ch. xxxviii] Nansen and the "Fram " 
34i 
the ship would readily rise during ice pressure. She 
was also to have large carrying capacity, her beam 
being nearly a third of her length 1 . She was provided 
with a triple-expansion engine, and her rig was that 
of a three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. But the main 
object of Nansen and Colin Archer was that "she should 
slip like an eel out of the embraces of the ice." 
Nansen's friend, Baron von Toll, went to the New 
Siberia Islands in May 1893, and established a depot 
of a month's provisions at the house he built in 1886 
on the coast of Kotelnoi Island. Dogs were to be stationed 
at Khabarova in Pett Strait. 
The crew of the Fram numbered 13 including the 
commander. Sverdrup, the companion of Nansen on the 
inland ice of Greenland, was the master; Sigurd Scott 
Hansen, a first lieutenant in the navy, went as navigator 
and scientific observer ; Dr Blessing was surgeon. 
In July 1893, the Fram sailed from Norway on this 
great and novel enterprise, and on the 29th of that month 
the dogs were taken on board at Khabarova. Nansen 
crossed the Kara Sea, and proceeded along the coast 
of Siberia, discovering several small islands. On 
September 8th, Cape Chelyuskin was rounded. On the 
16th a northern course was shaped, a little to the west 
of the new Siberian Islands, and for some days good 
progress was made. It was not until the 25th of 
September that the Fram was finally frozen in and the 
famous drift began. Scott Hansen took astronomical 
observations every second day, and a snow house was 
built on the floe for magnetic observations. Deep sea 
soundings, with temperatures at various depths, were 
periodically taken. 
In October 1893 the first great pressure was experi- 
enced. The ice was piling up around the Fram, tossing 
itself into lofty ridges, and breaking against her sides. 
In January 1894 matters looked so serious that prepara- 
tions were made to abandon the ship, but she withstood 
and rose to any pressure, thus fully confirming the cor- 
rectness of Colin Archer's structural plan. 
1 Length of keel 102 feet, length of deck 128 feet, beam 36 feet, depth 
17 feet, thickness of ship's side 24 to 28 inches. In the stern the oak beams 
were 4 feet thick. 
