02. Why Fram?

Fram, pronounced “Frahm”, is named after an early polar sailing vessel. Fram, meaning “Forward” in Norwegian, was commissioned by Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and brought into service in 1892. Nansen wanted to test a bold theory with it. While on his expedition to be the first to cross Greenland in 1882, Nansen noted driftwood and earth from Siberia in the ice. He theorized, alongside the meteorologist Henrik Mohn, that there was an East-West current over the Arctic Ocean. With North Pole ambitions, he dreamed of using this current to purposely get frozen into the ice and drift with the pack ice. At the time, this was ludicrous.

Almost all ships that got stuck in the ice were crushed, many with horrific consequences for their crews. The Fram however, was engineered to withstand these pressures and almost “float” on top of the ice. It took a well-known problem and thought of it differently. While the first Fram expedition did not succeed in getting to the North Pole, the proving of the oceanic currents was of immense scientific value. Later, the Fram was used by Roald Amundsen to be the first to get to the South Pole in 1912.