked as a curator at the Bergen Museum
where his research on the central nervous system of lower marine creatures earned him a doctorate and helped establish modern theories of neurology
. After 1896 his main scientific interest switched to oceanography
; in the course of his researches he made many scientific cruises, mainly in the North Atlantic, and contributed to the development of modern oceanographic equipment. As one of his country's leading citizens, in 1905 Nansen spoke out for the ending of Norway's union with Sweden
, and was instrumental in persuading Prince Charles of Denmark
to accept the throne of the newly independent Norway. Between 1906 and 1908 he served as the Norwegian representative in London, where he helped negotiate the Integrity Treaty that guaranteed Norway's independent status.
In the final decade of his life Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations
, following his appointment in 1921 as the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First World War and related conflicts. Among the initiatives he introduced was the "Nansen passport
" for stateless persons, a certificate recognised by more than 50 countries. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930, after which the League established the Nansen International Office for Refugees
to ensure that his work continued. This office received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1938. Nansen was honoured by many nations, and his name is commemorated in numerous geographical features, particularly in the polar regions.
(1598–1667), a trader, was an early explorer of the White Sea
region of the Arctic Ocean. In later life he settled in Copenhagen, becoming the city's borgmester
in 1654. Later generations of the family lived in Copenhagen until the mid-18th century, when Ancher Antoni Nansen moved to Norway (then ruled by Denmark). His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen (1764–1821), was a magistrate first in the Trondheim
district, later in Jæren
. After Norway's separation from Denmark in 1814, he entered national political life as the representative for Stavanger
in the first Storting, the Norwegian parliament, and became a strong advocate of union with Sweden. After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1821 Hans Leierdahl Nansen died, leaving a four-year-old son, Baldur Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer's father.
Baldur was a lawyer without ambitions for public life, who became Reporter to the Supreme Court of Norway
. He married twice, the second time to Adelaide Johanne Thekla Isidore Bølling Wedel-Jarlsberg, a niece of Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg
who had helped frame the Norwegian constitution of 1814
and was later the Swedish king's Norwegian Viceroy
. Baldur and Adelaide settled at Store Frøen, an estate at Aker, a few miles north of Norway's capital city, Christiania
(since renamed Oslo). The couple had three children; the first died in infancy, the second, born 10 October 1861, was Fridtjof Nansen.
Store Frøen's rural surroundings shaped the nature of Nansen's childhood. In the short summers the main activities were swimming and fishing, while in the autumn the chief pastime was hunting for game in the forests. The long winter months were devoted mainly to skiing, which Nansen began to practice at the age of two, on improvised skis. At the age of 10 he defied his parents and attempted the ski jump at the nearby Huseby installation. This exploit had near-disastrous consequences, as on landing the skis dug deep into the snow, pitching the boy forward: "I, head first, described a fine arc in the air ... [W]hen I came down again I bored into the snow up to my waist. The boys thought I had broken my neck, but as soon as they saw there was life in me ... a shout of mocking laughter went up." Nansen's enthusiasm for skiing was undiminished, though as he records, his efforts were overshadowed by those of the skiers from the mountainous region of Telemark
, where a new style of skiing
was being developed. "I saw this was the only way", wrote Nansen later.
At school, Nansen worked adequately without showing any particular aptitude. Studies took second place to sports, or to expeditions into the forests where he would live "like Robinson Crusoe
" for weeks at a time. Through such experiences Nansen developed a marked degree of self-reliance. He became an accomplished skier and a highly proficient skater
. Life was disrupted when, in the summer of 1877, Adelaide Nansen died suddenly. Distressed, Baldur Nansen sold the Store Frøen property and moved with his two sons to Christiania. Nansen's sporting prowess continued to develop; at 18 he broke the world one-mile (1.6 km) skating record, and in the following year won the national cross-country skiing championship, a feat he would repeat on 11 subsequent occasions.
. He decided to study zoology
, claiming later that he chose the subject because he thought it offered the chance of a life in the open air. He began his studies at the Royal Frederick University early in 1881.
Early in 1882 Nansen took "...the first fatal step that led me astray from the quiet life of science." Professor Robert Collett
of the university's zoology department proposed that Nansen take a sea voyage, to study Arctic zoology at first hand. Nansen was enthusiastic, and made arrangements through a recent acquaintance, Captain Axel Krefting, commander of the sealer
Viking
. The voyage began on 11 March 1882 and extended over the following five months. In the weeks before sealing started, Nansen was able to concentrate on scientific studies. From water samples he showed that, contrary to previous assumption, sea ice forms on the surface of the water rather than below. His readings also demonstrated that the Gulf Stream
flows beneath a cold layer of surface water. Through the spring and early summer Viking roamed between Greenland and Spitsbergen
in search of seal herds. Nansen became an expert marksman, and on one day proudly recorded that his team had shot 200 seal. In July, Viking became trapped in the ice close to an unexplored section of the Greenland coast; Nansen longed to go ashore, but this was impossible. However, he began to develop the idea that the Greenland icecap
might be explored, or even crossed. On 17 July the ship broke free from the ice, and early in August was back in Norwegian waters..
Nansen did not resume formal studies at the university. Instead, on Collett's recommendation, he accepted a post as curator in the zoological department of the Bergen Museum
. He was to spend the next six years of his life there—apart from a six-month sabbatical tour of Europe—working and studying with leading figures such as Gerhard Armauer Hansen
, the discoverer of the leprosy
bacillus, and Daniel Cornelius Danielssen
, the museum's director who had turned it from a backwater collection into a centre of scientific research and education. Nansen's chosen area of study was the then relatively unexplored field of neuroanatomy
, specifically the central nervous system of lower marine creatures. Before leaving for his sabbatical in February 1886 he published a paper summarising his research to date, in which he stated that "anastomoses or unions between the different ganglion cells" could not be demonstrated with certainty. This unorthodox view, confirmed by the simultaneous researches of the embryologist Wilhelm His
and the psychiatrist August Forel, made Nansen a co-founder of the modern theory of the nervous system. His subsequent paper, The Structure and Combination of Histological Elements of the Central Nervous System, published in 1887, became his doctoral thesis.
The idea of an expedition across the Greenland icecap grew in Nansen's mind throughout his Bergen years. In 1887, after the submission of his doctoral thesis, he finally began organising this project. Before then, the two most significant penetrations of the Greenland interior had been those of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
in 1883, and Robert Peary
in 1886. Both had set out from Disko Bay
on the western coast, and had travelled about 160 kilometres (99.4 mi) eastward before turning back. By contrast, Nansen proposed to travel from east to west, ending rather than beginning his trek at Disko Bay. A party setting out from the inhabited west coast would, he reasoned, have to make a return trip, as no ship could be certain of reaching the dangerous east coast and picking them up. By starting from the east—assuming that a landing could be made there—Nansen's would be a one-way journey towards a populated area. The party would have no line of retreat to a safe base; the only way to go would be forward, a situation that fitted Nansen's philosophy completely.
Nansen rejected the complex organisation and heavy manpower of other Arctic ventures, and instead planned his expedition for a small party of six. Supplies would be manhauled
on specially designed lightweight sledges. Much of the equipment, including sleeping bags, clothing and cooking stoves, also needed to be designed from scratch. These plans received a generally poor reception in the press; one critic had no doubt that "if [the] scheme be attempted in its present form ... the chances are ten to one that he will ... uselessly throw his own and perhaps others' lives away". The Norwegian parliament refused to provide financial support, believing that such a potentially risky undertaking should not be encouraged. The project was eventually launched with a donation from a Danish businessman, Augustin Gamél; the rest came mainly from small contributions from Nansen's countrymen, through a fundraising effort organised by students at the university.
Despite the adverse publicity, Nansen received numerous applications from would-be adventurers. He wanted expert skiers, and attempted to recruit from the skiers of Telemark, but his approaches were rebuffed. Nordenskiöld had advised Nansen that Sami people
, from Finnmark
in the far north of Norway, were expert snow travellers, so Nansen recruited a pair. The remaining places went to Otto Sverdrup
, a former sea-captain who had more recently worked as a forester; Oluf Christian Dietrichson
, an army officer, and Kristian Kristiansen, an acquaintance of Sverdrup's. All had experience of outdoor life in extreme conditions, and were experienced skiers. Just before the party's departure, Nansen attended a formal examination at the university, which had agreed to receive his doctoral thesis. In accordance with custom he was required to defend his work before appointed examiners acting as "devil's advocates"
. He left before knowing the outcome of this process.
by the sealer Jason
. A week later the Greenland coast was sighted, but progress was hindered by thick pack ice
. On 17 July, with the coast still 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) away, Nansen decided to launch the small boats; they were within sight of the Sermilik Fjord
, which Nansen believed would offer a route up on to the icecap.
The expedition left Jason "in good spirits and with the highest hopes of a fortunate result", according to Jason's captain. There followed days of extreme frustration for the party as, prevented by weather and sea conditions from reaching the shore, they drifted southwards with the ice. Most of this time was spent camping on the ice itself—it was too dangerous to launch the boats. By 29 July they were 380 kilometres (236.1 mi) south of the point where they had left the ship. On that day they finally reached land, but were too far south to begin the crossing. After a brief rest, Nansen ordered the team back into the boats and to begin rowing north.
During the next 12 days the party battled northward along the coast through the ice flows. On the first day they encountered a large Eskimo encampment near Cape Bille, and there were further occasional contacts with the nomadic native population as the journey continued. On 11 August, when they had covered about 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) and had reached Umivik Fjord, Nansen decided that although they were still far south of his intended starting place, they needed to begin the crossing before the season became too advanced for travel. After landing at Umivik, they spent the next four days preparing for their journey, and on the evening of 15 August they set out. They were heading north-west, towards Christianhaab (now Qasigiannguit)
on the west Greenland shores of Disko Bay, 600 kilometres (372.8 mi) away.
Over the next few days the party struggled to ascend the inland ice over a treacherous surface with many hidden crevasses. The weather was generally bad; on one occasion all progress was halted for three days by violent storms and continuous rain. On 26 August Nansen concluded that there was now no chance of reaching Christianhaab by mid-September, when the last ship was due to leave. He therefore ordered a change of course, almost due west towards Godthaab (now Nuuk)
, a shorter journey by at least 150 kilometres (93.2 mi). The rest of the party, according to Nansen, "hailed the change of plan with acclamation". They continued climbing, until on 11 September they had reached a height of 8922 feet (2,719.4 m) above sea level, the summit of the icecap with temperatures dropping to -50 F at night. From then on the downward slope made travelling easier, although the terrain was difficult and the weather remained hostile. Progress was slow because of fresh snowfalls which made dragging the sledges as hard as pulling them through sand. By 26 September they had battled their way down to the edge of a fjord
that ran westward towards Godthaab . From their tent, some local willows and parts of the sledges Sverdrup constructed a makeshift boat, and on 29 September Nansen and Sverdrup began the last stage of the journey, rowing down the fjord. Four days later, on 3 October 1888, they reached Godthaab, where they were greeted by the town's Danish representative. His first words were to inform Nansen that he had been awarded his doctorate, a matter that "could not have been more remote from my thoughts at that moment". The crossing had been accomplished in 49 days, making 78 days in total since they had left the Jason; throughout the journey the team had maintained careful meteorological, geographical and other records relating to the previously unexplored interior. The rest of the team arrived in Godthaab on 12 October.
Nansen soon learned that no ship was likely to call at Godthaab until the following spring, though they were able to send letters back to Norway via a boat leaving Ivigtut at the end of October. He and his party therefore spent the next seven months in Greenland, hunting, fishing and studying the life of the local inhabitants. On 15 April 1889 the Danish ship Hvidbjørnen finally entered the harbour, and Nansen and his comrades prepared to depart. "It was not without sorrow that we left this place and these people, among whom we had enjoyed ourselves so well", Nansen recorded.
.
Nansen accepted the position of curator of the Royal Frederick University's zoology collection, a post which carried a salary but involved no duties; the university was satisfied by the association with the explorer's name. Nansen's main task in the following weeks was writing his account of the expedition, but he found time late in June to visit London, where he met the Prince of Wales
(the future King Edward VII), and addressed a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society
(RGS). The RGS president, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff
, said that Nansen has claimed "the foremost place amongst northern travellers", and later awarded him the Society's prestigious Founder's Medal. This was one of many honours Nansen received from institutions all over Europe. He was invited by a group of Australians to lead an expedition to Antarctica, but declined, believing that Norway's interests would be better served by a North Pole conquest.
