- 370 NANSEN'S MEMORABLE VOYAGE IN THE "FRAM" 



of sufficient strength to withstand the pressure of the winter ice, 

 and provisioned for a sufficiently long period, there was every 

 chance of its drifting along the entire course of the current, perhaps 

 to within a measurable distance of the pole, and certainly well within 

 that region which had hitherto been unexplored. The area affected 

 by the current would have to be entered as near the outside edge as 

 possible, so as to participate in the full sweep of its curve, and, in 

 order to avoid the terrible crushing pressure of the winter ice, the 

 vessel would have to be so built as to cause it to be lifted by the ice, 

 when the pressure became too severe, and thus rest on the top. 



His views, when published, did not meet the support he hoped 

 for. Some of the veterans in polar research argued that it was 

 impossible to build a ship that could withstand the terrible pressure 

 of the northern ice-fields. But Nansen was not discouraged and he 

 found a shipbuilder willing to build such a vessel as he desired, 

 while the Norwegian government voted a sum of over $55,000 

 towards the expense. Other support was obtained, and the building 

 of the "Fram"' ("Forward"), as the proposed vessel was called, 

 was at once begun. 



She was built of wood and of tremendous strength, her beams 

 and sides being of great thickness, while on the outside of the hull 

 not a single angle was allowed to remain. Every projection was 

 carefully rounded off and smoothed, so that there should not be as 

 much as half an inch protruding and capable of affording the ice a 

 holding place. Even the keel was sacrificed to the general idea of 

 avoiding possible holding places for the ice. The lines of the ship 

 were necessarily different from those of the ordinary vessel. Her 

 sides bulged outwards and the stern and stem sloped away, so that 

 whichever way the ice exerted the pressure, the "Fram" would 

 present a smooth surface to it, inclined in such a way that the 

 tendency of the ice would be to get under it and lift the vessel up. 

 This did not improve her qualities as a sea boat, and the way in 

 which she afterwards pitched, plunged, and rolled, whenever she 



