Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North

by Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Neumann Sverdrup

Book Overview

Like a modern Viking, 32-year-old Nansen set sail from Norway in 1893 to reach the North Pole. Experts warned him that his voyage was tantamount to suicide. Compact and nimble, his ship the Fram was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375754725
• ISBN13: 9780375754722
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Incredible story

I loved reading this book

Another Great Adventure - And a True Story

If you like adventure, this one is for you.This one is in the same genre as Shackleton's Amazing Adventureand The Last Place on Earth, both of which I reallyenjoyed.

A wonderful adventure story

I thought I was well educated, but just learned of this Norwegian scientist, explorer, statesman, and wonder why we Americans never learned about him in school. What a wonderful story of his attempt to reach the North Pole! As I am of Swedish descent I understand his understating his accomplishments. He doesn't see it as that unusual. It was just something he wanted to do and he planned it out carefully. This book should be required reading in our schools.

A Model for Future Space Expeditions

Modern exploration really began with Fridtjof Nansen and his Norwegian Polar Expedition. All who came after him benefited immensely from his experience. The primary characteristic that distinguished Nansen from most other explorers was that he approached all aspects of expedition planning with scientific precision. He started by reading accounts of previous expeditions in order to learn from the experiences of his predecessors. Nansen remarked in his diary that, to his surprise, most of the problems confronting him already had been addressed and, in many instances, solved by previous explorers: wear appropriate clothing, pay special attention to the food, select crew members who can get along, then keep them busy and entertained. In my book, Bold Endeavors: Lessons From Polar and Space Exploration, I suggest the Norwegian Polar Expedition as a model for modern space explorers. Nansen's systematic simulation, testing, and evaluation of every item of equipment and his meticulous attention to every detail and possible contingency set him apart from all previous and most subsequent explorers. But, most important, Nansen recognized that the physical and psychological well-being of his crew could make the difference between success and failure. Accordingly, he provided a well-designed habitat, insightful procedures, and exceptional leadership to a qualified and compatible crew. Roald Amundsen, the most successful of all explorers, wrote that, "The human factor is three quarters of any expedition." Before Amund-sen, Nansen knew that human factors were the critical components of any expedition; in Nansen's words, "It is the man that matters."

Nansen's Farthest North is a must read

This review is in reference to the original two volume set of Nansen's "Farthest North" published in 1897. The Modern Library abridged edition is drawn from that set.Nansen and 12 colleagues left Norway and sailed north in the Arctic Ocean above Siberia in 1893. Their purpose was to become frozen in the ice as it formed farther and farther south in the fall. Based on historical evidence from other attempts at far-north Arctic Ocean exploration, Nansen had decided that the flow of currents and winds in the Arctic Ocean were such that a frozen-in vessel that began above the Siberian Islands would drift northward with the ice across the North Pole over the next year or so. His goal therefore was to be the first to the North Pole. He planned for a expedition of as long as three years.These Arctic explorers' ship was a specially designed vessel, the Fram. Her construction was such that when trapped in the frozen ice, which had extremely variable depths and especially pressures, the ship would rise up above the swelling pack ice and avoid being crushed. The success of the ship's design was absolutely spectacular. This should be compared to the fate of the Endurance, Shackleton's ship (described in his book "South"), which was trapped in the Antarctic ice and crushed, more that 17 years after Nansen's memoir was published.Nansen's great success with sled dogs and sled designs published in the original memoir in 1897 adds credence to the relatively recent indictment (see Huntford) of the English Explorer Robert Scott who still disregarded the intense use of sled dogs in his 1910-12 Antarctic effort to reach the South Pole. Scott and four others basically die because of his ignorance/misunderstanding of the value of sled dogs, 15 years after Nansen details his successes with them on this expedition.Fridtjof Nansen's writing style is clear, interesting, and very engaging. He was obviously a first-rate, experienced explorer (having crossed lower Greenland in 1888) and yet, at the same time, someone who recognized that there is something special going on around him. He documents-via journal entries-his daily observations and feelings about the physical conditions, the people, and even the sled dogs born during the adventure. There are records of supplies, food, ocean depths, temperatures, drift direction and distances, wind speed, ice thickness, bear attacks, a fantastic two-person trek by dog sled, and beautiful and sometimes emotional details of the aurora borealis. The original two volume set includes photographs and drawings made from photographs taken on the trip. Also a fine set of maps clearly showed the route of the expedition. Some of these must be included in the Modern Library's abridged version.In comparison to the dry, guarded writing styles of Cherry-Garrard's "The Worst Journey in the World" or Shackleton's "South" this book is easier to read even though it too describes many terrifying situations and yet