On 11 August 1889 Nansen announced his engagement to Eva Sars, the daughter of Michael Sars
, a zoology professor who had died when Eva was 11 years old. The couple had met some years previously, at the skiing resort of Frognerseteren
, where Nansen recalled seeing "two feet sticking out of the snow". Eva was three years older than Nansen, and despite the evidence of this first meeting, was an accomplished skier. She was also a celebrated classical singer who had been coached in Berlin by Désirée Artôt
, one-time paramour of Tchaikovsky
. The engagement surprised many, since Nansen had previously expressed himself forcefully against the institution of marriage; Otto Sverdrup assumed he had read the message wrongly. The wedding took place on 6 September 1889, less than a month after the engagement.
Nansen first began to consider the possibility of reaching the North Pole by using the natural drift of the polar ice when, in 1884, he read the theories of Henrik Mohn
, the distinguished Norwegian meteorologist
. Artefacts found on the Greenland coast had been identified as coming from the lost US Arctic exploration vessel Jeannette
, which had been crushed and sunk in June 1881 on the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean, off the Siberian coast. Mohn surmised that the location of the artefacts indicated the existence of an ocean current, flowing from east to west all the way across the polar sea, possibly over the pole itself. A strong enough ship might therefore enter the frozen Siberian sea, and drift to the Greenland coast via the pole.
This idea remained with Nansen during following years. After his triumphant return from Greenland he began to develop a detailed plan for a polar venture, which he made public in February 1890 at a meeting of the recently formed Norwegian Geographical Society. Previous expeditions, he argued, had approached the North Pole from the west, and had failed because they were working against the prevailing east-west current. The secret of success was to work with this current. A workable plan, Nansen said, would require a small, strong and manoeuvrable ship capable of carrying fuel and provisions for twelve men for five years. The ship would sail to the approximate location of Jeannette's sinking, and would enter the ice. It would then drift west with the current towards the pole and beyond it, eventually reaching the sea between Greenland and Spitsbergen.
Many experienced polar hands were dismissive of Nansen's plans. The retired American explorer Adolphus Greely
called the idea "an illogical scheme of self-destruction". Sir Allen Young, a veteran of the searches for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition
, and Sir Joseph Hooker
, who had sailed south with James Clark Ross
in 1839–43, were equally dismissive. However, after an impassioned speech Nansen secured the support of the Norwegian parliament, which voted him a grant. The balance of funding was met by private donations and from a national appeal.
, Norway's leading shipbuilder and naval architect, to design and build a suitable ship for the planned expedition. Using some of the hardest timber available, and an intricate system of crossbeams and braces throughout its length, Archer built a vessel of extraordinary strength. Its rounded hull was designed so that there was nothing upon which ice could get a grip. Speed and sailing performance were secondary to the requirement of making the ship a safe and warm shelter during a predicted lengthy confinement. With an overall length of 128 feet (39 m) and a breadth of 36 feet (11 m), the length-to-breadth ratio of just over three to one gave the ship its stubby appearance, justified by Archer thus: "A ship that is built with exclusive regard to its suitability for [Nansen's] object must differ essentially from any known vessel." The ship was launched by Eva Nansen
at Archer's yard at Larvik
, on 6 October 1892, and was named Fram
, in English "Forward".
From thousands of applicants, Nansen chose a party of twelve. Otto Sverdrup from the Greenland expedition was appointed captain of Fram and second-in-command of the expedition. Competition for places on the voyage was such that reserve Army lieutenant and dog-driving expert Hjalmar Johansen
signed on as ship's stoker, the only position available.
, in the far north-east of Norway. Fram left Vardø on 21 July, following the North-East Passage route pioneered by Nordenskiöld in 1878–79, along the northern coast of Siberia. Progress was impeded by fog and ice conditions in the mainly uncharted seas. The crew also experienced the dead water
phenomenon, where a ship's forward progress is impeded by friction caused by a layer of fresh water lying on top of heavier salt water. Nevertheless, Cape Chelyuskin
, the most northerly point of the Eurasian continental mass, was passed on 10 September. Ten days later, as Fram approached the area in which Jeannette had been crushed, heavy pack ice
was sighted at around latitude 78°N. Nansen followed the line of the pack northwards to a position recorded as 78°49′N, 132°53′E, before ordering engines stopped and the rudder raised. From this point Fram's drift began.
The first weeks in the ice were frustrating, as the drift moved unpredictably, sometimes north, sometimes south; by 19 November Fram's latitude was south of that at which she had entered the ice. Only after the turn of the year, in January 1894, did the northerly direction become generally settled; the 80° mark was finally passed on 22 March. Nansen calculated that, at this rate, it might take the ship five years to reach the pole. As the ship's northerly progress continued at a rate rarely above a mile (1.6 km) a day, Nansen began privately to consider a new plan—a dog sled
ge journey towards the pole. With this in mind he began to practice dog-driving, making many experimental journeys over the ice. In November Nansen announced his plan: when the ship passed latitude 83° he and Hjalmar Johansen would leave the ship with the dogs and make for the pole while Fram, under Sverdrup, continued its drift until it emerged from the ice in the North Atlantic. After reaching the pole, Nansen and Johansen would make for the nearest known land, the recently discovered and sketchily mapped Franz Josef Land
. They would then cross to Spitsbergen
where they would find a ship to take them home.
The crew spent the rest of the 1894–95 winter preparing clothing and equipment for the forthcoming sledge journey. Kayaks were built, to be carried on the sledges until needed for the crossing of open water. Preparations were interrupted early in January when violent tremors shook the ship. The crew disembarked, fearing that the vessel would be crushed, but Fram proved herself equal to the danger. On 8 January 1895 the ship's position was 83°34′N, above Greely's previous Farthest North
record of 83°24.
observation indicated that they were averaging nine nautical miles a day, (17 km; 10 mi), putting them ahead of schedule. However, uneven surfaces made skiing more difficult, and their speeds slowed. They also realised that they were marching against a southerly drift, and that distances travelled did not necessarily equate to northerly progression. On 3 April Nansen began to wonder whether the pole was, indeed, attainable. Unless their speed improved, their food would not last them to the pole and then on to Franz Josef Land. He confided in his diary: "I have become more and more convinced we ought to turn before time." On 7 April, after making camp and observing that the way ahead was "a veritable chaos of iceblocks stretching as far as the horizon", Nansen decided to turn south. He recorded the latitude of the final northerly camp as 86°13.6′N, almost three degrees beyond the previous Farthest North mark.
s stopped. Without knowing the correct time, it was impossible for them to calculate their longitude and thus navigate their way accurately to Franz Josef Land. They restarted the watches on the basis of Nansen's guess that they were at longitude 86°E, but from then on were uncertain of their true position.
Towards the end of April they observed the tracks of an Arctic fox
, the first trace they had seen of a living creature other than their dogs since leaving Fram. Soon they began to see bear tracks, and by the end of May seals, gulls and whales were in evidence. On 31 May, by Nansen's calculations, they were only 50 nmi (92.6 km; 57.5 mi) from Cape Fligely, the northernmost known point of Franz Josef Land. However, travel conditions worsened as the warmer weather caused the ice to break up. On 22 June the pair decided to rest on a stable ice floe while they repaired their equipment and gathered their strength for the next stage of their journey. They remained on the floe for a month. The day after leaving this camp Nansen recorded: "At last the marvel has come to pass—land, land, and after we had almost given up our belief in it!" Whether this still-distant land was Franz Josef Land or a new discovery they did not know—they had only a rough sketch map to guide them. On 6 August they reached the edge of the ice, where they shot the last of their dogs—they had been killing the weakest regularly since 24 April, to feed the others. They then lashed their two kayaks together, raised a sail and made for the land.
It was soon clear that this land was part of a group of islands. As they moved slowly southwards, Nansen tentatively identified a headland as Cape Felder, on the western edge of Franz Josef Land. Towards the end of August, as the weather grew colder and travel became increasingly difficult, Nansen decided to camp for the winter. In a sheltered cove, with stones and moss for building materials, the pair erected a hut which was to be their home for the next eight months. With ready supplies of bear, walrus and seal to keep their larder stocked, their principal enemy was not hunger but inactivity. After muted Christmas and New Year celebrations, in slowly improving weather they began to prepare to leave their refuge, but it was 19 May 1896 before they were able to resume their journey.
, Nansen thought he heard sounds of a dog barking, and of voices. He went to investigate, and a few minutes later saw the figure of a man approaching. It was the British explorer Frederick Jackson
, who was leading an expedition to Franz Josef Land and was camped at nearby Cape Flora on Northbrook Island
. The two were equally astonished by their encounter; after some awkward hesitation Jackson asked: "You are Nansen, aren't you?", and received the reply "Yes, I am Nansen." Johansen was soon picked up, and the pair were taken to Cape Flora where, during the following weeks, they recuperated from their ordeal. Nansen later wrote that he could "still scarcely grasp" the sudden change of fortune; had it not been for the walrus attack that caused the delay, the two parties might have been unaware of each other's existence.
On 7 August Nansen and Johansen boarded Jackson's supply ship Windward, and sailed for Vardø where they arrived on the 13th. They were greeted by Hans Mohn, the originator of the polar drift theory, who was in the town by chance. The world was quickly informed by telegram of Nansen's safe return, but as yet there was no news of Fram. Taking the weekly mail steamer south, Nansen and Johansen reached Hammerfest
on 18 August, where they learned that Fram had been sighted. She had emerged from the ice north and west of Spitsbergen, as Nansen had predicted, and was now on her way to Tromsø. She had not passed over the pole, nor exceeded Nansen's northern mark. Without delay Nansen and Johansen sailed for Tromsø, where they were reunited with their comrades.
The homeward voyage to Christiania was a series of triumphant receptions at every port. On 9 September Fram was escorted into Christiania's harbour and welcomed by the largest crowds the city had ever seen. The crew were received by King Oscar, and Nansen, reunited with family, remained at the palace for several days as a special guest. Tributes arrived from all over the world; typical was that from the British mountaineer Edward Whymper
, who wrote that Nansen had made "almost as great an advance as has been accomplished by all other voyages in the nineteenth century put together".
on Nansen's decision to leave Fram and strike for the pole: "It passes comprehension how Nansen could have thus deviated from the most sacred duty devolving on the commander of a naval expedition."
During the 20 years following his return from the Arctic, Nansen devoted most of his energies to scientific work. In 1897 he accepted a professorship in zoology at the Royal Frederick University
, which gave him a base from which he could tackle the major task of editing the reports of the scientific results of the Fram expedition. This was a much more arduous task than writing the expedition narrative. The results were eventually published in six volumes, and according to a later polar scientist, Robert Rudmose-Brown
, "were to Arctic oceanography what the Challenger expedition
results had been to the oceanography of other oceans."
In 1900 Nansen became director of the Christiania-based International Laboratory for North Sea Research, and helped found the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Through his connection with the latter body, in the summer of 1900 Nansen embarked on his first visit to Arctic waters since the Fram expedition, a cruise to Iceland and Jan Mayen Land on the oceanographic research vessel Michael Sars, named after Eva's father. Shortly after his return he learned that his Farthest North record had been passed, by members of the Duke of the Abruzzi
's Italian expedition. They had reached 86°34N on 24 April 1900, in an attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. Nansen received the news philosophically: "What is the value of having goals for their own sake? They all vanish ... it is merely a question of time.
Nansen was now considered an oracle by all would-be explorers of the north and south polar regions. Abruzzi had consulted him, as had the Belgian Adrien de Gerlache
, each of whom took expeditions to the Antarctic. Although Nansen refused to meet his own countryman and fellow-explorer Carsten Borchgrevink (whom he considered a fraud), he gave advice to Robert Falcon Scott
on polar equipment and transport, prior to the 1901–04 Discovery Expedition
. Nansen's advice that dogs provided the best means of polar travel was politely ignored by Scott; nevertheless the two remained on good terms. At one point Nansen seriously considered leading a South Pole expedition himself, and asked Colin Archer to design two ships. However, these plans remained on the drawing board.
By 1901 Nansen's family had expanded considerably. A daughter, Liv, had been born just before Fram set out; a son, Kåre was born in 1897 followed by a daughter, Irmelin, in 1900 and a second son Odd
in 1901. The family home, which Nansen had built in 1891 from the profits of his Greenland expedition book, was now too small. Nansen acquired a plot of land in the Lysaker
district and built, substantially to his own design, a large and imposing house which combined some of the characteristics of an English manor house
with features from the Italian renaissance
. The house was ready for occupation by April 1902; Nansen called it Polhøgda
(in English "polar heights"), and it remained his home for the rest of his life. A fifth and final child, son Asmund, was born at Polhøgda in 1903.
