Fridtjof Nansen's Journal from the 1893-1896 Fram expedition
June 24, 1893 - Launch Day
It was midsummer day. A dull, gloomy day; and with it came the inevitable leave-taking. The door closed behind me. For the last time I left my home and went alone down the garden to the beach, where the Fram’s little petroleum launch pitilessly awaited me. Behind me lay all I held dear in life. And what before me? How many years would pass ere I should see it all again? What would I not have given at that moment to be able to turn back; but up at the window little Liv (daughter) was sitting clapping her hands. Happy child, little do you know what life is--how strangely mingled and how full of change. Like an arrow the little boat sped over Lysaker Bay, bearing me on the first stage of a journey on which life itself, if not more, was staked…
And now a last farewell to home. Yonder it lies on the point--the fjord sparkling in front, pine and fir woods around, a little smiling meadow-land and long wood-clad ridges behind. Through the glass one could descry a summer-clad figure by the bench under the fir-tree…
It was the darkest hour of the whole journey.
-From Chapter III of Farthest North by F. Nansen
Photo of Frederik Hjalmar Johansen, officer, firefighter, and meteorological assistant aboard the Fram; National Library of Norway
Connection to the MOSAiC expedition
Much like the explorers from the Fram expedition, scientists participating in the MOSAiC expedition are sacrificing a lot to travel aboard the Polarstern as it floats, frozen in sea ice for an entire year. Not only will the scientists be away from their homes and families, they’ll also be living with acquaintances in very close quarters, working at times in complete darkness (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) in below zero temperatures.