Fridtjof Nansen 

 Pioneer of the Arctic 



Nansen was to gaze many times out over 

 Arctic twiligtit scenes sucti as ttiis one 

 ptiotograptied in tlie late fail, i-ioarfrost crystals 

 can be seen forming on the snow surface. 



Fridtjof Nansen, perhaps the boldest of explorers of the Arctic, 

 was several times a great man: oceanographer, zoologist, artist, 

 king maker, Nobel Peace Prize winner, humanitarian. He was also 

 a polar revolutionary whose ideas, in the face of extreme skepticism 

 of most experts, led to two of the greatest polar journeys ever 

 undertaken. 



In his exploration of the Arctic Ocean, Nansen's special achieve- 

 ment hinged on his bold theory of an ocean current that would 

 drift a ship across the heart of that ice-strewn sea. The vision in 

 Nansen's idea is comparable to Magellan's belief that he would 

 find a way through to the Pacific, at a time when no one knew the 

 limits of South America. To test his theory, Nansen built a special 

 ship, the Fram, and deliberately allowed her to be frozen in the 

 Arctic ice off the northeast coast of Siberia, in hope of drifting 

 across the Arctic Basin - in comfort and safety. 



Born on October lo, 1861, just outside Oslo, Nansen was a 

 descendant of the seventeenth-century Danish explorer, Hans 

 Nansen. As a boy Nansen loved outdoor life and adventure. He 

 also had a first-rate scientific mind. 



Zoology was his first love, and at the age of about twenty-one 

 he seized the opportunity of a voyage in a Norwegian sealer, the 

 Viking, to study the anatomy of the seal. For Nansen the most 

 exciting and significant part of the voyage - which was to help 

 shape his future as an explorer - was his sight of Greenland, then, 

 as today, a land gripped in an ice age. 



On his return to Norway, Nansen continued his scientific work. 



56 