, imposed by the Great Powers in 1814, had been under considerable strain through the 1890s, the chief issue in question being Norway's rights to its own consular service
. Nansen, although not by inclination a politician, had spoken out on the issue on several occasions in defence of Norway's interests. It seemed, early in the 20th century that agreement between the two countries might be possible, but hopes were dashed when negotiations broke down in February 1905. The Norwegian government fell, and was replaced by one led by Christian Michelsen
, whose programme was one of separation from Sweden.
In February and March Nansen published a series of newspaper articles which placed him firmly in the separatist camp. The new prime minister wanted Nansen in the cabinet, but Nansen had no political ambitions. However, at Michelsen's request he went to Berlin and then to London where, in a letter to The Times, he presented Norway's legal case for a separate consular service to the English-speaking world. On 17 May 1905, Norway's Constitution Day, Nansen addressed a large crowd in Christiania, saying: "Now have all ways of retreat been closed. Now remains only one path, the way forward, perhaps through difficulties and hardships, but forward for our country, to a free Norway". He also wrote a book, Norway and the Union with Sweden, specifically to promote Norway's case abroad.
On 23 May the Storting passed the Consulate Act establishing a separate consular service. King Oscar, refused his assent; on 27 May the Norwegian cabinet resigned, but the king would not recognise this step. On 7 June the Storting unilaterally announced that the union with Sweden was dissolved. In a tense situation the Swedish government agreed to Norway's request that the dissolution should be put to a referendum of the Norwegian people. This was held on 13 August 1905 and resulted in an overwhelming vote for separation, at which point King Oscar relinquished the crown of Norway while retaining the Swedish throne. A second referendum, held in November, determined that the new independent state should be a monarchy
rather than a republic. In anticipation of this, Michelsen's government had been considering the suitability of various princes as candidates for the Norwegian throne. Faced with King Oscar's refusal to allow anyone from his own House of Bernadotte to accept the crown, the favoured choice was Prince Charles of Denmark
. In July 1905 Michelsen sent Nansen to Copenhagen on a secret mission to persuade Charles to accept the Norwegian throne. Nansen was successful; shortly after the second referendum Charles was proclaimed king, taking the name Haakon VII. He and his wife, the British princess Maud
, were crowned in the Nidaros Cathedral
in Trondheim
on 22 June 1906.
In April 1906 Nansen was appointed Norway's Ambassador
in London. His main task was to work with representatives of the major European powers on an Integrity Treaty which would guarantee Norway's position. Nansen was popular in England, and got on well with King Edward, though he found court functions and diplomatic duties disagreeable; "frivolous and boring" was his description. However, he was able to pursue his geographical and scientific interests through contacts with the Royal Geographical Society and other learned bodies. The Treaty was signed on 2 November 1907, and Nansen considered his task complete. Resisting the pleas of, among others, King Edward that he should remain in London, on 15 November Nansen resigned his post. A few weeks later, still in England as the king's guest at Sandringham
, Nansen received word that Eva was seriously ill with pneumonia
. On 8 December he set out for home, but before he reached Polhøgda he learned, from a telegram, that Eva had died.
After a period of mourning, Nansen returned to London. He had been persuaded by his government to rescind his resignation until after King Edward's state visit to Norway in April 1908. His formal retirement from the diplomatic service was dated 1 May 1908, the same day on which his university professorship was changed from zoology to oceanography. This new designation reflected the general character of Nansen's more recent scientific interests. In 1905 he had supplied the Swedish physicist Walfrid Ekman with the data which established the principle in oceanography known as the Ekman spiral
. Based on Nansen's observations of ocean currents recorded during the Fram expedition, Ekman concluded that the effect of wind on the sea's surface produced currents which "formed something like a spiral staircase, down towards the depths". In 1909 Nansen combined with Bjørn Helland-Hansen to publish an academic paper, The Norwegian Sea: its Physical Oceanography, based on the Michael Sars voyage of 1900.
Nansen had by now retired from polar exploration, the decisive step being his release of Fram to his fellow-Norwegian Roald Amundsen
, who was planning a North Pole expedition. When Amundsen made his controversial change of plan and set out for the South Pole, Nansen stood by him. Between 1910 and 1914, Nansen participated in a several oceanographic voyages. In 1910, aboard the Norwegian naval vessel Fridtjof, he carried out researches in the northern Atlantic, and in 1912 he took his own yacht, Veslemøy, to Bear Island and Spitsbergen. The main objective of the Veslemøy cruise was the investigation of salinity
in the North Polar Basin. One of Nansen's lasting contributions to oceanography was his work designing instruments and equipment; the "Nansen bottle
" for taking deep water samples remained in use into the 21st century, in a version updated by Shale Niskin
.
At the request of the Royal Geographical Society, Nansen began work on a study of Arctic discoveries, which developed into a two-volume history of the exploration of the northern regions up to the beginning of the 16th century. This was published in 1911 as Nord i Tåkeheimen ("In Northern Mists"). That year he renewed an acquaintance with Kathleen Scott
, wife of Robert Falcon Scott whose Terra Nova Expedition
had sailed for Antarctica in 1910. Biographer Roland Huntford
has asserted that Nansen and Kathleen Scott enjoyed a brief love affair. Many women were attracted to Nansen, and he had a reputation as a womaniser. His personal life was troubled around this time; in January 1913 he received news of the suicide of Hjalmar Johansen, who had returned in disgrace from Amundsen's successful South Pole expedition. In March 1913, Nansen's youngest son Asmund died after a long illness.
In the summer of 1913 Nansen travelled to the Kara Sea, as part of a delegation investigating a possible trade route between Western Europe and the Siberian interior. The party then took a steamer up the Yenisei River
to Krasnoyarsk
, and travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway
to Vladivostok
before turning for home. The life and culture of the Russian peoples aroused in Nansen an interest and sympathy he would carry through to his later life. Immediately before the First World War, Nansen joined Helland-Hansen in an oceanographical cruise in eastern Atlantic waters.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 Norway declared its neutrality, alongside Sweden and Denmark. Nansen was appointed president of the Norwegian Union of Defence, but had few official duties, and continued with his professional work as far as circumstances permitted. As the war progressed, the loss of Norway's overseas trade led to acute shortages of food in the country, which became critical in April 1917 when the United States entered the war and placed extra restrictions on international trade. Nansen was dispatched to Washington by the Norwegian government; after months of discussion he secured food and other supplies in return for the introduction of a rationing system. When his government hesitated over the deal, he signed the agreement on his own initiative.
Within a few months of the war's end in November 1918 a draft agreement had been accepted by the Paris Peace Conference
to create a League of Nations
, as a means of resolving disputes between nations by peaceful means. The foundation of the League at this time was providential as far as Nansen was concerned, giving him a new outlet for his restless energy. He became president of the Norwegian League of Nations Society, and although the Scandinavian nations with their traditions of neutrality initially held themselves aloof, his advocacy helped to ensure that Norway became a full member of the League in 1920, and he became one of its three delegates to the League's General Assembly.
In April 1920, at the League's request, Nansen began organising the repatriation of around half a million prisoners of war, stranded in various parts of the world. Of these, 300,000 were in Russia which, gripped by revolution and civil war, had little interest in their fate. Nansen was able to report to the Assembly in November 1920 that around 200,000 men had been returned to their homes. "Never in my life", he said, "have I been brought into touch with so formidable an amount of suffering." Nansen continued this work for a further two years until, in his final report to the Assembly in 1922, he was able to state that 427,886 prisoners had been repatriated to around 30 different countries. In paying tribute to his work, the responsible committee recorded that the story of his efforts "would contain tales of heroic endeavour worthy of those in the accounts of the crossing of Greenland and the great Arctic voyage."
Even before this work was complete, Nansen was involved in a further humanitarian effort. On 1 September 1921, prompted by the British delegate Philip Noel-Baker, he accepted the post of the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. His main brief was the resettlement of around two million Russian refugees displaced by the upheavals of the Russian Revolution. At the same time he tried to tackle the urgent problem of famine in Russia
; following a widespread failure of crops around 30 million people were threatened with starvation and death. Despite Nansen's pleas on behalf of the starving, Russia's revolutionary government was feared and distrusted internationally, and the League was reluctant to come to its peoples' aid. Nansen had to rely largely on fundraising from private organisations, and his efforts met with limited success. Later he was to express himself bitterly on the matter:
A major problem impeding Nansen's work on behalf of refugees was that most of them lacked documentary proof of identity or nationality. Without legal status in their country of refuge, their lack of papers meant they were unable to go anywhere else. To overcome this, Nansen devised a document that became known as the "Nansen passport
", a form of identity for stateless persons that was in time recognised by more than 50 governments, and which allowed refugees to cross borders legally. Among the more distinguished holders of Nansen passports were the artist Marc Chagall
, the composer Igor Stravinsky
, and the dancer Anna Pavlova. Although the passport was created initially for refugees from Russia, it was extended to cover other groups. After the Greco-Turkish wars
of 1919–1922 Nansen travelled to Constantinople
to negotiate the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly ethnic Greeks who had fled from Turkey after the defeat of the Greek Army. The impoverished Greek state was unable to take them in, and so Nansen devised a scheme for a population exchange whereby half a million Turks in Greece were returned to Turkey, with full financial compensation, while further loans facilitated the absorption of the refugee Greeks into their homeland. Despite some controversy over the principle of a population exchange, the plan was implemented successfully over a period of several years. In November 1922, while attending the Conference of Lausanne
, Nansen learned that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
for 1922. The citation referred to "his work for the repatriation of the prisoners of war, his work for the Russian refugees, his work to bring succour to the millions of Russians afflicted by famine, and finally his present work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace". Nansen donated the prize money to international relief efforts.
From 1925 onwards he spent much time trying to help Armenian refugees, victims of Armenian Genocide
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire
during the First World War and further ill-treatment thereafter. His goal was the establishment of a national home for these refugees, within the borders of Soviet Armenia. His main assistant in this endeavour was Vidkun Quisling
, the future Nazi collaborator and head of a Norwegian puppet government
during the Second World War. After visiting the region, Nansen presented the Assembly with a modest plan for the irrigation of 36,000 hectares (360 km2 or 139 square miles) on which 15,000 refugees could be settled. The plan ultimately failed, because even with Nansen's unremitting advocacy the money to finance the scheme was not forthcoming. Despite this failure, his reputation among the Armenian people remains high.
Within the League's Assembly, Nansen spoke out on many issues besides those related to refugees. He believed that the Assembly gave the smaller countries such as Norway a "unique opportunity for speaking in the councils of the world." He believed that the extent of the League's success in reducing armaments would be the greatest test of its credibility. He was a signatory to the Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926, which sought to outlaw the use of forced labour. He supported a settlement of the post-war reparations
issue, and championed Germany's membership of the League, which was granted in September 1926 after intensive preparatory work by Nansen.
Nansen's League of Nations commitments through the 1920s meant that he was mostly absent from Norway, and was able to devote little time to scientific work. Nevertheless, he continued to publish occasional papers. He entertained the hope that he might travel to the North Pole by airship, but could not raise sufficient funding. In any event he was forestalled in this ambition by Amundsen, who flew over the pole in Umberto Nobile
's airship Norge
in May 1926. Two years later Nansen broadcast a memorial oration to Amundsen, who had disappeared in the Arctic while organising a rescue party for Nobile whose airship had crashed during a second polar voyage. Nansen said of Amundsen: "He found an unknown grave under the clear sky of the icy world, with the whirring of the wings of eternity through space."
In 1926 Nansen was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews
in Scotland, the first foreigner to hold this largely honorary position. He used the occasion of his inaugural address to review his life and philosophy, and to deliver a call to the youth of the next generation. He ended:
Nansen largely avoided involvement in domestic Norwegian politics, but in 1924 he was persuaded by the long-retired former prime minister Christian Michelsen to lend his name to a new anti-communist political grouping, Fædrelandslaget ("Fatherland League"). There were fears in Norway that should the Marxist
-orientated Norwegian Labour Party
gain power it would introduce a revolutionary programme. At a Fædrelandslaget rally in Oslo (as Christiania had now been renamed), Nansen declared: "To talk of the right of revolution in a society with full civil liberty, universal suffrage, equal treatment for everyone ... [is] idiotic nonsense." Although members of the movement advocated a Nansen-led National government, the idea gained little public or political support.
