m 



X he success of an expedition, such as that planned and carried out by 

 Dr. Nansen during the years 1893 — 96, must in a great measure depend 

 upon every possible contingency being foreseen and provided for, and every 

 detail of the outfit chosen with a special view to the purpose to be served. 

 To no part of the equipment could this apply with greater force than to 

 the ship that was to carry Nansen and his companions on their adventurous 

 voyage. It was clearly of the greatest importance that she should be 

 the best that could possibly be devised for the purpose. The fate of the 

 undertaking, and the safety of those who entered upon it, would evidently 

 largely depend upon their always having, whatever might happen, a compa- 

 ratively safe place of refuge to fall back upon; while the loss of the ship 

 would necessarily entail hardship and suffering to the crew, and possibly the 

 miscarriage of the whole enterprise. It was, therefore, in the highest degree 

 important in the design and construction of the vessel to form as precise an 

 estimate as possible of the nature of the strains and destructive forces to 

 which she might become exposed, and of the various critical situations into 

 which she might be thrown on her way, and to take such measures as 

 experience might suggest for securing her safety. 



The leading idea, which formed so to speak the key-stone of the 

 expedition, was that the vessel, after having reached the vicinity of the 

 New Sibirian Islands, and having been frozen fast in the ice there, would 

 be carried by an ocean current, slowly but surely, towards the coast of 

 Greenland, passing at a greater or less distance from the North Pole. As 

 the ice surrounding the vessel would drift with the current, it follows that 

 it would necessarily be split up at certain seasons into floes, of which 

 the dimensions were unknown, but which, judging from experience in 



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