For other uses, see Fram (disambiguation).

Fram ("Forward") was a ship used in expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. Fram was probably the strongest wooden ship ever built. It was designed by the Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which Fram was supposed to freeze into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.

Fram is said to be the wooden ship to have sailed farthest north and farthest south. Fram is currently preserved in whole at the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway.

Construction

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Nansen's ambition was to explore the Arctic farther north than anyone else. To do that, he would have to deal with a problem that many sailing in the polar ocean had encountered before him: the freezing ice would press and crush a ship. Nansen's idea was to build a ship that could survive the pressure, not by pure strength, but because it would be in a shape designed to let the ice push the ship up, so it would "float" on top of the ice.

Nansen commissioned the shipwright Colin Archer from Larvik to construct a vessel with these characteristics. Fram was built with an outer layer of greenheart wood to withstand the ice and almost without a keel to handle the shallow waters Nansen expected to encounter. The rudder and propeller were designed to be retracted into the ship. The ship was also carefully insulated to allow the crew to live onboard for up to five years.

Expeditions

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Fram was used in several expeditions:

Explorer	Years	Region
Fridtjof Nansen	1893–1896	Arctic ice sheet
Otto Sverdrup	1898–1902	Arctic Islands
Roald Amundsen	1910–1912	South Pole

Through the Arctic ice sheet

Due to driftwood findings in the region of Svalbard, Nansen speculated as to whether there was an ocean current flowing beneath the ice sheet, bringing driftwood from Siberia to Svalbard. With Fram built, Nansen could explore this.

Nansen laid out on the expedition that came to last for three years. When Nansen understood that Fram would not pass the North Pole directly by the force of the current, he and Hjalmar Johansen set out to reach the pole by ski. Reaching 86° 14' northern latitude, he had to turn back to overwinter at Franz Joseph Land. Nansen and Johansen survived on walrus and polar bear meat and blubber. Finally meeting a British expedition, they managed to reach Norway only days before the Fram arrived there.

Sverdrup's scientific explorations

In 1898, Otto Sverdrup led a scientific expedition to the Canadian Arctic islands. Fram was slightly modified for this journey, its freeboard being increased.

Fram left harbour June 24, 1898, with 17 men onboard. Their aim was to chart the land of the Arctic Islands, and to sample the geology, flora and fauna.

Amundsen's South Pole expedition

Fram was used by Roald Amundsen in his polar expedition from 1910 to 1912.

Preservation of Fram

The ship was left to decay in storage between 1912 and the late 1920s, when Lars Christensen, Otto Sverdrup and Oscar Wisting initiated efforts to preserve her. In 1935 the ship was installed in the museum where it now stands.

Named after Fram

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• Framheim, (Literally "Home of the Fram") Amundsen's Base at the Bay of Whales in Antarctica during his quest for the South Pole.
• Fram Rupes, an escarpment on Mercury
• Fram crater, a small crater on Mars, visited by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in 2004
• Fram Basin, the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean
• Fram Strait, a passage from the Arctic Ocean to the Greenland Sea and Norwegian Sea, between Greenland and Spitsbergen.

Other ships named Fram

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• A ship built in 1958 and named after Axel Enström was later renamed Fram. ^*

• Harald V, the King of Norway has had a number of sailboats for regatta use named Fram. He became world champion in sailing with Fram X in 1987 and is currently racing in Fram XVI (2006).

External links

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• The Fram Museum website (English version)

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