Fridtjof Nansen

Norwegian explorer and statesman

• Born: October 10, 1861
• Birthplace: Store-Frøen, Norway
• Died: May 13, 1930
• Place of death: Polhøgda, Lysaker, near Oslo, Norway

Nansen was a major Arctic explorer, an accomplished scientist, an outstanding statesman, and a world-renowned humanitarian who strove to advance the rights of the oppressed and war refugees.

Early Life

Fridtjof Nansen (FRIHT-yawf NAHN-suhn), with his brother Alexander and a number of half brothers and sisters, grew up several miles from Christiania in a rural paradise, one with wooded areas, near lakes where they learned to swim and where, in the winter, they skated on the ice. His father, Baldur Nansen, was a lawyer of unswerving integrity, reputed to have been slender, precise, and gentle in manner, firm and honorable in character. His mother, Adelaide Wedel Jarlsberg Nansen, was a tall, industrious, and stately woman who was an accomplished snowshoer and skier, introducing her son to snowshoeing when he was four. Nansen was most like his mother, tall and large of frame, with strongly marked features and boundless energy, inheriting his mother’s love of outdoor sport.

As a young man, Nansen won the national cross-country skiing championship twelve times in succession, and at eighteen he broke the world record for one-mile skating. As he grew older, it became apparent that he had acquired from his father a strong sense of obligation, a gentle manner, thoughtful sympathy for others, a careful, accurate habit of work, and a strict firmness of character. Though Nansen’s family was relatively wealthy, he learned at a young age the value of hard work, discipline, and frugality. Interestingly, his very name, Fridtjof, means a Viking, or more properly speaking a “thief of peace.”

As a young man Nansen became intimately knowledgeable of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Peter Christian Asbj rnsen’s Norwegian fairy tales, and young fishermen bare-legged in the icy Frogner River with their bait of worms. From an early age, he never tired of boating and sailing or of boarding the sealing and whaling boats as they lay in Christiania harbor. Nansen possessed an insatiable desire for reading and asking questions so persistently, so continually, that one friend said, “It made us absolutely ill.” In later years, Nansen wrote, with a homesick longing, of the “unspeakably dear and happy home.”

Life’s Work

A brilliant young scholar, Nansen received honors in all natural science subjects, mathematics, and history, and in 1880 entered the University of Christiania to study zoology. In the spring of 1882, while still at the university, he was asked to participate in collecting zoological specimens on an expedition to the Arctic Ocean aboard the sealer Viking, a six-month adventure hunting saddleback seals and one that had a momentous influence on his future career. It was during this cruise that he observed bits of driftwood and deposits of fine earth on the ice; he asked himself whether, since there were no trees in Greenland, the polar ice moved from east to west from Siberia to Greenland and perhaps touched the North Pole. On his return he was offered a position at the Bergen Museum as curator of natural history, where he spent six years.

In 1888, immediately after defending his pioneering Ph.D. dissertation in zoology, on the histology of the central nervous system of the hagfish (1887), Nansen with a party of five (including two Norwegian Lapps) made a memorable journey on skis across Greenland’s inland ice sheet from east to west, which he described in his First Crossing of Greenland (1890). When Nansen returned home on May 30, 1889, he was greeted as a hero, having established his international reputation as a resourceful and successful Arctic explorer.

However, some explorers and scholars maintain that his major contribution to polar exploration was his expedition of 1893-1896, when he attempted to drift across the Arctic Ocean aboard the indestructible Fram, therefore demonstrating a water route across the polar basin. The Fram (“forward”) was undoubtedly the most famous Arctic exploration ship, which Nansen, along with the Scottish naval architect Colin Archer, designed for its unique task of avoiding being crushed by sea ice, which was the fate of most Arctic-going vessels. This famous and unique polar vessel was a 400-ton, fore and aft iron-clad, barkentine-rigged ship, one with rounded ends that allowed the ship to rise with any increased pressure of sea ice. From earlier experience in Greenland, where Nansen observed icebound driftwood, he was also aware that wreckage from the Jeannette, of George W. De Long’s ill-fated 1879-1881 expedition that had foundered off Siberia, eventually was found along Greenland’s east shore. Nansen correctly posited, from his experience on the Viking, that there existed a trans-Arctic ice drift. Between 1893 and 1896, Nansen’s Fram drifted icebound from the East Siberian Sea across the Arctic basin as he had hoped, though somewhat to the left of the North Pole. He took soundings often two miles in depth providing a profile that dispelled the popular notion that the Polar Sea was a shallow basin.

On March 14, 1895, Nansen and his most durable skier, Lieutenant Hjalmer Johansen, left the Fram at 84 degrees north latitude and made a desperate attempt to reach the pole by dog sled and skis over the ice. In early April, at 86 degrees, 12 minutes north latitude, they gave up and turned south, arriving in Franz Josef Land, where they wintered after five months and a three-hundred-mile journey. They were rescued the following spring by a British expedition sent out to explore Franz Josef Land, led by Frederick Jackson. Two months later, on August 13, 1896, Jackson deposited Nansen and Johansen at the port of Vard in north Norway. Unbeknown to them, the Fram had the same day shaken off the last of the pack ice near Spitsbergen and was steaming south for the first time in three years. Only one week after Nansen and Johansen’s arrival, the Fram cast anchor in the far north port of Skyjerv y. Nansen had now attained the status of an oracle, for this austere, self-possessed, and enigmatic Titan proved his hypothesis about a westward drift of polar currents.

