Nansen and the Fram: Drifting Across the Arctic

Fram sails from Christiania in June 1893 and makes her final port of call at Vardø, in the far north-east of Norway. Nansen remembers a magnificent reception: a band of music on the pier, flags on every hand, salutes fired, a fjord full of boats. Fram leaves on 21 July, and the Arctic lies ahead.

Location precision: The pin marks Vardø's harbour; the book gives no exact quay.

Visitor guidance: Vardø is a working port in far north-east Norway.

The cape is the most northerly point of the Eurasian mainland, and it is the first great test of the voyage. Fram passes it on 10 September 1893. Nansen is racing the ice: "Cape Chelyuskin must be vanquished!" he writes, pushing the ship on. Beyond it, the plan is to find the pack ice and let it carry them.

Ten days after Chelyuskin, Fram meets heavy pack ice near latitude 78°N. Nansen's diary for 22 September reads: "It looks as if we were at the northern boundary of the open water." He follows the ice edge north to 78°49′N 132°53′E, then orders the engines stopped and the rudder raised. Fram is meant to freeze in and drift, which is exactly what Nansen's critics called self-destruction. The hull, rounded to rise above the squeeze of the ice, now has to prove itself.

Location precision: The ocean position is given as coordinates only; no landmark marks it, so this stop has no map pin.

The first months disappoint. In October Nansen writes "Steadily southward. This is almost depressing." By 19 November Fram is south of where she entered the ice. Later the drift turns north, but slowly. Nansen calculates it could take five years to reach the pole, so he begins to plan a dog-sledge dash. On 8 January 1895 the ship stands at 83°34′N, beyond Greely's earlier record of 83°24′N.

Location precision: The ship drifted over a large area of the Arctic Ocean; no single place stands for it.

Nansen and Johansen set out on 14 March 1895. Three weeks later the ice stops them. Nansen sees a "veritable chaos of ice-blocks, stretching as far as the horizon", and decides to turn back. Later calculation put their northernmost camp at 86° 13.6′ N. That is the farthest north anyone had then been.

Location precision: The camp lay on drifting ice, so the latitude is known but no fixed place exists; no map pin.

Land at last, after weeks of kayaking south. As autumn closes in, Nansen and Johansen look for a place to winter and find a smiling spot on a headland's south side, with "an abundance of moss and stones for building purposes". They raise a hut, roof it, and live there for eight months, living on bear, walrus and seal, with inactivity as the main enemy. On 19 May 1896 they are finally able to resume their journey south.

Location precision: Nansen was unsure of his position; the book describes the site but no landmark marks it. No map pin.

On 17 June 1896 Nansen hears a dog bark and sees a man approaching over the hummocks. He hears English spoken and thinks he recognises Frederick Jackson, who leads an expedition to Franz Josef Land based at Cape Flora. The two are equally astonished; Jackson asks whether he is Nansen, and the answer is yes.

Location precision: The meeting took place on the sea ice near Cape Flora; the pin marks the cape, where Jackson was based.

On 9 September 1896 she was escorted into Christiania's harbour to the largest crowds the city had ever seen. Today the ship rests inside the Fram Museum on Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo. Its original interior is intact, and visitors can go inside the ship.

Visitor guidance: On Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo; you can walk aboard the original Fram.