Fridtjof Nansen and the North Pole kayaks^

[MikeB]

With thanks to Alice Courvoisier - -

One evening, while I was staying at a friend's in Tromsø, the conversation turned towards the summer 2011 expedition planned by the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, with aim to kayak to the North Pole, study ice conditions along the way, and emphasize how much of an issue global warming is. “Have you heard about Fridtjof Nansen?” then asked my friend's landlord before narrating one of his countryman's Arctic adventures. Months later, upon reading Nansen's riveting biography by Roland Huntford, I discovered that he had, in fact, been the first person who attempted to take kayaks to the North Pole.

Read more (pdf) - - -

[ian johnston]

Great stuff Mike,

A fascinating character; and a truly great polar adventurer/explorer. Both he and John Rae should be held in far higher regard than Scott or Franklin. Thanks for posting

Kind regards

Ian

[Owen]

Somewhere I have an account with photo's of this attempt, I'll see if I can dig it out for you.

[poun]

Here are a couple of links (that I've used to write the article). They are well worth checking and include pictures.

Eskimo Life
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eskimo_Life
especially chapters 3: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eskimo_Life/Chapter_3
and chapter 4: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eskimo_Life/Chapter_4 (some of the best descriptions of kayaking Inuits I've ever read).

Farthest North - Nansen's account of the FRAM expedition
http://archive.org/details/cihm_29634

Cheers,
Alice

[PeterG]

If in Oslo it is well worth visiting the Fram in its museum. You can wander about on board and visualise life locked in the ice.

[Chris Bolton]

Excellent links - the Eskimo Life is fascinating, and Nansen's discussion is amazing for 1888. There is one aspect of Alice's article that I hesitate to quote on this site, about his first time in a kayak:

For initial practice, his craft was fitted with outriggers in the shape of small kayaks, about two feet long, which were fastened behind his seat.

Chris

PS - for newcomers to the site, I believe Mark first set up the Forum because rec.boats.paddle was filled with discussion of similar devices - although I'm still not going to write the "S" word used to refer to them!