Nansen consequently exerted considerable influence on Antarctic and Arctic explorers when he advocated the use of dogs and skis, and he recommended emulating the adaptive technology and diet of the Inuit of the Arctic. His experiences laid the basis for nearly all Arctic and even Antarctic explorations, as well as establishing him as a scholar in the relatively new fields of ethnology, nutrition, oceanography, and meteorology. These accomplishments led to his appointment as professor of zoology (1897) and professor of oceanography (1908) at the University of Christiania (now Oslo). During this period he edited a six-volume account, The Norwegian North Polar Expedition (published between 1900 and 1906). As a scientist, Nansen made numerous contributions, including published monographs, based on his extensive fieldwork, particularly after 1901, when he was appointed director of an international commission to study oceanographic subjects. He also made several scientific expeditions (1906-1908), mainly to the North Atlantic.

Nansen’s considerable influence on the Norwegian government, in its internal affairs discussions regarding the uneasy union with Sweden, commenced his career as a statesman, for in 1905 he negotiated Norway’s peaceful separation from Sweden after almost a century of Swedish rule and, before that, four centuries under Denmark. In recognition of his efforts, Nansen was appointed Norway’s first ambassador to Britain (1906-1908). Nansen’s international reputation was enhanced through his numerous significant contributions of informative articles to the world press and his reputation for integrity and devotion to humanitarian causes. Although Nansen wanted to continue his explorations, particularly to the South Pole, demands by his country, and later by millions of helpless World War I refugees abroad, became increasingly pressing. His strong sense of citizenship, compassion, and obligation forced Nansen to forgo his own personal ambitions to assist those many refugees less fortunate than himself and to perform acts of mercy without regard to his own inclinations, convenience, and even his health.

After World War I, Nansen became known internationally as a humanitarian, mainly through his services to famine-stricken Russia as well as his work in the repatriation of prisoners of war. In 1921 he was appointed as League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and he was able to save millions of destitute Armenians, Greeks, and Russians, for which he received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize, which, characteristically, he donated to international relief efforts. The League of Nations again honored him in 1931 by creating the Nansen International Office for Refugees, which won the 1938 Nobel Peace Prize. Nansen continued his work in the League of Nations, working in the Assemblies of 1925 to 1929, in which capacity he played a major role in securing the adoption of a convention against forced labor in colonial territories, and in preparations for a disarmament conference.

Significance

Fridtjof Nansen, one of the most famous Arctic explorers, greatly influenced both Arctic and Antarctic explorers. In time, he was fairly judged by most explorers as one of the most successful, dedicated and innovative, if not inspirational, of all polar explorers. Much of Nansen’s success in exploration was that he possessed the unique ability to plan the needs and logistics of an expedition, to choose good men, and to inspire them through his own example of dedication. Nansen’s success as an explorer was based on his thorough understanding of oceanographic circulation patterns, climatology, navigation, astronomy, and Eskimo culture (especially their clothing, shelter, diet, and transportation). However, many scholars and biographers of Nansen believe that his greatest skills and contributions were demonstrated in the fields of diplomacy and politics, and of course in his tireless efforts in directing humanitarian aid to refugees.

Remarkable about Nansen are the numerous academic, literary, political, and humanitarian contributions he made. To this day, Nansen epitomizes for Norwegians a strength, integrity, and sense of both personal and national independence. His writings, in addition to those works already mentioned, included Eskimo Life (1958), In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (1975), Closing-Nets for Vertical Hands and for Vertical Towing (1915), Russia and Peace (1923), and Armenia and the Near East (1976). In addition, Nansen wrote numerous scientific reports and journal articles, particularly in the fields of biology and zoology.

Bibliography

Berton, Pierre. The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. A thorough and exceptionally well written account that critically compares Nansen’s philosophy and techniques of exploration with those of Robert McClure, Charles Francis Hall, William Parry, Robert Edwin Peary, and Roald Amundsen.

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989. Perhaps the best-written account of the Scott Expedition to the South Pole, also containing invaluable information regarding Nansen’s solution for scurvy and his innovations in Arctic equipment.

Christopersen, A. R. Fridtjof Nansen: A Life in the Service of Science and Humanity. Oslo: Cultural Office of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1961. A brief but succinct monograph that presents an in-depth and relatively detailed essay on Nansen’s successful efforts in the areas of politics and diplomacy, particularly his role in the repatriation of prisoners of war and his contributions to assisting refuges of the Russian famine.

Cohen, Maynard M. Stand Against Tyranny: Norway’s Physicians and the Nazis. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1997. Describes the activities of Nansen and other Norwegian physicians who worked to combat Nazism after the Nazi occupation of Norway.

Hadow, Pen. “History’s Ultimate Explorer.” Geographical 77, no. 11 (November, 2005): 74-79. Recounts Nansen’s explorations.

Hall, Anna Gertrude. Nansen. New York: Viking Press, 1940. The book presents important biographical information from Nansen’s unpublished diaries, mostly on his youth and period of exploration, particularly his time aboard the Viking and the Fram.

Mirsky, Jeannette. To the Arctic! The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948. A complete survey that provides a thorough understanding of the ineradicable effect that Nansen had on both Arctic and Antarctic exploration.

Nansen, Fridtjof. Adventure and Other Papers. North Stratford, Conn.: AMS Press, 1977. A collection of papers that dwell mostly on Nansen’s exploration, with excellent accounts of his preparations, strategies, and the logistics of his explorations.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Farthest North: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship “Fram” 1893-96 and of a Fifteen Months’ Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen. 2 vols. London: Harper & Brothers, 1897. An honest and even humble account of Nansen’s early childhood, personal training, and devotion to his many pursuits, which were critical to his political ambitions and success as an explorer.

Ryne, Linn. Fridtjof Nansen. Oslo: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1996. A brief but valuable account of information usually available only in untranslated books and articles.