XAXSEy’S POLAR EXPEDITIOX 
99 
ice navigation — of avoiding besetment and following the pro- 
tected lee of land-masses — he decided to put his ship into the 
ice to the north of the New Siberian islands, whence he believed 
that he would be carried by ocean currents across the pole to 
the Spitzhergen sea. His steamer, Frnm, 125 feet long, with an 
oak hull 30 inches thick and sheathed with greenheart, was built 
so as to rise under ice jn-essure, as he claimed. The crew of twelve 
were provisioned for five years, though he expected, by a drift of 
a little over two miles per day, to reach the Atlantic in two years. 
No explorer of experience endorsed the plan, but with undaunted 
courage Nansen sailed June 24, 1S93, and entering the sea of 
Kara was last seen to the east of Nova Zernbla in September, 1893. 
He visited neither the Taimur peninsula nor the New Siberian 
islands, as events have since shown. 
Fehruaiy 13, 1896, a dispatch from Irkutsk, on the authority 
of Konchnareff, an agent of Nansen, stated that the explorer, 
having reached land-masses at the North Pole, was now returning. 
Two days later a dispatch from Archangel confirmed the first re- 
port in general terms onl3^ From the beginning no credit was 
given to these dispatches by any American arctic explorer or 
student. Melville, Schutze, Dali, and the writer were strenuous in 
disbelief, hut the story was credited by scores of persons, both 
in Europe and this country, who did not find it peculiar that a 
story from the center of Asia was confirmed from the north of 
Europe, nor were surprised that such news came from the Si- 
berian ocean in midwinter. Through the Norwegian press Nan- 
sen’s relatives announce their disbelief in this rumor. 
As to the drift-relics found on the west coast of Greenland, 
which were relied on by Nansen as practical proof that his theory 
of a drift voyage was correct, it may he said tliat Melville, the 
man best qualified to speak about the Jeannette, denied at the 
time their genuineness and endeavored without avail to have 
them brought to this country. The writer puhlicl}’^ called Nan- 
sen’s attention to this question, which for the first time seems to 
have created doubts in his mind. Nansen made efforts to find 
the relics for verification, but they had disa])])eared in toto. 
\Vhile Nansen’s journey is (‘.xceedingly dangerous, it would 
not he astfjuishing if ho was able to return from his ship, if it 
was lost Sf)uth of 81° north, to the Asiatic coast, hut if he really 
a])|)roached the North Polo, as is po.ssil)le, before his ve.ssel was 
destroyed, it is .safe to say that he will i>ay for an une(pial(‘d 
