Ever Been on a Polar Expedition Ship?
If not, a trip to the "Fram Museum" in Oslo is highly recommended
As it is Easter Monday today, I’ll deliver a kind of “special treat” I promised—something entirely different. If you’ve missed the Easter posting, please go there:
Today, I’ll take you to what is known as the “Fram Museum” in Oslo. Situated close to the Maritime Museum and but a few minutes away from the Viking Ship Museum, it houses two polar expedition vessels from about a century ago. From their website:
Being the most famous wooden polar vessel in the world, Fram is a symbol of Norway's significant participation in the heroic age of exploration…
Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen took turns in exploring new areas in both the Arctic and Antarctic on this amazing ship, designed and built by Colin Archer. But it was not given that she would survive the aftermath…
In 1934 the Oslo Association of Architects offered to hold an architecture competition to design a building for the honoured vessel. Sixty entries were submitted and the winner was the architect Bjarne Tøien with his entry “Saga”. Fram was pulled into her new home by an electric motor. The ship moved one centimeter per minute. On May 20th 1936 the Fram Museum was finally opened. Both His Majesty King Haakon VII and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Olav were present. A national monument was finally in place.
I once went there in autumn 2020, it was a gloriously sunny, late-autumn day and I learned a lot about polar expeditions around the turn of the twentieth century.
Going through the picture postcards from Norway a few days ago, I found these two from the “Fram Museum”:
As a “bonus feature”, since we’re on the topic of visiting Oslo, here goes:
Enjoy, if you will, our little Easter Monday trip to the “Fram Museum” in Oslo.