In between his various duties and responsibilities, Nansen had continued to take skiing holidays when he could. In February 1930, aged 68, he took a short break in the mountains with two old friends, who noted that Nansen was slower than usual and appeared to tire easily. On his return to Oslo he was laid up for several months, with influenza and later phlebitis
, and was visited on his sickbed by King Haakon.
before cremation, after which his ashes were laid under a tree at Polhøgda. Nansen's daughter Liv recorded that there were no speeches, just music: Schubert
's Death and the Maiden, which Eva used to sing. Among the many tributes paid to him subsequently was that of Lord Robert Cecil
, a fellow League of Nations delegate, who spoke of the range of Nansen's work, done with no regard for his own interests or health: "Every good cause had his support. He was a fearless peacemaker, a friend of justice, an advocate always for the weak and suffering."
Nansen had been a pioneer and innovator in many fields. As a young man he embraced the revolution in skiing methods that transformed it from a means of winter travel to a universal sport, and quickly became one of Norway's leading skiers. He was later able to apply this expertise to the problems of polar travel, in both his Greenland and his Fram expeditions. He invented the "Nansen sledge" with broad, ski-like runners, the "Nansen cooker" to improve the heat efficiency of the standard spirit stoves then in use, and the layer principle in polar clothing, whereby the traditionally heavy, awkward garments were replaced by layers of lightweight material. In science, Nansen is recognised both as one of the founders of modern neurology
, and as a significant contributor to early oceanographical science.
Through his work on behalf of the League of Nations, Nansen helped to establish the principle of international responsibility for refugees. Immediately after his death the League set up the Nansen International Office for Refugees, a semi-autonomous body under the League's authority, to continue his work. The Nansen Office faced great difficulties, in part arising from the large numbers of refugees from the European dictatorships during the 1930s. Nevertheless it secured the agreement of 14 countries (including a reluctant Great Britain) to the Refugee Convention of 1933. It also helped to repatriate 10,000 Armenians to Yerevan
in Soviet Armenia, and to find homes for a further 40,000 in Syria and Lebanon. In 1938, the year in which it was superseded by a wider-ranging body, the Nansen Office was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1954 the League's successor body, the United Nations, established the Nansen Medal
, later named the Nansen Refugee Award
, given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
to an individual, group or organisation "in recognition of extraordinary and dedicated service to refugees".
In his lifetime and thereafter, Nansen received honours and recognition from many countries. Nansen Ski Club, the oldest continually operated ski club in the United States, located in Berlin, New Hampshire
, is named in his honour. Numerous geographical features are named after him: the Nansen Basin and the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean; Mount Nansen
in the Yukon region of Canada; Mount Nansen, Mount Fridtjof Nansen
and Nansen Island
, all in Antarctica. Polhøgda is now home to the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, an independent foundation which engages in research on environmental, energy and resource management politics. In 1968 a film of Nansen's life, Bare et liv – Historien om Fridtjof Nansen
was released, directed by Sergei Mikaelyen, with Knut Wigert
as Nansen.
In 2004 the Royal Norwegian Navy
launched the first of a series of five Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates
. The lead ship of the group is HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen
; two others are named after Roald Amundsen and Otto Sverdrup.
In the ocean, Nansen is commemorated by Nansenia , a genus a small mesopelagic fishes of family Microstomatidae
.
In space, he is commemorated by asteroid
853 Nansenia
. In 1964, the IAU adopted the name Nansen
for an impact crater
at the Lunar
north pole, after the Norwegian explorer.
Norwegians
Norwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition
Nansen's Fram expedition
Nansen's Fram expedition, 1893–1896, was an attempt by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to reach the geographical North Pole by harnessing the natural east–west current of the Arctic Ocean...
of 1893–96. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.
Nansen studied zoology at the Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, and later worked as a curator at the Bergen Museum
Bergen Museum
The Bergen Museum is a university museum in Bergen, Norway. Founded in 1825 with the intent of building large collections in the fields of culture and natural history, it became the grounds for most of the academic activity in the city, a tradition which has prevailed since the museum became part...
where his research on the central nervous system of lower marine creatures earned him a doctorate and helped establish modern theories of neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
. After 1896 his main scientific interest switched to oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
; in the course of his researches he made many scientific cruises, mainly in the North Atlantic, and contributed to the development of modern oceanographic equipment. As one of his country's leading citizens, in 1905 Nansen spoke out for the ending of Norway's union with Sweden
Union between Sweden and Norway
The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....
, and was instrumental in persuading Prince Charles of Denmark
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
to accept the throne of the newly independent Norway. Between 1906 and 1908 he served as the Norwegian representative in London, where he helped negotiate the Integrity Treaty that guaranteed Norway's independent status.
In the final decade of his life Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, following his appointment in 1921 as the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First World War and related conflicts. Among the initiatives he introduced was the "Nansen passport
Nansen passport
Nansen passports were internationally recognized identity cards first issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees.-Origins:Designed in 1921 by Fridtjof Nansen, in 1942 they were honored by governments in 52 countries and were the first refugee travel documents...
" for stateless persons, a certificate recognised by more than 50 countries. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930, after which the League established the Nansen International Office for Refugees
Office international Nansen pour les réfugiés
The Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés , was an organization of the League of Nations, which was internationally in charge of refugees from war areas from 1930 to 1939. It is noted for developing the Nansen passport which allowed stateless people to travel between countries...
to ensure that his work continued. This office received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1938. Nansen was honoured by many nations, and his name is commemorated in numerous geographical features, particularly in the polar regions.
Family background and childhood
The Nansen family originated in Denmark. Hans NansenHans Nansen
Hans Nansen was a Danish statesman.The son of a burgher, Evert Nansen, he was born at Flensburg. He made several voyages to the White Sea and to places in northern Russia, and in 1621 entered the service of the thriving Danish Icelandic Company...
(1598–1667), a trader, was an early explorer of the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
region of the Arctic Ocean. In later life he settled in Copenhagen, becoming the city's borgmester
Burgomaster
Burgomaster is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration...
in 1654. Later generations of the family lived in Copenhagen until the mid-18th century, when Ancher Antoni Nansen moved to Norway (then ruled by Denmark). His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen (1764–1821), was a magistrate first in the Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
district, later in Jæren
Jæren
Jæren is a traditional district in the county of Rogaland. The others are Dalane, Ryfylke and Haugalandet.Jæren is the largest flat lowland area in Norway, stretching from the municipality of Randaberg in the north to Hå in the south. The coast is flat compared to the rest of the Norwegian coast,...
. After Norway's separation from Denmark in 1814, he entered national political life as the representative for Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
in the first Storting, the Norwegian parliament, and became a strong advocate of union with Sweden. After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1821 Hans Leierdahl Nansen died, leaving a four-year-old son, Baldur Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer's father.
Baldur was a lawyer without ambitions for public life, who became Reporter to the Supreme Court of Norway
Supreme Court of Norway
The Supreme Court of Norway was established in 1815 on the basis of the Constitution of Norway's §88, prescribing an independent judiciary. It is located in Oslo and is Norway's highest court...
. He married twice, the second time to Adelaide Johanne Thekla Isidore Bølling Wedel-Jarlsberg, a niece of Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg
Johan Caspar Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg
Johan Caspar Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg was a politician and a Norwegian count, one of only two titled noblemen in Norway...
who had helped frame the Norwegian constitution of 1814
Constitution of Norway
The Constitution of Norway was first adopted on May 16, 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll , then signed and dated May 17...
and was later the Swedish king's Norwegian Viceroy
Governor-general of Norway
The Governor-general of Norway, styled Rigsstatholder in Danish or Riksståthållare in Swedish, both meaning 'Lieutenant of the realm' , was the appointed head of the Norwegian Government in the absence of the Monarch....
. Baldur and Adelaide settled at Store Frøen, an estate at Aker, a few miles north of Norway's capital city, Christiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
(since renamed Oslo). The couple had three children; the first died in infancy, the second, born 10 October 1861, was Fridtjof Nansen.
Store Frøen's rural surroundings shaped the nature of Nansen's childhood. In the short summers the main activities were swimming and fishing, while in the autumn the chief pastime was hunting for game in the forests. The long winter months were devoted mainly to skiing, which Nansen began to practice at the age of two, on improvised skis. At the age of 10 he defied his parents and attempted the ski jump at the nearby Huseby installation. This exploit had near-disastrous consequences, as on landing the skis dug deep into the snow, pitching the boy forward: "I, head first, described a fine arc in the air ... [W]hen I came down again I bored into the snow up to my waist. The boys thought I had broken my neck, but as soon as they saw there was life in me ... a shout of mocking laughter went up." Nansen's enthusiasm for skiing was undiminished, though as he records, his efforts were overshadowed by those of the skiers from the mountainous region of Telemark
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
, where a new style of skiing
Telemark skiing
Telemark skiing is a form of skiing using the Telemark turn. Unlike alpine skiing equipment, the skis used for telemarking either have a binding that only connects the boot to the ski at the toes, just as in cross-country skiing, or may be released to only connect there.Telemark turns are led with...
was being developed. "I saw this was the only way", wrote Nansen later.
At school, Nansen worked adequately without showing any particular aptitude. Studies took second place to sports, or to expeditions into the forests where he would live "like Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
" for weeks at a time. Through such experiences Nansen developed a marked degree of self-reliance. He became an accomplished skier and a highly proficient skater
Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
. Life was disrupted when, in the summer of 1877, Adelaide Nansen died suddenly. Distressed, Baldur Nansen sold the Store Frøen property and moved with his two sons to Christiania. Nansen's sporting prowess continued to develop; at 18 he broke the world one-mile (1.6 km) skating record, and in the following year won the national cross-country skiing championship, a feat he would repeat on 11 subsequent occasions.
Student and adventurer
In 1880 Nansen passed his university entrance examination, the examen artiumExamen artium
Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...
. He decided to study zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, claiming later that he chose the subject because he thought it offered the chance of a life in the open air. He began his studies at the Royal Frederick University early in 1881.
Early in 1882 Nansen took "...the first fatal step that led me astray from the quiet life of science." Professor Robert Collett
Robert Collett
Robert Collett was a Norwegian zoologist. He worked with vertebrates, primarily fishes. From 1864 he was curator at the Zoological Museum in Oslo. In 1882 he became its director and from 1884 was a professor there...
of the university's zoology department proposed that Nansen take a sea voyage, to study Arctic zoology at first hand. Nansen was enthusiastic, and made arrangements through a recent acquaintance, Captain Axel Krefting, commander of the sealer
Seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...
Viking
SS Viking
The SS Viking was a ship used by the film producer Varick Frissel in the making of the 1931 film The Viking. During the shooting of extra footage for this film it exploded, taking the lives of Varick Frissel and twenty-six other crew members....
. The voyage began on 11 March 1882 and extended over the following five months. In the weeks before sealing started, Nansen was able to concentrate on scientific studies. From water samples he showed that, contrary to previous assumption, sea ice forms on the surface of the water rather than below. His readings also demonstrated that the Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
flows beneath a cold layer of surface water. Through the spring and early summer Viking roamed between Greenland and Spitsbergen
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
in search of seal herds. Nansen became an expert marksman, and on one day proudly recorded that his team had shot 200 seal. In July, Viking became trapped in the ice close to an unexplored section of the Greenland coast; Nansen longed to go ashore, but this was impossible. However, he began to develop the idea that the Greenland icecap
Greenland ice sheet
The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering , roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is at a latitude of 77°N, near its...
might be explored, or even crossed. On 17 July the ship broke free from the ice, and early in August was back in Norwegian waters..
Nansen did not resume formal studies at the university. Instead, on Collett's recommendation, he accepted a post as curator in the zoological department of the Bergen Museum
Bergen Museum
The Bergen Museum is a university museum in Bergen, Norway. Founded in 1825 with the intent of building large collections in the fields of culture and natural history, it became the grounds for most of the academic activity in the city, a tradition which has prevailed since the museum became part...
. He was to spend the next six years of his life there—apart from a six-month sabbatical tour of Europe—working and studying with leading figures such as Gerhard Armauer Hansen
Gerhard Armauer Hansen
Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen was a Norwegian physician, remembered for his identification of the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1873 as the causative agent of leprosy....
, the discoverer of the leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
bacillus, and Daniel Cornelius Danielssen
Daniel Cornelius Danielssen
Daniel Cornelius Danielssen was a Norwegian physician, from Bergen. He worked with Gerhard Armauer Hansen, discovering the bacteria causing leprosy, and made Bergen a world centre of lepra research in the middle of the nineteenth century.Danielssen was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of...
, the museum's director who had turned it from a backwater collection into a centre of scientific research and education. Nansen's chosen area of study was the then relatively unexplored field of neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can begin to speak of...
, specifically the central nervous system of lower marine creatures. Before leaving for his sabbatical in February 1886 he published a paper summarising his research to date, in which he stated that "anastomoses or unions between the different ganglion cells" could not be demonstrated with certainty. This unorthodox view, confirmed by the simultaneous researches of the embryologist Wilhelm His
Wilhelm His, Sr.
