Show J NANSENS PERILOUS VOYAGE l Trying fo < > DriftAcross the North Polar Sea It Was Specially Prepared for the Journey and is Probably the Strongest Vessel Afloat > Will the Venturesome Explorer Ever Return AllvoP A Talk with Mrs Nansen In Her Home In Christiana I hope that Norwegian men and women wo-men will send kind thoughts to us while we drift through tho cold dark polar world This as Dr Frldjof Nansens farewell fare-well to his countrymen when he setout set-out on his adventurous voyage in his stout little ship the Fram and it has been realized There Is today no more popular name In all Scandinavia than his The thoughts of the people are kind but they arc gloomy Few of the Norwegians Nor-wegians expect that Nansen will ever again see home It IB a pleasure to me to call attention to some exceptions to his friend and comrade and above all to his devoted wife and to tell some of the reasons why they are confident that the problem of the lole is even now being solved that somewhere in the unknown spaces never yet traversed trav-ersed by man the silent currents of the sea arc bearing Nausea back again to human sight It was more than two years ago on August 3 1893 when M O Chrlstofer sell secretary of the expedition bade Nansen goodbye as he turned his back upon the world at Chabarowa in the strait of Jugor Siberia Mr Chrlstofeisen knows all of Nan sens plans He expressed to me the most perfect confidence In the success of the undertaking and said he vas pleased that nothing had been heard of Nansen According to tho most accurate calculation he said three years at least will be required for the Journey to be completed arid If we receive any Information before the expiration ex-piration of that time It Is likely to be tidings of misfortune This was reasHurlng but my Bkeptl clsm was not completely eradicated until It became my good fortune through a friends Invitation to meet the charming young wife of the explorer ex-plorer and from her lips hear an explanation ex-planation of the principles upon which her husbands plan Is founded Dr NansenH home is picturesquely situated at Lysaker a suburb of Christiana Here live his wife and daughter The former an Intellectual vivacious and cheerful young woman the latter a beautiful little girl about two and a half years of age Here they wait his return In a characteristic Norwegian borne in every part of which mementoes of the absent voy lur meets their eyes A bust or Dr Nansen la the prominent object in the parlor In every corner on every little stand and table are photographs and paintings of the distant husband and father The walls are decorated with paintings representing Arctic scenes and adventures Madame Nansen belongs to one of the best families In Norway Her maiden name was Lars and her mother Is a sister of the poet Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven who was a contemporary of Vergeland Madame Nansen Is herself Norways most popular popu-lar concert singer Her voice though not equal to that of the opera singer Gina Osello BJornson surpasses It in sweetness and purity of tone Wherever Wher-ever she appears she Is always enthusiastically enthu-siastically greeted Perhaps to the sympathy and admiration naturally drawn to Nansens wife some portion of her success before the public maybe may-be due She Is an admirer of Dr Grieg the great Norwegian composer and she alone sings his music before It Is published Madam Nansen Is not a beautiful woman but Is charmIng charm-Ing and Interesting a semibrunette of medium height with well built and a symmetrical figure Our conversation soon turned to the one object of Interesther husband and his expedition to the North Pole It did not depress her to talk about her absent husband on the contrary she was as happy as the lark she rivals and at frequent Intervals her clear and hearty laugh would cause the piano at my side to murmur In sympathy Not for a moment do I doubt his return re-turn she said Why if I had not felt the greatest confidence In his success suc-cess I should never have been foolish enough to let him go The only thing which I can see that may prevent his return Is a sheer misfortune whereby tho vessel Is crushed even if Fram should be wrecked they have boats If they too are lost then as a last resort re-sort they have tents to erect on the IceI asked If she had no desire to accompany ac-company her husband She answered promptly No indeed In-deed that would be outside of the sphere of a woman That would not have boon the proper thing for me to doI ventured to mention that Mrs Peary accompanied her husband on an Arctic trip Yes she said and so much the worse for the expedition It must have been a great burden to carry her along although MIS Peary certainly showed much courage Madam Nansen It may be Inferred does not advocate woman suffrage ii you ever try to persuade YOUI husband to give up his bold plan No on the contrary I urged and encouraged en-couraged him to the task for It was Ms life work and without an attempt at It he would never have been happy Since he was so unfortunate as to have such a desire It was my duty to assist him In satisfying It So you call It a misfortune that he had such a desire Well I cant cay I call It fortunate to have him up near the North Pole while I am sitting here Madame Nansens faith In the success suc-cess of the expedition and In the safe return of her husband Is sanguine and an grounds for her belief she gave mean me-an Interesting account of Dr Nansens plansand told how they had gradually doveloped through many yeaiB of study nnd how they had finally led to tho expedition Since his twentysecond year Dr