COLIN ARCHER. [noew. pol. exp. 



other parts of the polar seas, would be constantly grinding against each 

 other, and crushing intervening objects with apparently irresistible force. To 

 attempt to force a way through such ice was no part of the scheme. The 

 part the ship would have to play was mainly a passive one. She would have 

 to lie still and be squeezed. Assuming this reasoning to be correct the question 

 arose : — Is it possible to build a ship sufficiently strong to resist the enormous 

 pressure likely to be brought to bear upon her, without sustaining serious 

 damage? This was the problem which had to be solved, and the prospect of 

 solving it satisfactorily did not at first sight seem promising. Almost without 

 exception the best authorities on the subject both in Norway and abroad, 

 men who had the best opportunities of forming an opinion from personal ex- 

 perience, expressed the belief that the question must be answered in the nega- 

 tive; the ordeal, it was maintained, would be too severe for the strongest 

 structure. Nor were the accounts of previous voyages in high latitudes en- 

 couraging. Many a fine ship had been tried and found wanting, thus adding 

 strength to the general belief that the pressure of the ice is irresistible. When, 

 therefore, the Fram was fitted out and ready for sea, it was undoubtedly 

 still the prevailing opinion among those who had seen her while being built, 

 that we might see Nansen and his men again; but the ship — never. 



But, although the greatest weight was attached to these opinions and 

 facts as far as they went, they could not be looked upon as affording conclu- 

 sive evidence that the problem does not admit of a favorable solution. It is 

 sufficient to say that, as far as was known, no ship had as yet been built 

 with the avowed object of putting the problem to a practical test. As a 

 rule arctic explorers had, heretofore, made use of ships, strongly built no 

 doubt, and frequently specially strengthened for the occasion; but it is doubt- 

 ful if any one of these ships could be said to have been thoroughly suited 

 for the work, or to have been so strengthened as to make every part equally 

 invulnerable. To effect this in a vessel originally built perhaps for a totally 

 different purpose, may be a task of some difficulty. It becomes comparatively 

 easy when the result aimed at is kept steadily in view from the keel up- 

 wards. It was to put the question of the possibility of surviving a protracted 

 encounter with the ice to a practical test, that the Fram was planned and 

 built. To make her proof against its assaults was the consideration to which 

 all others had to yield precedence. 



