Northern Waters: Captain Roald Amundsen’s Oceanographic Observations in the Arctic seas in 1901.

NANSEN, Fridtjof.

Item Number: 77098

Christiana: Jacob Dybwad, 1906.

First edition. A signed presentation copy of the first edition of Fridtjof Nansen’s survey of Greenlandic waters. His work is based on data collected by Roald Amundsen, to whom the book is dedicated and who would later be the first man to reach the South Pole—sailing Southward on Nansen’s own ship, the Fram. Arctic Bib. 12003.

Quarto (274 x 182mm). 11 plates, some of which in color, partially unopened. Original tan printed wrappers (spine repairs, dampstain to upper inside corner).

In 1890, Norwegian scientist and explorer Fridtjof Nansen announced an innovative plan for Northern polar expeditions. “His theory, that a drift-current sets across the polar regions from Bering Strait… towards the east coast of Greenland was based on a number of indications… His intention was to get his vessel fixed in the ice to the north of Eastern Siberia and let her drift with it.” Although criticized, his plan succeeded. “His ship, the ‘Fram’ (‘Forward’), was specially built of immense strength and peculiar form” in order to endure the ice-floes. “During the winter of 1894-95 it was decided that an expedition should be made northward over the ice on foot in the spring… Being satisfied that the ‘Fram’ would continue to drift safely,” Nansen led the expedition to 86 degrees North, “the highest latitude then reached by man” (Britannica).