Fram, Three-masted schooner at Bygdøy peninsula, Norway.
Fram is a research vessel in Oslo Municipality, Norway, displayed today on the Bygdøy peninsula and carrying three masts. The reinforced wooden hull has a rounded shape that allows the ship to lift out of ice pressure rather than resist it.
Fridtjof Nansen had the ship built in 1892 to freeze deliberately into Arctic ice and drift toward the North Pole with the current. Later Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen used the same vessel for further expeditions into the Arctic and Antarctic until 1912.
Nansen named the ship after the Norwegian word for forward which reflects the determination that drove these northern journeys into uncharted waters. Today the vessel sits indoors where visitors walk around its decks and peer into cabins just as the explorers left them.
The museum displays the ship inside a building so visitors can board it in any weather. You can walk through the narrow passages between bunks and see original supplies and tools in the cargo holds.
The hull is only 39 meters long but up to one meter thick with multiple layers of oak to withstand pressure. The original windmill that generated electric power for lamps during the ice drift still sits on board.
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