Gjøa

Type

Sloop

Period

19th Century

Nation

Norway

Overview: Gjøa is a small Norwegian sloop famous as the first vessel to complete a full transit of the Northwest Passage, sailed by Roald Amundsen and a crew of six between 1903 and 1906. She had spent nearly three decades as a working herring fishing boat before Amundsen purchased and outfitted her for polar exploration. Specifications: The square-sterned sloop measured roughly 70 by 20 feet (21.3 by 6.1 metres) and was of about 47 net register tonnage. She was built of wood at Knut Johannesson Skaale's yard in Rosendal, Hardanger, Norway, in 1872, and named after the original owner's wife. Amundsen had her hull reinforced and fitted a small auxiliary engine before the expedition. Service History: Launched in 1872, she worked herring fisheries and later sealing before Amundsen bought her in 1901. From 1903 to 1906 she carried Amundsen's expedition through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, wintering nearly two years frozen in a harbor on King William Island (Gjøa Haven) where the crew determined the location of the North Magnetic Pole, before completing the passage and arriving at Nome, Alaska in 1906. She was later gifted to San Francisco and displayed in Golden Gate Park from 1909 until 1972, when she was returned to Norway. Notable Facts: After her repatriation she was displayed at the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Bygdøy, Oslo, and in 2009 was moved to a dedicated wing of the Fram Museum, where she remains on exhibit today. The Gjøa was built to order by Asbjørn Sexe in 1872, the fifth in a line of sloops from Knut Johannesson Skaala's shipyard in Rosendal, Hardanger, with timber felled locally and mast and spars from Varaldsøy, and was named after Gjøa Sexe, the skipper's wife. Her small size and shallow draft, chosen deliberately by Amundsen over larger ships like Franklin's Erebus and Terror, proved key to her success in narrow, ice-choked Arctic channels.