Nansen has been contemplating crossIng cross-Ing the North Pole and with that end In view has been diligently studying the Arctic ocean currents He noticed no-ticed the two large currents flowing down the coasts of Greenland out of the Polar regions Approximate calculations cal-culations showed that an enormous quantity of water was thus transported trans-ported oouthwardly Of course it would bo Impossible for the Polar ocean to continue to yield ouch great volumes of water unless similar streams were somewhere flowing Into it Dr Nanson nought their source on the opposite Hide of the pole off the const of Sltnrla whTO he discovered a great current which moved steadily toward tho polo Not only did tho water flow toward the pole but tho thick Icecrust was carried car-ried by the stream In the same direction direc-tion The Idea struck Dr Nansen that It would ha possible to drift across the pole starting off the count of Siberia and coming out by way of Greenland i f t This Idea was strengthened by the result re-sult of James Gordon Bennetts Jean otto expedition of 18823 The Jean etto was shipwrecked between 70 degrees de-grees and 78 degrees north latitude and 165 degrees longitude cast of Greenwich Green-wich Three yearn after some of tho ships stores were found near Cape Farewell the southern extremity of Greenland directly opposite the pole from where they had been cast in the sea It was evident that they must have been driven across the polar regions re-gions Dr Nanscn considered this theory demonstrated and reasoned that if he could have placed himself upon the stores lost by the Jeanette ho would have crossed with them the Polar sea Cut this Is far from the only proof of a transpolar current Every week large quantities of driftwood arrive on Spltzbergen Island and Greenland coasts by the polar route from Siberia In this way the Eskimo Is provided pro-vided with all the wood he needs for houses tools and fire Without It he could not exist Furthermore Dr Nan Ben caused experts to examine the earth and rocks found on the Ice which drifts along the Greenland coast and It was decided that these were identical identi-cal with those of Siberia and must have drifted on the ice across the pole In short Dr Nansen concluded that there Is a short current flowing directly across the polar region and that It a vessel could be built strong enough to resist the pressure of the Ice It would be possible to drift with that current across the pole Dr Nansen concluded that there must be an open polar sea partially from the fact that the majority of the North Pole expeditions have been stopped not as most people believe by Ice but by open waters The Austrian Aus-trian Ungarn expedition was stopped by open water at 825 degrees north latitude Lieutenant Lockwood of the Greeley expedition was likewise stopped by open water at 8324 degrees north latitude Of course It will be understood under-stood that tho open water prevents the progress of dogs over the Ice Even If the theory of an open polar sea should not prove a reality Dr Nansen Is likely to pass through the mysterious region frozen tightly Into an Immense Ice place over which he will have no control In this case it Is not certain that he will be able to pass directly over the pole but may be carried car-ried some little distance to either side of It lie Is In hopes however with the assistance of his dogs and sleighs to reach the very point where the earths axis terminates the true geographical geo-graphical pole Fram Dr Nansens vessel Is possibly pos-sibly the strongest and the most carefully care-fully built ship afloat Its construction Is such that when the Ice freezes solidly solid-ly around It and begins to press against the sides It will be lifted or pushed upward and will rest on the top of the Ice long enough before the crushIng crush-Ing point Is reached The bottom Is flat the sides have great shear It Is rigged like a threemasted schooner and has a screw propeller which gives a speed of eight miles an hour It carries car-ries coaloil and provisions for five years though the trip Is calculated to last only three On previous polar expeditions It has been found dlfllcult to keep the frost from penetrating the sides of the ship It was not rare to have the mattresses under the sailors to turn Into lumps of Ice Dr Nansen has had layers of various material almost Impenetrable by frost placed along the sides and under un-der the deck Pains have been taken to furnish the vessel as warmly as possible pos-sible and a dynamo will furnish electric elec-tric light during the long nights A windmill is to furnish the power If that falls It has been so arranged that the men In taking their dally walks fan at the same time furnish the power Tor the generator Dr Nansen was dim careful to have the ship stocked with a good library Dr Nansen has on a previous occasion occa-sion shown his skill and perseverance Ho In the only person who has ever crossed over the Interior of Greenland In 1888 ho undertook the feat and was crowned with success Before I left Dr Nansens home Madame Nansen showed me his study The library contains a large percentage of all the books that have ever been written on travels and explorations The walls are filled with all manner of relics which Dr Nansen has brought from Greenland and other Arctic regions re-gions I ventured to suggest to Madame Nansen that the parting scene between her and her husband must have been exceptionally touching Her reply was Civilization has brought with It great selfcontrol nnd now the mind and not the Inclination rules It was a characteristic utterance of a brave mans plucky wife |