Fram

Type

Schooner

Period

19th Century

Nation

Norway

Overview: Fram is a purpose-built polar exploration schooner designed by Colin Archer, celebrated as the vessel that carried Nansen, Sverdrup, and Amundsen on three landmark polar expeditions between 1893 and 1912. She is renowned as one of the strongest wooden ships ever built, engineered to survive being frozen into and lifted by pack ice rather than crushed by it. Specifications: The ship is a three-masted schooner roughly 39 metres long, 11 metres in beam, with a shallow draught and rounded, nearly keel-less hull. The triple-layered timber hull, including an outer layer of greenheart, was about 70 cm thick; total sail area was roughly 600 square metres, and propulsion was originally a 220 hp triple-expansion steam engine, later replaced with a 180 hp diesel engine ahead of Amundsen's South Pole voyage. Service History: Launched on 26 October 1892 at Colin Archer's yard in Larvik, Fram first carried Nansen's 1893-96 Arctic drift expedition, then Otto Sverdrup's 1898-1902 voyage to the Canadian Arctic archipelago, and finally Roald Amundsen's successful 1910-12 expedition to the South Pole. After Antarctica she sailed via Buenos Aires to Colón to await completion of the Panama Canal before returning to Norway in 1914. Notable Facts: Rather than being broken up for parts, Fram was preserved through funds raised partly by Sverdrup, hauled ashore at Bygdøy, Oslo in 1935, with the purpose-built Fram Museum opening around her the following year. The ship's original interior remains intact, and visitors can go aboard to view it, making her a valuable full-hull reference for modelers of polar-exploration vessels.