Otto Sverdrup

The links between the polar neighbours of Norway and Canada are as old as the earliest contacts between the Old and New Worlds. A thousand years ago the Vikings attempted settlement in what is now the province of Newfoundland. Nine hundred years later, at the turn of the last century from 1898 to 1902, Captain Otto Sverdrup took the same vestervegen (the westward way) to chart, explore, and study what have become Canada's northmost lands. The Canadian High Arctic is rich in Norwegian names as a testament to Sverdrup's eminently successful voyage in the famous FRAM. Canada as a whole was enriched at the same time, as his expedition coincided with a more active immigration policy which attracted Norwegians in the thousands to help build the new nation.

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HISTORY

The Life of Otto Sverdrup

by Ivar Skjærvik

Otto Sverdrup, the great son of Bindal, carried out many achievements within the areas of polar science and exploration. His father was born on Buøy in Nærøy municipality, at that time Kolvereid municipality. As oldest son he was heir to the Sverdrup properties at Buøya. However, he left it all to his younger brothers and went to Åbygda in Bindal, to the farm named Hårstad, where Otto Sverdrup was born. In 1872, at the age of 17, Otto Sverdrup returned to Nærøy, to Ottersøy where his uncle Søren worked in transportation with his own vessels. Here Sverdrup started his career as a seaman and after a while he was sailing abroad. In 1875 he passed his mate's examination, and some years later the shipmaster's examination.

In 1877 Sverdrup's parents moved from Bindal to the farm Trana situated outside Steinkjer. At this time O.T. Olsen, a teacher and employee in the bank at Kolvereid and a relative of his mother, had bought the steamboat TRIO. Sverdrup was employed as captain. Around this time Sverdrup also met the lawyer Alexsander Nansen who lived in Namsos. He was the brother of Fridtjof Nansen and through him Sverdrup and Fridtjof Nansen learned to know each other.

In 1888 Sverdrup became a member of Nansen's expedition over the ice cap of Greenland. Lack of knowledge about the sea currents along the coast of Greenland led to great troubles and loss of time for the expedition. We can only wonder if any of the team members would have survived this tour, had it not been for Sverdrup. Besides great practical skills Sverdrup was also a man of unusual physical and psychological strength. These properties would prove to be important during his adventurous life.

Sverdrup was a central person in the construction of the polar vessel Fram, and he was responsible for the rigging of the finished ship. In 1893 Nansen, aboard Fram, embarked on his famous North pole expedition with Sverdrup as captain. While Nansen and Johansen tried to the reach the pole with sleds and skis, Sverdrup led Fram safely through the ice until they returned to civilization in 1896.

Buøy, where Ottos father was born

Shortly after his return from setting a furthest north record, Nansen was instrumental in obtaining for Sverdrup the command of the second major voyage of the FRAM. The polar vessel was rebuilt, and in 1898 Sverdrup started out on a new expedition. The goal was to go with Fram as far north as possible on the west coast of Greenland, and then, with dog sleds, to manoeuvre the team around the north tip of Greenland and south again along the east coast. However, the ice conditions made it impossible to get through to Kane Basin. Sverdrup had to redraw his plans, and turned to the exploration of the west coast of Ellesmere Island. The expedition spent the ensuing 4 years carrying out remarkable journeys of research and discovery, travelling by dogsled from frozen harbours.

He overcame the early loss of his physician and the near loss of the FRAM to fire to be the first to fully map the coast of southern and western Ellesmere Island; in 1900 he became the first non-aboriginal to visit Axel Heiberg and the Ringnes Islands. Altogether more new land - some 260,000 square km. (2/3 of Norway's area) - was charted by Sverdrup than during any other polar expedition in history! As importantly, unlike some of his contemporary explorers, he retained perspective on his own role and was free in expressing the awe he felt to be immersed in the vast arctic landscape.

The FRAM returned to Oslo in 1902 to popular and scientific acclaim and Sverdrup was honoured with the Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. The sovereignty of the lands which Sverdrup had explored and claimed for King Oscar II remained in doubt until the Canadian government purchased his papers shortly before his death in 1930. Sverdrup received great international fame for his deeds, but he was less honoured in Norway.

From 1907 Sverdrup ran a plantation on Cuba.

From 1914 to 1915 Sverdrup was again in the arctic regions, this time following a request from Russia to look for three Russian expeditions in the Nordic Sea. For this rescue expedition the Russians bought the vessels Eclipse and Hertha. Sverdrup demanded Norwegian crew on both ships, but was allowed this only on Eclipse, led by himself. The expedition had to spend the winter in the ice. Through telegraphy Sverdrup and his crew established contact with two hydrological Russian expeditions in trouble in the Kara Sea. Sverdrup and Eclipse were redirected to help these expeditions. They solved this task and returned home in 1915.

Haarstad, where Otto was born

In 1920 a Russian expedition was again in trouble and Sverdrup was once more asked to help. Sverdrup, now 65 years old, demanded an ice breaker for the job. He knew there was an available ice breaker in Scotland, Svjatogor, and this one was hired. Also on this occasion Sverdrup solved the task successfully.

Sverdrup has not received the place in history which he deserves. His achievements have been overshadowed by those of Nansen and Amundsen. He was known as a very modest man who was fully engaged in solving the tasks he had taken on, and talked little about his achievements. He was going to be a co-author of the book "Fram across the Polar Sea", and gave all his material about the ice drift of Fram to Nansen. Nansen, however, published the book in his own name, with merely an appendix by Sverdrup.

In 1957 a much overdue monument was erected to Sverdrup in Norway at Steinkjer, his family's hometown. In Canada, where general awareness of an arctic dimension to nationhood has evolved slowly, his contributions are seldom noted. At the monument dedication, Canada was represented by Henry Larsen, a Norwegian by birth and the first to make the Northwest Passage in both directions. Larsen paid great tribute to Sverdrup in expressing his belief that he had been "a prince of polar navigators" and "the most competent and practical of Norwegian polar explorers". Larsen said "the names of Sverdrup and of Norway will ever be linked with that of Canada through the islands of the Canadian Arctic that bear his name... This is one more link in the many that bind our countries in lasting esteem, friendship, and affection..

THE FRAM