Wilhelm His, Sr. was a Swiss anatomist and professor who invented the microtome...
and the psychiatrist August Forel, made Nansen a co-founder of the modern theory of the nervous system. His subsequent paper, The Structure and Combination of Histological Elements of the Central Nervous System, published in 1887, became his doctoral thesis.
Planning
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
Freiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...
in 1883, and Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
in 1886. Both had set out from Disko Bay
Disko Bay
Disko Bay is a bay on the western coast of Greenland. The bay constitutes a wide southeastern inlet of Baffin Bay.- Geography :To the south the coastline is complicated with multiple waterways of skerries and small islands in the Aasiaat archipelago...
on the western coast, and had travelled about 160 kilometres (99.4 mi) eastward before turning back. By contrast, Nansen proposed to travel from east to west, ending rather than beginning his trek at Disko Bay. A party setting out from the inhabited west coast would, he reasoned, have to make a return trip, as no ship could be certain of reaching the dangerous east coast and picking them up. By starting from the east—assuming that a landing could be made there—Nansen's would be a one-way journey towards a populated area. The party would have no line of retreat to a safe base; the only way to go would be forward, a situation that fitted Nansen's philosophy completely.
Nansen rejected the complex organisation and heavy manpower of other Arctic ventures, and instead planned his expedition for a small party of six. Supplies would be manhauled
Manhauling
Manhauling, often expressed as man-hauling, means the pulling forward of sledges, trucks or other load-carrying vehicles by human power unaided by animals or machines...
on specially designed lightweight sledges. Much of the equipment, including sleeping bags, clothing and cooking stoves, also needed to be designed from scratch. These plans received a generally poor reception in the press; one critic had no doubt that "if [the] scheme be attempted in its present form ... the chances are ten to one that he will ... uselessly throw his own and perhaps others' lives away". The Norwegian parliament refused to provide financial support, believing that such a potentially risky undertaking should not be encouraged. The project was eventually launched with a donation from a Danish businessman, Augustin Gamél; the rest came mainly from small contributions from Nansen's countrymen, through a fundraising effort organised by students at the university.
Despite the adverse publicity, Nansen received numerous applications from would-be adventurers. He wanted expert skiers, and attempted to recruit from the skiers of Telemark, but his approaches were rebuffed. Nordenskiöld had advised Nansen that Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
, from Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
in the far north of Norway, were expert snow travellers, so Nansen recruited a pair. The remaining places went to Otto Sverdrup
Otto Sverdrup
Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup was a Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer.-Early and personal life:...
, a former sea-captain who had more recently worked as a forester; Oluf Christian Dietrichson
Oluf Christian Dietrichson
Oluf Christian Dietrichson was a Norwegian explorer and military officer. He achieved the rank of Major General, and was commanding officer in Kristiansand from 1918 to 1924. He was a member of the Greenland expedition of 1888 led by Fridtjof Nansen, the first documented crossing of Greenland on...
, an army officer, and Kristian Kristiansen, an acquaintance of Sverdrup's. All had experience of outdoor life in extreme conditions, and were experienced skiers. Just before the party's departure, Nansen attended a formal examination at the university, which had agreed to receive his doctoral thesis. In accordance with custom he was required to defend his work before appointed examiners acting as "devil's advocates"
Devil's advocate
In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil's advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative...
. He left before knowing the outcome of this process.
Expedition
On 3 June 1888 Nansen's party was picked up from the north-western Icelandic port of ÍsafjörðurÍsafjörður
Ísafjörður is a town in the north west of Iceland, seat of Ísafjarðarbær municipality.The town draws its name from the fjord and the fjord was given its name simultaneously to the island...
by the sealer Jason
Jason (Ship)
Jason was a Norwegian whaling vessel laid down in 1881 in Rødsverven, Norway, the same shipyard which later built Ernest Shackleton's ship the Endurance...
. A week later the Greenland coast was sighted, but progress was hindered by thick pack ice
Drift ice
Drift ice is ice that floats on the surface of the water in cold regions, as opposed to fast ice, which is attached to a shore. Usually drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents, hence its name, "drift ice"....
. On 17 July, with the coast still 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) away, Nansen decided to launch the small boats; they were within sight of the Sermilik Fjord
Sermiligaaq
Sermiligaaq is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. Its population is 222 as of 2010...
, which Nansen believed would offer a route up on to the icecap.
The expedition left Jason "in good spirits and with the highest hopes of a fortunate result", according to Jason's captain. There followed days of extreme frustration for the party as, prevented by weather and sea conditions from reaching the shore, they drifted southwards with the ice. Most of this time was spent camping on the ice itself—it was too dangerous to launch the boats. By 29 July they were 380 kilometres (236.1 mi) south of the point where they had left the ship. On that day they finally reached land, but were too far south to begin the crossing. After a brief rest, Nansen ordered the team back into the boats and to begin rowing north.
During the next 12 days the party battled northward along the coast through the ice flows. On the first day they encountered a large Eskimo encampment near Cape Bille, and there were further occasional contacts with the nomadic native population as the journey continued. On 11 August, when they had covered about 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) and had reached Umivik Fjord, Nansen decided that although they were still far south of his intended starting place, they needed to begin the crossing before the season became too advanced for travel. After landing at Umivik, they spent the next four days preparing for their journey, and on the evening of 15 August they set out. They were heading north-west, towards Christianhaab (now Qasigiannguit)
Qasigiannguit
Qasigiannguit is a town located on the southeastern shore of Disko Bay, in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. With 1,253 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. The main industry is shrimp and halibut fishing....
on the west Greenland shores of Disko Bay, 600 kilometres (372.8 mi) away.
Over the next few days the party struggled to ascend the inland ice over a treacherous surface with many hidden crevasses. The weather was generally bad; on one occasion all progress was halted for three days by violent storms and continuous rain. On 26 August Nansen concluded that there was now no chance of reaching Christianhaab by mid-September, when the last ship was due to leave. He therefore ordered a change of course, almost due west towards Godthaab (now Nuuk)
Nuuk
Nuuk, is the capital of Greenland, the northernmost capital in North America and the largest city in Greenland. Located in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea and on the west coast of Sermersooq. Nuuk is the largest cultural and economic center in...
, a shorter journey by at least 150 kilometres (93.2 mi). The rest of the party, according to Nansen, "hailed the change of plan with acclamation". They continued climbing, until on 11 September they had reached a height of 8922 feet (2,719.4 m) above sea level, the summit of the icecap with temperatures dropping to -50 F at night. From then on the downward slope made travelling easier, although the terrain was difficult and the weather remained hostile. Progress was slow because of fresh snowfalls which made dragging the sledges as hard as pulling them through sand. By 26 September they had battled their way down to the edge of a fjord
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...
that ran westward towards Godthaab . From their tent, some local willows and parts of the sledges Sverdrup constructed a makeshift boat, and on 29 September Nansen and Sverdrup began the last stage of the journey, rowing down the fjord. Four days later, on 3 October 1888, they reached Godthaab, where they were greeted by the town's Danish representative. His first words were to inform Nansen that he had been awarded his doctorate, a matter that "could not have been more remote from my thoughts at that moment". The crossing had been accomplished in 49 days, making 78 days in total since they had left the Jason; throughout the journey the team had maintained careful meteorological, geographical and other records relating to the previously unexplored interior. The rest of the team arrived in Godthaab on 12 October.
Nansen soon learned that no ship was likely to call at Godthaab until the following spring, though they were able to send letters back to Norway via a boat leaving Ivigtut at the end of October. He and his party therefore spent the next seven months in Greenland, hunting, fishing and studying the life of the local inhabitants. On 15 April 1889 the Danish ship Hvidbjørnen finally entered the harbour, and Nansen and his comrades prepared to depart. "It was not without sorrow that we left this place and these people, among whom we had enjoyed ourselves so well", Nansen recorded.
Interlude and marriage
Hvidbjørnen reached Copenhagen on 21 May 1889. News of the crossing had preceded its arrival, and Nansen and his companions were feted as heroes. This welcome, however, was dwarfed by the reception in Christiania a week later, when crowds of between thirty and forty thousand—a third of the city's population—thronged the streets as the party made its way to the first of a series of receptions. The interest and enthusiasm generated by the expedition's achievement led directly to the formation that year of the Norwegian Geographical SocietyNorwegian Geographical Society
The Norwegian Geographical Society is a Norwegian learned society founded in 1889. Among the initiators was geologist Hans Henrik Reusch, who chaired the society from 1898 to 1903, and again from 1907 to 1909, and was also an honorary member...
.
Nansen accepted the position of curator of the Royal Frederick University's zoology collection, a post which carried a salary but involved no duties; the university was satisfied by the association with the explorer's name. Nansen's main task in the following weeks was writing his account of the expedition, but he found time late in June to visit London, where he met the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
(the future King Edward VII), and addressed a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
(RGS). The RGS president, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff
Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff
Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff GCSI, CIE, PC FRS , known as M. E. Grant Duff before 1887 and as Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff thereafter, was a Scottish politician, administrator and author...
, said that Nansen has claimed "the foremost place amongst northern travellers", and later awarded him the Society's prestigious Founder's Medal. This was one of many honours Nansen received from institutions all over Europe. He was invited by a group of Australians to lead an expedition to Antarctica, but declined, believing that Norway's interests would be better served by a North Pole conquest.
On 11 August 1889 Nansen announced his engagement to Eva Sars, the daughter of Michael Sars
Michael Sars
Michael Sars was a Norwegian theologian and biologist.-Biography:Sars was born in Bergen, Norway. He studied natural history and theology at Royal Frederick University from 1823 and completed a cand.theol. degree in 1828. For several years he taught at a number of different schools, firstly in...
, a zoology professor who had died when Eva was 11 years old. The couple had met some years previously, at the skiing resort of Frognerseteren
Frognerseteren
Frognerseteren is a neighborhood of Oslo, Norway, located within Nordmarka. It is a popular starting point for recreational hiking and skiing in Oslo. Frognerseteren Station is the terminal station of the Holmenkollen Line of the Oslo Metro....
, where Nansen recalled seeing "two feet sticking out of the snow". Eva was three years older than Nansen, and despite the evidence of this first meeting, was an accomplished skier. She was also a celebrated classical singer who had been coached in Berlin by Désirée Artôt
Désirée Artôt
Désirée Artôt was a Belgian soprano , who was famed in German and Italian opera and sang mainly in Germany...
, one-time paramour of Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
. The engagement surprised many, since Nansen had previously expressed himself forcefully against the institution of marriage; Otto Sverdrup assumed he had read the message wrongly. The wedding took place on 6 September 1889, less than a month after the engagement.
Theories and plans
Henrik Mohn
Henrik Mohn was a Norwegian astronomer and meteorologist. Although he enrolled in theology studies after finishing school, he is credited with founding meteorological research in Norway, being a professor at the Royal Frederick University and director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute from...
, the distinguished Norwegian meteorologist
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
. Artefacts found on the Greenland coast had been identified as coming from the lost US Arctic exploration vessel Jeannette
USS Jeannette (1878)
The first USS Jeannette was originally HMS Pandora, a Philomel-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy, and was purchased in 1875 by Sir Allen Young for his arctic voyages in 1875-1876. The ship was purchased in 1878 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of the New York Herald; and renamed Jeannette...
, which had been crushed and sunk in June 1881 on the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean, off the Siberian coast. Mohn surmised that the location of the artefacts indicated the existence of an ocean current, flowing from east to west all the way across the polar sea, possibly over the pole itself. A strong enough ship might therefore enter the frozen Siberian sea, and drift to the Greenland coast via the pole.
This idea remained with Nansen during following years. After his triumphant return from Greenland he began to develop a detailed plan for a polar venture, which he made public in February 1890 at a meeting of the recently formed Norwegian Geographical Society. Previous expeditions, he argued, had approached the North Pole from the west, and had failed because they were working against the prevailing east-west current. The secret of success was to work with this current. A workable plan, Nansen said, would require a small, strong and manoeuvrable ship capable of carrying fuel and provisions for twelve men for five years. The ship would sail to the approximate location of Jeannette's sinking, and would enter the ice. It would then drift west with the current towards the pole and beyond it, eventually reaching the sea between Greenland and Spitsbergen.
Many experienced polar hands were dismissive of Nansen's plans. The retired American explorer Adolphus Greely
Adolphus Greely
Adolphus Washington Greely , was an American Polar explorer, a United States Army officer and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.-Early military career:...
called the idea "an illogical scheme of self-destruction". Sir Allen Young, a veteran of the searches for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a doomed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer...
