CIRCUMNAVIGATION COMPLETED 325 



June 30, 1911, is a red-letter day in the Frarns 

 history, as on that day we intersected our course from 

 Norway to the Barrier, and the Fram thus completed 

 her first circumnavigation of the globe. Bravo, Fram! 

 It was well done, especially after the bad character you 

 have been given as a sailer and a sea-boat. In honour 

 of the occasion we had a better dinner than usual, and 

 the Fram was congratulated by all present on having 

 done her work well. 



On the evening of July 29 St. Helena was passed. It 

 was the first time I had seen this historic island. It was 

 very strange to think that "the greatest spirit of a 

 hundred centuries," as some author has called Napoleon, 

 should have ended his restless Hfe on this lonely island 

 of the South Atlantic. 



On August 12, when daylight came, we sighted the 

 little Martin Vaz Islands ahead, and a little later South 

 Trinidad (in 1910 this island was passed on October 16) . 

 We checked our chronometers, which, however, proved 

 to be correct. From noon till 2 p.m., while we were 

 lying still and taking our daily hydrographic observa- 

 tions, a sailing ship appeared to the north of us, lying 

 close-hauled to the south. She bore down on us and 

 ran up her flag, and we exchanged the usual greetings ; 

 she was a Norwegian barque bound for Australia. 

 Otherwise we did not see more than four or five ships 

 on the whole voyage, and those were pretty far off. 



Never since leaving Madeira (September, 1910) had 



