Route of Dr Nansen and the 'Fram'
The map shown here gives approximately the route of the Fram and Dr Nansen and Lieut. Johansen in 1895.
At the age of 19 Fridtjof Nansen went to the University of Christiania where he devoted his time chiefly to the study of Biology. He had a great love of the outdoor life and in 1882 accepted as offer to join a sealing expedition travelling to the Spitzbergen Seas and the coasts of Greenland and Iceland. This trip fired his interest in the Polar region, and he set off in the Fram ('Forward') for the North Pole from Norway in July 1893. The Fram did not reach the North Pole and Nansen and Johansen his companion, had to leave the Fram and set off on foot, reaching 86 14 North the closest to the Pole a human being had ever been. During this expedition Nansen discovered the existence of a deep polar basin several thousand fathoms deep and completely devoid of islands, and this was an unexpected discovery as it had previously been believed that the Polar Sea was relatively shallow and contained many tracts of land. Nansen also brought back scientific data which proved valuable in the study of oceanography, arctic meteorology, zoology and the aurora borealis.
