Nansen, Fridtjof

Nansen, Fridtjof (1861–1930), Norwegian explorer and zoologist, whose contribution to oceanography included the Nansen bottle which he designed for collecting deep-water samples. Born near Oslo and educated at the university there, he was appointed assistant curator of the Natural History Museum at Bergen, and in 1888–9 he crossed the Greenland ice sheet from east to west, which he later described in his book First Crossing of Greenland and Eskimo Life. In order to test his theory of the existence of a polar current flowing towards the east coast of Greenland, he set sail in June 1893 in the specially constructed wooden topsail schooner Fram, which spent the next 35 months drifting with the frozen ice towards the North Pole. While the Fram was drifting north Nansen and her crew measured the depths of the Arctic Ocean through holes in the ice and discovered that it was not shallow, as had been thought, but a deep basin.

Other scientific investigations included recording air and water temperatures, and inspecting plankton. Eventually, Nansen became impatient at the Fram's progress and when she was still about 500 kilometres (300 mls.) from the North Pole he left the ship and, with a companion, sledged across the ice to try and reach it on foot. He reached latitude 86° 13′ N., further north than anyone had previously travelled, before having to turn back. He then turned south to Franz Josef Land where he wintered, and was picked up in 1896 by the British Jackson-Harmsworth polar expedition.

From 1905 to 1908 Nansen was the first Norwegian ambassador to Britain, but resigned in order to carry out oceanographic research round Iceland and Spitsbergen and also in the Kara Sea. In 1919 he was appointed Norwegian representative to the League of Nations and in 1920 director of an organization for the repatriation of prisoners of war. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Peace Prize and in 1926 was made Lord Rector of St Andrews University, Scotland.