, and Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
, who had sailed south with James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
in 1839–43, were equally dismissive. However, after an impassioned speech Nansen secured the support of the Norwegian parliament, which voted him a grant. The balance of funding was met by private donations and from a national appeal.
Preparations
Nansen chose Colin ArcherColin Archer
Colin Archer was a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder from Larvik, Norway. His parents emigrated from Scotland to Norway in 1825....
, Norway's leading shipbuilder and naval architect, to design and build a suitable ship for the planned expedition. Using some of the hardest timber available, and an intricate system of crossbeams and braces throughout its length, Archer built a vessel of extraordinary strength. Its rounded hull was designed so that there was nothing upon which ice could get a grip. Speed and sailing performance were secondary to the requirement of making the ship a safe and warm shelter during a predicted lengthy confinement. With an overall length of 128 feet (39 m) and a breadth of 36 feet (11 m), the length-to-breadth ratio of just over three to one gave the ship its stubby appearance, justified by Archer thus: "A ship that is built with exclusive regard to its suitability for [Nansen's] object must differ essentially from any known vessel." The ship was launched by Eva Nansen
Eva Nansen
Eva Helene Nansen was a celebrated Norwegian mezzosoprano singer. She was also a pioneer of women's skiing.-Personal life:...
at Archer's yard at Larvik
Larvik
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. Larvik kommune - has about 41 364 inhabitants and covers 530 km2....
, on 6 October 1892, and was named Fram
Fram
Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912...
, in English "Forward".
From thousands of applicants, Nansen chose a party of twelve. Otto Sverdrup from the Greenland expedition was appointed captain of Fram and second-in-command of the expedition. Competition for places on the voyage was such that reserve Army lieutenant and dog-driving expert Hjalmar Johansen
Hjalmar Johansen
Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen was a polar explorer from Norway. He shipped out with Fridtjof Nansen's Fram expedition in 1893–1896, and accompanied Nansen to notch a new Farthest North record near the North Pole on what was then the frozen Arctic Ocean...
signed on as ship's stoker, the only position available.
Into the ice
Fram left Christiania on 24 June 1893, cheered on by thousands of well-wishers. After a slow journey around the coast, the final port of call was VardøVardø
is a town and a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeast part of Norway.Vardø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The law required that all cities should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was...
, in the far north-east of Norway. Fram left Vardø on 21 July, following the North-East Passage route pioneered by Nordenskiöld in 1878–79, along the northern coast of Siberia. Progress was impeded by fog and ice conditions in the mainly uncharted seas. The crew also experienced the dead water
Dead water
Dead water is the nautical term for a strange phenomenon which can occur when a layer of fresh or brackish water rests on top of denser salt water, without the two layers mixing. A ship powered by direct thrust under the waterline , traveling in such conditions may be hard to maneuver or can even...
phenomenon, where a ship's forward progress is impeded by friction caused by a layer of fresh water lying on top of heavier salt water. Nevertheless, Cape Chelyuskin
Cape Chelyuskin
Cape Chelyuskin is the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent , and the northernmost point of mainland Russia. It is situated at the tip of the Taymyr Peninsula, south of Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia...
, the most northerly point of the Eurasian continental mass, was passed on 10 September. Ten days later, as Fram approached the area in which Jeannette had been crushed, heavy pack ice
Drift ice
Drift ice is ice that floats on the surface of the water in cold regions, as opposed to fast ice, which is attached to a shore. Usually drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents, hence its name, "drift ice"....
was sighted at around latitude 78°N. Nansen followed the line of the pack northwards to a position recorded as 78°49′N, 132°53′E, before ordering engines stopped and the rudder raised. From this point Fram's drift began.
The first weeks in the ice were frustrating, as the drift moved unpredictably, sometimes north, sometimes south; by 19 November Fram's latitude was south of that at which she had entered the ice. Only after the turn of the year, in January 1894, did the northerly direction become generally settled; the 80° mark was finally passed on 22 March. Nansen calculated that, at this rate, it might take the ship five years to reach the pole. As the ship's northerly progress continued at a rate rarely above a mile (1.6 km) a day, Nansen began privately to consider a new plan—a dog sled
Dog sled
A dog sled is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing.-History:...
ge journey towards the pole. With this in mind he began to practice dog-driving, making many experimental journeys over the ice. In November Nansen announced his plan: when the ship passed latitude 83° he and Hjalmar Johansen would leave the ship with the dogs and make for the pole while Fram, under Sverdrup, continued its drift until it emerged from the ice in the North Atlantic. After reaching the pole, Nansen and Johansen would make for the nearest known land, the recently discovered and sketchily mapped Franz Josef Land
Franz Josef Land
Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with a...
. They would then cross to Spitsbergen
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
where they would find a ship to take them home.
The crew spent the rest of the 1894–95 winter preparing clothing and equipment for the forthcoming sledge journey. Kayaks were built, to be carried on the sledges until needed for the crossing of open water. Preparations were interrupted early in January when violent tremors shook the ship. The crew disembarked, fearing that the vessel would be crushed, but Fram proved herself equal to the danger. On 8 January 1895 the ship's position was 83°34′N, above Greely's previous Farthest North
Farthest North
Farthest North describes the most northerly latitude reached by explorers before the conquest of the North Pole rendered the expression obsolete...
record of 83°24.
Dash for the pole
On 14 March 1895, after two false starts and with the ship's position at 84°4′N, Nansen and Johansen began their journey. Nansen had allowed 50 days to cover the 356 nmi (659.3 km; 409.7 mi) to the pole, an average daily journey of seven nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi). After a week of travel a sextantSextant
A sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary use is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight...
observation indicated that they were averaging nine nautical miles a day, (17 km; 10 mi), putting them ahead of schedule. However, uneven surfaces made skiing more difficult, and their speeds slowed. They also realised that they were marching against a southerly drift, and that distances travelled did not necessarily equate to northerly progression. On 3 April Nansen began to wonder whether the pole was, indeed, attainable. Unless their speed improved, their food would not last them to the pole and then on to Franz Josef Land. He confided in his diary: "I have become more and more convinced we ought to turn before time." On 7 April, after making camp and observing that the way ahead was "a veritable chaos of iceblocks stretching as far as the horizon", Nansen decided to turn south. He recorded the latitude of the final northerly camp as 86°13.6′N, almost three degrees beyond the previous Farthest North mark.
Retreat
At first Nansen and Johansen made good progress south, but on 13 April suffered a serious setback when both of their chronometerChronometer
Chronometer may refer to:* Chronometer watch, a watch tested and certified to meet certain precision standards* Hydrochronometer, a water clock* Marine chronometer, a timekeeper used for celestial navigation...
s stopped. Without knowing the correct time, it was impossible for them to calculate their longitude and thus navigate their way accurately to Franz Josef Land. They restarted the watches on the basis of Nansen's guess that they were at longitude 86°E, but from then on were uncertain of their true position.
Towards the end of April they observed the tracks of an Arctic fox
Arctic fox
The arctic fox , also known as the white fox, polar fox or snow fox, is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Greek word alopex, means a fox and Vulpes is the Latin version...
, the first trace they had seen of a living creature other than their dogs since leaving Fram. Soon they began to see bear tracks, and by the end of May seals, gulls and whales were in evidence. On 31 May, by Nansen's calculations, they were only 50 nmi (92.6 km; 57.5 mi) from Cape Fligely, the northernmost known point of Franz Josef Land. However, travel conditions worsened as the warmer weather caused the ice to break up. On 22 June the pair decided to rest on a stable ice floe while they repaired their equipment and gathered their strength for the next stage of their journey. They remained on the floe for a month. The day after leaving this camp Nansen recorded: "At last the marvel has come to pass—land, land, and after we had almost given up our belief in it!" Whether this still-distant land was Franz Josef Land or a new discovery they did not know—they had only a rough sketch map to guide them. On 6 August they reached the edge of the ice, where they shot the last of their dogs—they had been killing the weakest regularly since 24 April, to feed the others. They then lashed their two kayaks together, raised a sail and made for the land.
It was soon clear that this land was part of a group of islands. As they moved slowly southwards, Nansen tentatively identified a headland as Cape Felder, on the western edge of Franz Josef Land. Towards the end of August, as the weather grew colder and travel became increasingly difficult, Nansen decided to camp for the winter. In a sheltered cove, with stones and moss for building materials, the pair erected a hut which was to be their home for the next eight months. With ready supplies of bear, walrus and seal to keep their larder stocked, their principal enemy was not hunger but inactivity. After muted Christmas and New Year celebrations, in slowly improving weather they began to prepare to leave their refuge, but it was 19 May 1896 before they were able to resume their journey.
Rescue and return
On 17 June, during a stop for repairs after the kayaks had been attacked by a walrusWalrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
, Nansen thought he heard sounds of a dog barking, and of voices. He went to investigate, and a few minutes later saw the figure of a man approaching. It was the British explorer Frederick Jackson
Frederick George Jackson
Frederick George Jackson , British Arctic explorer, was educated at Denstone College and Edinburgh University.-Biography:...
, who was leading an expedition to Franz Josef Land and was camped at nearby Cape Flora on Northbrook Island
Northbrook Island
Northbrook Island is an island located at in the southern edge of the Franz Josef Archipelago, Russia. Its highest point is 344 m.Northbrook Island is one of the most accessible locations in the island group...
. The two were equally astonished by their encounter; after some awkward hesitation Jackson asked: "You are Nansen, aren't you?", and received the reply "Yes, I am Nansen." Johansen was soon picked up, and the pair were taken to Cape Flora where, during the following weeks, they recuperated from their ordeal. Nansen later wrote that he could "still scarcely grasp" the sudden change of fortune; had it not been for the walrus attack that caused the delay, the two parties might have been unaware of each other's existence.
On 7 August Nansen and Johansen boarded Jackson's supply ship Windward, and sailed for Vardø where they arrived on the 13th. They were greeted by Hans Mohn, the originator of the polar drift theory, who was in the town by chance. The world was quickly informed by telegram of Nansen's safe return, but as yet there was no news of Fram. Taking the weekly mail steamer south, Nansen and Johansen reached Hammerfest
Hammerfest
is a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The municipality encompasses parts of three islands: Kvaløya, Sørøya, and Seiland. Hammerfest was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
on 18 August, where they learned that Fram had been sighted. She had emerged from the ice north and west of Spitsbergen, as Nansen had predicted, and was now on her way to Tromsø. She had not passed over the pole, nor exceeded Nansen's northern mark. Without delay Nansen and Johansen sailed for Tromsø, where they were reunited with their comrades.
The homeward voyage to Christiania was a series of triumphant receptions at every port. On 9 September Fram was escorted into Christiania's harbour and welcomed by the largest crowds the city had ever seen. The crew were received by King Oscar, and Nansen, reunited with family, remained at the palace for several days as a special guest. Tributes arrived from all over the world; typical was that from the British mountaineer Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper , was an English illustrator, climber and explorer best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. On the descent four members of the party were killed.-Early life:...
, who wrote that Nansen had made "almost as great an advance as has been accomplished by all other voyages in the nineteenth century put together".
Scientist and polar oracle
Nansen's first task on his return was to write his account of the voyage. This he did remarkably quickly, producing 300,000 words of Norwegian text by November 1896; the English translation, titled Farthest North, was ready in January 1897. The book was an instant success, and secured Nansen's long-term financial future. Nansen included without comment the one significant adverse criticism of his conduct, that of Greely, who had written in Harper's WeeklyHarper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...
on Nansen's decision to leave Fram and strike for the pole: "It passes comprehension how Nansen could have thus deviated from the most sacred duty devolving on the commander of a naval expedition."
During the 20 years following his return from the Arctic, Nansen devoted most of his energies to scientific work. In 1897 he accepted a professorship in zoology at the Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, which gave him a base from which he could tackle the major task of editing the reports of the scientific results of the Fram expedition. This was a much more arduous task than writing the expedition narrative. The results were eventually published in six volumes, and according to a later polar scientist, Robert Rudmose-Brown
Robert Neal Rudmose-Brown
Robert Neal Rudmose-Brown was an academic botanist and polar explorer.-Early life:Rudmose-Brown was born on 13 September 1879, the younger son of an Arctic enthusiast and educated at Dulwich College...
, "were to Arctic oceanography what the Challenger expedition
Challenger expedition
The Challenger expedition of 1872–76 was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. The expedition was named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger....
results had been to the oceanography of other oceans."
