03. Fram and its Men

A boat is nothing without a crew to man it, and the Fram was no stranger to incredible individuals to man its sails. Among the standout names are Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. Nansen, as mentioned in the previous post, was a polar explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. Among these titles, he was well known for leading the first team to cross Greenland’s interior in 1888 and 1889, and later commissioned the building of the Fram for his North Pole dash.

Roald Amundsen is sometimes considered Nansen’s predecessor. In my personal honest opinion, I believe him to be one of the greatest polar explorers of all time. Among polar explorers, Amundsen was a discoverer, researcher, and one of the leading pioneers of flight. In 1903, Amundsen ventured to find the Northwest Passage, an alluring goal that had been targeted by many countries for over 400 years. Often sought for its function as a trade route, Amundsen’s expedition had a scientific goal – to measure the Earth’s magnetic field to determine the magnetic pole’s location in relation to the geographical pole. On this journey, Amundsen and his men had a 23-month layup in a bay that is now called Gjoa Haven. Gjoa, the name of Amundsen’s ship for this journey, was locked in the ice during this time and the crew spent much of their time with the local Intuit people. This mutually beneficial partnership provided much learning for Amundsen, including many of the ways of the Arctic that he would eventually use on his later expeditions. Eventually the Gjoa arrived in Nome, Alaska on August 31^st, 1906, and thus completed the first route of the Northwest Passage.

In 1910, Amundsen embarked onboard the Fram with what was advertised as an attempt at the North Pole. Unfortunately for Amundsen, Frederick A Cook and Robert E Peary both claimed to be the first to reach the pole in 1908 and 1909, both are heavily disputed to this day. Commonly chased by his creditors, this expedition was no different. After setting sail from modern-day Oslo, Amundsen surprised everyone, including his crew, with news of his true plans – a bid at the South Pole. Thus began a controversial “race” to the South Pole between Amundsen and British explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1910 and 1911. Amundsen and his small team of men and dogs eventually reached the South Pole on December 14^th, 1911. Scott and his expedition party unfortunately passed away from exposure and starvation after reaching the pole a month later in January of 1912.

In the 1920s Amundsen focused most of his attention on aviation. This included some incredible feats of survival onboard the N24 and N25 seaplanes in 1925 and the first flight over the North Pole onboard the airship The Norge in 1926. Taking off from Ny-Alesund Svalbard, the team of explorers flew over the north pole and flags were dropped on the ice. This marked Amundsen being the first person to both poles, coming only 15 years apart. The airship was destined for Nome, Alaska, but due to issues had to be grounded 150km Northwest of the town. They eventually made it to Nome before returning to their home countries as heroes.

In 1928, the airship "The Italia" disappeared. It was captained by Umberto Nobile, Amundsen's co-leader from the Norge expedition. Amundsen took off onboard a seaplane to search for their missing airship. This unfortunately became the last knowledge of the legendary Roald Amundsen, as he disappeared, never to be seen again.