Nature is often the best architect. Which is why, when well-known shipbuilder Colin Archer was asked to design a ship whose hull could withstand the crush of polar ice, he looked no further than an egg for inspiration – the oval design ensures that when ice is contracting against it, the boat is pushed up and onto the ice rather than being merely crushed by it. This museum is the final resting place of his creation, the Polarship Fram .
Launched in 1892, the Polarship Fram, at the time the strongest ship ever built, spent much of its life trapped in the polar ice. From 1893 to 1896 Fridtjof Nansen's North Pole expedition took the 39m schooner to Russia's New Siberian Islands, passing within a few degrees of the North Pole on their return trip to Norway.
In 1910 Roald Amundsen set sail in the Fram (meaning 'forward'), intending to be the first explorer to reach the North Pole, only to discover en route that Robert Peary had beaten him to it. Not to be outdone, Amundsen turned the Fram around and, racing Robert Falcon Scott all the way, became the first man to reach the South Pole. Otto Sverdrup also sailed the schooner around southern Greenland to Canada's Ellesmere Island between 1898 and 1902, travelling over 18,000km.
In addition to the Fram, the museum also houses the Gjøa, the first ship to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage.
You're allowed to thoroughly explore the ship, peek inside the cramped bunk rooms and imagine life at sea. In addition, there are detailed exhibits complete with maps, pictures and artefacts, that bring the various expeditions to life, from Nansen's attempt to ski across the North Pole to Amundsen's discovery of the Northwest Passage and the fateful rescue attempt that ended in his disappearance. Other exhibitions look at life in the polar regions and the wildlife of the area; there's even a polar simulator.