In 1900 Nansen became director of the Christiania-based International Laboratory for North Sea Research, and helped found the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Through his connection with the latter body, in the summer of 1900 Nansen embarked on his first visit to Arctic waters since the Fram expedition, a cruise to Iceland and Jan Mayen Land on the oceanographic research vessel Michael Sars, named after Eva's father. Shortly after his return he learned that his Farthest North record had been passed, by members of the Duke of the Abruzzi
Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
Prince Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco di Savoia-Aosta , Duke of the Abruzzi , was an Italian nobleman, mountaineer and explorer of the royal House of Savoy...
's Italian expedition. They had reached 86°34N on 24 April 1900, in an attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. Nansen received the news philosophically: "What is the value of having goals for their own sake? They all vanish ... it is merely a question of time.
Nansen was now considered an oracle by all would-be explorers of the north and south polar regions. Abruzzi had consulted him, as had the Belgian Adrien de Gerlache
Adrien de Gerlache
Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 to 1899.-His early years:...
, each of whom took expeditions to the Antarctic. Although Nansen refused to meet his own countryman and fellow-explorer Carsten Borchgrevink (whom he considered a fraud), he gave advice to Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
on polar equipment and transport, prior to the 1901–04 Discovery Expedition
Discovery Expedition
The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...
. Nansen's advice that dogs provided the best means of polar travel was politely ignored by Scott; nevertheless the two remained on good terms. At one point Nansen seriously considered leading a South Pole expedition himself, and asked Colin Archer to design two ships. However, these plans remained on the drawing board.
By 1901 Nansen's family had expanded considerably. A daughter, Liv, had been born just before Fram set out; a son, Kåre was born in 1897 followed by a daughter, Irmelin, in 1900 and a second son Odd
Odd Nansen
Odd Nansen was a Norwegian architect, author, and humanitarian, credited with his humanitarian efforts on behalf of Jews in the early years of World War II and for being a founder of UNICEF.-Biography:...
in 1901. The family home, which Nansen had built in 1891 from the profits of his Greenland expedition book, was now too small. Nansen acquired a plot of land in the Lysaker
Lysaker
Lysaker is a section of and a postal code area of the Norwegian municipality of Bærum, just west of Oslo.Geographically, it is bordered by Lysakerelven on the east, which also forms the border to Oslo; Fornebu to the south; Stabekk to the west; and Jar to the north...
district and built, substantially to his own design, a large and imposing house which combined some of the characteristics of an English manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
with features from the Italian renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
. The house was ready for occupation by April 1902; Nansen called it Polhøgda
Polhøgda
Polhøgda is a property between Lysaker and Fornebu in Bærum, Norway.-Use by Fridtjof Nansen:The property originally belonged to Fornebo farm, but was separated from the farm in 1897. Construction on the property took place in 1900 and 1901. It was the home of Fridtjof Nansen and Eva Nansen from...
(in English "polar heights"), and it remained his home for the rest of his life. A fifth and final child, son Asmund, was born at Polhøgda in 1903.
Politician and diplomat
The union between Norway and SwedenUnion between Sweden and Norway
The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....
, imposed by the Great Powers in 1814, had been under considerable strain through the 1890s, the chief issue in question being Norway's rights to its own consular service
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
. Nansen, although not by inclination a politician, had spoken out on the issue on several occasions in defence of Norway's interests. It seemed, early in the 20th century that agreement between the two countries might be possible, but hopes were dashed when negotiations broke down in February 1905. The Norwegian government fell, and was replaced by one led by Christian Michelsen
Christian Michelsen
Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of an independent Norway from 1905 to 1907...
, whose programme was one of separation from Sweden.
On 23 May the Storting passed the Consulate Act establishing a separate consular service. King Oscar, refused his assent; on 27 May the Norwegian cabinet resigned, but the king would not recognise this step. On 7 June the Storting unilaterally announced that the union with Sweden was dissolved. In a tense situation the Swedish government agreed to Norway's request that the dissolution should be put to a referendum of the Norwegian people. This was held on 13 August 1905 and resulted in an overwhelming vote for separation, at which point King Oscar relinquished the crown of Norway while retaining the Swedish throne. A second referendum, held in November, determined that the new independent state should be a monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
rather than a republic. In anticipation of this, Michelsen's government had been considering the suitability of various princes as candidates for the Norwegian throne. Faced with King Oscar's refusal to allow anyone from his own House of Bernadotte to accept the crown, the favoured choice was Prince Charles of Denmark
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
. In July 1905 Michelsen sent Nansen to Copenhagen on a secret mission to persuade Charles to accept the Norwegian throne. Nansen was successful; shortly after the second referendum Charles was proclaimed king, taking the name Haakon VII. He and his wife, the British princess Maud
Maud of Wales
Princess Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as spouse of King Haakon VII. She was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark and granddaughter of Queen Victoria and also of Christian IX of Denmark. She was the younger sister of George V...
, were crowned in the Nidaros Cathedral
Nidaros Cathedral
Nidaros Cathedral is a Church of Norway cathedral located in the city of Trondheim in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It was the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros from its establishment in 1152 until its abolition in 1537. Since the Reformation, it has been the cathedral of the...
in Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
on 22 June 1906.
In April 1906 Nansen was appointed Norway's Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
in London. His main task was to work with representatives of the major European powers on an Integrity Treaty which would guarantee Norway's position. Nansen was popular in England, and got on well with King Edward, though he found court functions and diplomatic duties disagreeable; "frivolous and boring" was his description. However, he was able to pursue his geographical and scientific interests through contacts with the Royal Geographical Society and other learned bodies. The Treaty was signed on 2 November 1907, and Nansen considered his task complete. Resisting the pleas of, among others, King Edward that he should remain in London, on 15 November Nansen resigned his post. A few weeks later, still in England as the king's guest at Sandringham
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...
, Nansen received word that Eva was seriously ill with pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. On 8 December he set out for home, but before he reached Polhøgda he learned, from a telegram, that Eva had died.
Oceanographer and traveller
Ekman spiral
The Ekman spiral refers to a structure of currents or winds near a horizontal boundary in which the flow direction rotates as one moves away from the boundary. It derives its name from the Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman...
. Based on Nansen's observations of ocean currents recorded during the Fram expedition, Ekman concluded that the effect of wind on the sea's surface produced currents which "formed something like a spiral staircase, down towards the depths". In 1909 Nansen combined with Bjørn Helland-Hansen to publish an academic paper, The Norwegian Sea: its Physical Oceanography, based on the Michael Sars voyage of 1900.
Nansen had by now retired from polar exploration, the decisive step being his release of Fram to his fellow-Norwegian Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
, who was planning a North Pole expedition. When Amundsen made his controversial change of plan and set out for the South Pole, Nansen stood by him. Between 1910 and 1914, Nansen participated in a several oceanographic voyages. In 1910, aboard the Norwegian naval vessel Fridtjof, he carried out researches in the northern Atlantic, and in 1912 he took his own yacht, Veslemøy, to Bear Island and Spitsbergen. The main objective of the Veslemøy cruise was the investigation of salinity
Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
in the North Polar Basin. One of Nansen's lasting contributions to oceanography was his work designing instruments and equipment; the "Nansen bottle
Nansen bottle
A Nansen bottle is a device for obtaining samples of seawater at a specific depth. It was designed in 1910 by the early 20th-century explorer and oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen and further developed by Shale Niskin....
" for taking deep water samples remained in use into the 21st century, in a version updated by Shale Niskin
Shale Niskin
Shale Niskin was the inventor of the Niskin bottle, a device used for collecting water samples. He also founded General Oceanics, Inc., in 1966 and served as the company's first president. General Oceanics, based in North Miami, Florida, manufactures oceanographic and environmental monitoring...
.
At the request of the Royal Geographical Society, Nansen began work on a study of Arctic discoveries, which developed into a two-volume history of the exploration of the northern regions up to the beginning of the 16th century. This was published in 1911 as Nord i Tåkeheimen ("In Northern Mists"). That year he renewed an acquaintance with Kathleen Scott
Kathleen Scott
Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS was a British sculptor.-Early life:Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton in Lindrick, Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce and Jane Skene Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS (27 March...
, wife of Robert Falcon Scott whose Terra Nova Expedition
Terra Nova Expedition
The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...
had sailed for Antarctica in 1910. Biographer Roland Huntford
Roland Huntford
Roland Huntford is an author, principally of biographies of Polar explorers. He lives in Cambridge, and was formerly Scandinavian correspondent of The Observer, also acting as their winter sports correspondent...
has asserted that Nansen and Kathleen Scott enjoyed a brief love affair. Many women were attracted to Nansen, and he had a reputation as a womaniser. His personal life was troubled around this time; in January 1913 he received news of the suicide of Hjalmar Johansen, who had returned in disgrace from Amundsen's successful South Pole expedition. In March 1913, Nansen's youngest son Asmund died after a long illness.
In the summer of 1913 Nansen travelled to the Kara Sea, as part of a delegation investigating a possible trade route between Western Europe and the Siberian interior. The party then took a steamer up the Yenisei River
Yenisei River
Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...
to Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
, and travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
to Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
before turning for home. The life and culture of the Russian peoples aroused in Nansen an interest and sympathy he would carry through to his later life. Immediately before the First World War, Nansen joined Helland-Hansen in an oceanographical cruise in eastern Atlantic waters.
Statesman and humanitarian
Within a few months of the war's end in November 1918 a draft agreement had been accepted by the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
to create a League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, as a means of resolving disputes between nations by peaceful means. The foundation of the League at this time was providential as far as Nansen was concerned, giving him a new outlet for his restless energy. He became president of the Norwegian League of Nations Society, and although the Scandinavian nations with their traditions of neutrality initially held themselves aloof, his advocacy helped to ensure that Norway became a full member of the League in 1920, and he became one of its three delegates to the League's General Assembly.
In April 1920, at the League's request, Nansen began organising the repatriation of around half a million prisoners of war, stranded in various parts of the world. Of these, 300,000 were in Russia which, gripped by revolution and civil war, had little interest in their fate. Nansen was able to report to the Assembly in November 1920 that around 200,000 men had been returned to their homes. "Never in my life", he said, "have I been brought into touch with so formidable an amount of suffering." Nansen continued this work for a further two years until, in his final report to the Assembly in 1922, he was able to state that 427,886 prisoners had been repatriated to around 30 different countries. In paying tribute to his work, the responsible committee recorded that the story of his efforts "would contain tales of heroic endeavour worthy of those in the accounts of the crossing of Greenland and the great Arctic voyage."
Even before this work was complete, Nansen was involved in a further humanitarian effort. On 1 September 1921, prompted by the British delegate Philip Noel-Baker, he accepted the post of the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. His main brief was the resettlement of around two million Russian refugees displaced by the upheavals of the Russian Revolution. At the same time he tried to tackle the urgent problem of famine in Russia
Russian famine of 1921
The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...
; following a widespread failure of crops around 30 million people were threatened with starvation and death. Despite Nansen's pleas on behalf of the starving, Russia's revolutionary government was feared and distrusted internationally, and the League was reluctant to come to its peoples' aid. Nansen had to rely largely on fundraising from private organisations, and his efforts met with limited success. Later he was to express himself bitterly on the matter:
There was in various transatlantic countries such an abundance of maize, that the farmers had to burn it as fuel in their railway engines. At the same time the ships in Europe were idle, for there were no cargoes. Simultaneously there were thousands, nay millions of unemployed. All this, while thirty million people in the Volga region—not far away and easily reached by our ships—were allowed to starve and die.
A major problem impeding Nansen's work on behalf of refugees was that most of them lacked documentary proof of identity or nationality. Without legal status in their country of refuge, their lack of papers meant they were unable to go anywhere else. To overcome this, Nansen devised a document that became known as the "Nansen passport
Nansen passport
Nansen passports were internationally recognized identity cards first issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees.-Origins:Designed in 1921 by Fridtjof Nansen, in 1942 they were honored by governments in 52 countries and were the first refugee travel documents...
", a form of identity for stateless persons that was in time recognised by more than 50 governments, and which allowed refugees to cross borders legally. Among the more distinguished holders of Nansen passports were the artist Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, the composer Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, and the dancer Anna Pavlova. Although the passport was created initially for refugees from Russia, it was extended to cover other groups. After the Greco-Turkish wars
Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
The Greco–Turkish War of 1919–1922, known as the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey and the Asia Minor Campaign or the Asia Minor Catastrophe in Greece, was a series of military events occurring during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May...
of 1919–1922 Nansen travelled to Constantinople
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
to negotiate the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly ethnic Greeks who had fled from Turkey after the defeat of the Greek Army. The impoverished Greek state was unable to take them in, and so Nansen devised a scheme for a population exchange whereby half a million Turks in Greece were returned to Turkey, with full financial compensation, while further loans facilitated the absorption of the refugee Greeks into their homeland. Despite some controversy over the principle of a population exchange, the plan was implemented successfully over a period of several years. In November 1922, while attending the Conference of Lausanne
Conference of Lausanne
The Conference of Lausanne was a conference held in Lausanne, Switzerland during 1922 and 1923. Its purpose was the negotiation of a treaty to replace the Treaty of Sèvres, which, under the new government of Kemal Pasha, was no longer recognised by Turkey....
, Nansen learned that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
for 1922. The citation referred to "his work for the repatriation of the prisoners of war, his work for the Russian refugees, his work to bring succour to the millions of Russians afflicted by famine, and finally his present work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace". Nansen donated the prize money to international relief efforts.
From 1925 onwards he spent much time trying to help Armenian refugees, victims of Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
during the First World War and further ill-treatment thereafter. His goal was the establishment of a national home for these refugees, within the borders of Soviet Armenia. His main assistant in this endeavour was Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...
, the future Nazi collaborator and head of a Norwegian puppet government
Quisling regime
The Quisling regime, or the Quisling government are common names used to refer to the collaborationist government led by Vidkun Quisling in occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Nasjonale regjering...
during the Second World War. After visiting the region, Nansen presented the Assembly with a modest plan for the irrigation of 36,000 hectares (360 km2 or 139 square miles) on which 15,000 refugees could be settled. The plan ultimately failed, because even with Nansen's unremitting advocacy the money to finance the scheme was not forthcoming. Despite this failure, his reputation among the Armenian people remains high.
Within the League's Assembly, Nansen spoke out on many issues besides those related to refugees. He believed that the Assembly gave the smaller countries such as Norway a "unique opportunity for speaking in the councils of the world." He believed that the extent of the League's success in reducing armaments would be the greatest test of its credibility. He was a signatory to the Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926, which sought to outlaw the use of forced labour. He supported a settlement of the post-war reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...
issue, and championed Germany's membership of the League, which was granted in September 1926 after intensive preparatory work by Nansen.
Later life
On 17 January 1919 Nansen married Sigrun Munthe, a long-time friend with whom he had had a love affair in 1905, while Eva was still alive. The marriage was resented by the Nansen children, and proved unhappy; an acquaintance writing of them in the 1920s said Nansen appeared unbearably miserable and Sigrun steeped in hate.Nansen's League of Nations commitments through the 1920s meant that he was mostly absent from Norway, and was able to devote little time to scientific work. Nevertheless, he continued to publish occasional papers. He entertained the hope that he might travel to the North Pole by airship, but could not raise sufficient funding. In any event he was forestalled in this ambition by Amundsen, who flew over the pole in Umberto Nobile
Umberto Nobile
Umberto Nobile was an Italian aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships during the Golden Age of Aviation between the two World Wars...
's airship Norge
Norge (airship)
The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out what many consider the first verified overflight of the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America...
in May 1926. Two years later Nansen broadcast a memorial oration to Amundsen, who had disappeared in the Arctic while organising a rescue party for Nobile whose airship had crashed during a second polar voyage. Nansen said of Amundsen: "He found an unknown grave under the clear sky of the icy world, with the whirring of the wings of eternity through space."
In 1926 Nansen was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews
Rector of the University of St Andrews
The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews...
in Scotland, the first foreigner to hold this largely honorary position. He used the occasion of his inaugural address to review his life and philosophy, and to deliver a call to the youth of the next generation. He ended:
We all have a Land of Beyond to seek in our life—what more can we ask? Our part is to find the trail that leads to it. A long trail, a hard trail, maybe; but the call comes to us, and we have to go. Rooted deep in the nature of every one of us is the spirit of adventure, the call of the wild—vibrating under all our actions, making life deeper and higher and nobler.
Nansen largely avoided involvement in domestic Norwegian politics, but in 1924 he was persuaded by the long-retired former prime minister Christian Michelsen to lend his name to a new anti-communist political grouping, Fædrelandslaget ("Fatherland League"). There were fears in Norway that should the Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
-orientated Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
gain power it would introduce a revolutionary programme. At a Fædrelandslaget rally in Oslo (as Christiania had now been renamed), Nansen declared: "To talk of the right of revolution in a society with full civil liberty, universal suffrage, equal treatment for everyone ... [is] idiotic nonsense." Although members of the movement advocated a Nansen-led National government, the idea gained little public or political support.
In between his various duties and responsibilities, Nansen had continued to take skiing holidays when he could. In February 1930, aged 68, he took a short break in the mountains with two old friends, who noted that Nansen was slower than usual and appeared to tire easily. On his return to Oslo he was laid up for several months, with influenza and later phlebitis
Phlebitis
Phlebitis is an inflammation of a vein, usually in the legs.When phlebitis is associated with the formation of blood clots , usually in the deep veins of the legs, the condition is called thrombophlebitis...
, and was visited on his sickbed by King Haakon.
Death and legacy
Nansen died of a heart attack, at home, on 13 May 1930. He was given a non-religious state funeralState funeral
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...
before cremation, after which his ashes were laid under a tree at Polhøgda. Nansen's daughter Liv recorded that there were no speeches, just music: Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Death and the Maiden, which Eva used to sing. Among the many tributes paid to him subsequently was that of Lord Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood CH, PC, QC , known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923, was a lawyer, politician and diplomat in the United Kingdom...
, a fellow League of Nations delegate, who spoke of the range of Nansen's work, done with no regard for his own interests or health: "Every good cause had his support. He was a fearless peacemaker, a friend of justice, an advocate always for the weak and suffering."
Nansen had been a pioneer and innovator in many fields. As a young man he embraced the revolution in skiing methods that transformed it from a means of winter travel to a universal sport, and quickly became one of Norway's leading skiers. He was later able to apply this expertise to the problems of polar travel, in both his Greenland and his Fram expeditions. He invented the "Nansen sledge" with broad, ski-like runners, the "Nansen cooker" to improve the heat efficiency of the standard spirit stoves then in use, and the layer principle in polar clothing, whereby the traditionally heavy, awkward garments were replaced by layers of lightweight material. In science, Nansen is recognised both as one of the founders of modern neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, and as a significant contributor to early oceanographical science.
Through his work on behalf of the League of Nations, Nansen helped to establish the principle of international responsibility for refugees. Immediately after his death the League set up the Nansen International Office for Refugees, a semi-autonomous body under the League's authority, to continue his work. The Nansen Office faced great difficulties, in part arising from the large numbers of refugees from the European dictatorships during the 1930s. Nevertheless it secured the agreement of 14 countries (including a reluctant Great Britain) to the Refugee Convention of 1933. It also helped to repatriate 10,000 Armenians to Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
in Soviet Armenia, and to find homes for a further 40,000 in Syria and Lebanon. In 1938, the year in which it was superseded by a wider-ranging body, the Nansen Office was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1954 the League's successor body, the United Nations, established the Nansen Medal
Nansen Refugee Award
The Nansen Refugee Award formerly known as the Nansen Medal is given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to individuals or groups in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees. It is one of the most prestigious awards in the United Nations system...
, later named the Nansen Refugee Award
Nansen Refugee Award
The Nansen Refugee Award formerly known as the Nansen Medal is given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to individuals or groups in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees. It is one of the most prestigious awards in the United Nations system...
, given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
to an individual, group or organisation "in recognition of extraordinary and dedicated service to refugees".
In his lifetime and thereafter, Nansen received honours and recognition from many countries. Nansen Ski Club, the oldest continually operated ski club in the United States, located in Berlin, New Hampshire
Berlin, New Hampshire
Berlin is a city along the Androscoggin River in Coos County in northern New Hampshire, United States. The population was 10,051 at the 2010 census. It includes the village of Cascade. Located on the edge of the White Mountains, the city's boundaries extend into the White Mountain National Forest...
, is named in his honour. Numerous geographical features are named after him: the Nansen Basin and the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean; Mount Nansen
Mount Nansen (Yukon)
Mount Nansen is a deeply eroded Late Cretaceous stratovolcano located 53 kilometers west of Carmacks and 10 kilometers west of Victoria Mountain in the central Yukon, Canada. It consists of rhyolite, dacite, andesite flows, breccias and tuff...
in the Yukon region of Canada; Mount Nansen, Mount Fridtjof Nansen
Mount Fridtjof Nansen
Mount Fridtjof Nansen is a high massive mountain which dominates the area between the heads of Strom and Axel Heiberg Glaciers, in the Queen Maud Mountains of Antarctica...
and Nansen Island
Nansen Island
Nansen Island or Isla Nansen Sur is the largest of the islands lying in Wilhelmina Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, lying 4 miles east of Emma Island. Nansen Island was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien de Gerlache and named for Dr...
, all in Antarctica. Polhøgda is now home to the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, an independent foundation which engages in research on environmental, energy and resource management politics. In 1968 a film of Nansen's life, Bare et liv – Historien om Fridtjof Nansen
Bare et liv – Historien om Fridtjof Nansen
Bare et liv – Historien om Fridtjof Nansen is a 1968 Norwegian/Soviet drama film directed by Sergei Mikaelyan, starring Knut Wigert and Veslemøy Haslund...
was released, directed by Sergei Mikaelyen, with Knut Wigert
Knut Wigert
Knut Wigert was a Norwegian actor, known for his many Ibsen roles and the establishment of an Ibsen museum in Oslo.-Personal life:...
as Nansen.
In 2004 the Royal Norwegian Navy
Royal Norwegian Navy
The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 5 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support...
launched the first of a series of five Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates
Fridtjof Nansen class frigate
The Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates are the main surface combatant units of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The ships are named after famous Norwegian explorers, with the lead ship of the class bearing the name of Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian scientist, explorer and humanitarian.Five ships were ordered...
. The lead ship of the group is HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen
HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen (F310)
HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen is a frigate of the Royal Norwegian Navy. Launched on April 5, 2006, she is the lead ship of the Fridtjof Nansen class of warships.-Counter Piracy:...
; two others are named after Roald Amundsen and Otto Sverdrup.
In the ocean, Nansen is commemorated by Nansenia , a genus a small mesopelagic fishes of family Microstomatidae
Microstomatidae
Microstomatidae is a family of osmeriform fishes.They are native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.- Species :There are twenty species in three genera:* Genus Microstoma** Slender argentine, Microstoma microstoma ....
.
In space, he is commemorated by asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
853 Nansenia
853 Nansenia
853 Nansenia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It is named after the Norwegian polar explorer Fritjof Nansen.-External links:*...
. In 1964, the IAU adopted the name Nansen
Nansen (lunar crater)
Nansen is an old lunar crater along the northern limb of the Moon, on the eastern side of the north pole. This feature is viewed from the edge from the Earth, and it must be observed from orbit to see much detail...
for an impact crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
at the Lunar
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
north pole, after the Norwegian explorer.
Works
- Paa ski over Grønland. En skildring af Den norske Grønlands-ekspedition 1888–89. Aschehoug, Kristiania 1890. Tr. as The First Crossing of Greenland, 1892.
- Eskimoliv. Aschehoug, Kristiania 1891. Tr. as Eskimo Life, 1893.
- Fram over Polhavet. Den norske polarfærd 1893–1896.. Aschehoug, Kristiania 1897. Tr. as Farthest North, 1897.
- The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893–1896; Scientific Results (6 volumes, 1901).
- Norge og foreningen med Sverige. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania 1905. Tr. as Norway and the Union With Sweden, 1905.
- Northern Waters: Captain Roald Amundsen's Oceanographic Observations in the Arctic Seas in 1901. J. Dybwad, 1906.
- Nord i tåkeheimen. Utforskningen av jordens nordlige strøk i tidlige tider. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania 1911. Tr. as In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, 1911.
- Gjennem Sibirien. Jacob Dybwads forlag, Kristiania, 1914. Tr. as Through Siberia the Land of the Future, 1914.
- Frilufts-liv. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania, 1916.
- En ferd til Spitsbergen. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania, 1920.
- Rusland og freden. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania, 1923.
- Blant sel og bjørn. Min første Ishavs-ferd. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Kristiania, 1924.
- Gjennem Armenia. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Oslo, 1927.
- Gjennem Kaukasus til Volga. Jacob Dybwads Forlag, Oslo, 1929. Tr. as Through The Caucasus To The Volga, 1931.
See also
- Office international Nansen pour les réfugiésOffice international Nansen pour les réfugiésThe Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés , was an organization of the League of Nations, which was internationally in charge of refugees from war areas from 1930 to 1939. It is noted for developing the Nansen passport which allowed stateless people to travel between countries...
- Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. Armenia and the Near East. Publisher: J.C. & A.L. Fawcett, Inc., New York, 1928.
External links
- Works by or about Fridtjof Nansen at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)