乐鱼 体育

How wondrous to discover a forgotten hero. Before I went to the North Pole this summer, I read the memoir of the greatest Arctic explorer of an earlier era. 鈥�Farthest North鈥� chronicles the expedition of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian scientist who had already mastered neurology, zoology, and oceanography before he set off for the North Pole, at the age of thirty, in mid-1893. Most of the planet鈥攅xcept for its icy northern and southern extremes鈥攈ad already been explored. 鈥淢ore was known about the surface of Mars than about the unexplored regions of the globe,鈥� Roland Huntford wrote in the introduction to the reissue of Nansen鈥檚 best-selling book in 1999. 鈥淭he Arctic was hidden as securely as the dark side of the Moon.鈥�

Nansen was a philosopher too. As he opined in one of his final speeches decades later, "We all have a Land of Beyond to seek in our life鈥攚hat more can we ask? Our part is to find the trail that leads to it. A long trail, a hard trail, maybe, but the call comes to us, and we have to go,鈥� he said at St. Andrews University in Scotland. 鈥淩ooted deep in the nature of every one of us is the spirit of adventure, the call of the wild鈥攙ibrating under all our actions, making life deeper and higher and nobler.鈥�

My trip to the North Pole traced part of Nansen鈥檚 journey to his Land of Beyond. We both departed on a midsummer鈥檚 day at about 78 degrees longitude bound for 90 degrees longitude and latitude 鈥攖rue North. He was on the Fram, a ship uniquely designed for Arctic exploration. (Fram is Norwegian for 鈥淔orward.鈥�) I was on Le Commandant Charcot, the world鈥檚 largest non-nuclear icebreaker, built for the same purpose. (It was named for the French polar scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot.) Nansen鈥檚 voyage was meant to take three to five years. Mine was meant to be three weeks鈥攖here and back. We both witnessed the awesomeness of Earth.

Marveling at the 鈥渢itanic forces鈥� in the restless ice, Nansen described the echo of towering ridges crashing together, which graduated from gentle moans, then grumbles 鈥渢ill it is like all the pipes of an organ.鈥� The Fram trembled and shook as it rose 鈥渂y fits and starts.鈥� It wasn鈥檛 frightening for him. Nor me, as our ship rocked through the ice too. Experiencing the rumblings of nature can provide a 鈥減leasant, comfortable feeling鈥� when on a strong ship, Nansen noted. The trick is always getting used to the footing. (After I got off the ship, I had to get my land legs again.)

Nansen鈥檚 voyage deviated from all earlier explorations. He wanted the Fram to freeze in the ice and then with it to the pole. The engine was the ice. My ship鈥攎ore than a hundred and sixty years later鈥攏avigated for days around the ice before heading straight into it. 鈥淭he direct route is not the fastest route,鈥� the expedition leader told us. Nansen calculated much of the same thing.

Still, like many who embark on risky adventures, including me, Nansen worried. After a year of drifting, the Fram had progressed only three degrees鈥攖o 82 degrees north. 鈥淏uild up the most ingenious theories and you may be sure of one thing鈥攖hat fact will defy them all,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淲as I so very sure? Yes, at times, but that was self-deception, intoxication. A secret doubt lurked behind all the reasoning.鈥� The expedition could take eight years at its sluggish pace, he worried. 鈥淚 have no courage to think of the future,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淗as good-luck abandoned us?鈥� I鈥檝e felt that way, on a smaller scale, amid the human and natural conflicts I鈥檝e covered.

The Fram made history when it came closer to the North Pole than any previous expedition鈥攋ust beyond 84 degrees鈥攊n March 1895. Ice proved an incessant challenge, however. Nansen, who had learned to ski at the age of two, slowly realized that he was not going to make it to the pole. He boldly decided to leave the ship--with only one crew member and 28 dogs鈥攁nd navigate by foot and sleds into the unknown the rest of the way, leaving the Fram to keep drifting until it reached Norway. On their first nights off the ship, the temperature hit forty-five degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The men shared a sleeping bag in their frozen clothes to generate warmth. In just over three weeks, they trod the windswept tundra to set another human record above 86 degrees north鈥攍ess than four degrees from the pole.

But as their provisions ran out and their weary dogs began to die, Nansen recognized that they would not make it to the pole. He made a second tough decision to turn toward home. Then, they got stuck. In June 1895, two years after leaving Norway, Nansen described 鈥渢wo grim, black, soot-stained barbarians鈥� surrounded by treacherous ice 鈥渁nd nothing else.鈥� Plus, they were lost. 鈥淲here we are is becoming more and more incomprehensible,鈥� he wrote in his journal. My ship, by contrast, had screens in passenger and common rooms that tracked every inch we navigated. It was the first thing I checked every morning when I woke up, as I used to do turning on the news at home. We could do a whole degree in a day.

By August 1895, Nansen and Johansen knew no progress was possible in the looming fall and winter. With no tools, they assembled a tiny squalid hut of stone, moss and skins, with walrus hide for the roof, to wait out the frigid seasons. They stayed there, but off from the world and supplies for nine months.

鈥�Farthest North鈥� is about so much more than polar exploration. It captures the endurance of the human soul. Nansen lamented the vicissitudes of life. 鈥淲e never could go on with it were it not for the fact that we must.鈥� The two men spent the dark polar days of winter sleeping or listening to a writhing glacier nearby break off icebergs. 鈥淭here is a noise like the discharge of guns, and the sky and the earth tremble so that I can feel the ground that I am lying on quake,鈥� Nansen wrote. 鈥淥ne is almost afraid that it will some day [sic] come rolling over upon one.鈥� I heard those rumblings too. On one of my zodiac outings in the Arctic Ocean, I saw an aqua iceberg the size of a city block of high-rises that had broken off from its glacier two days earlier, after centuries as one. Other breakaway icebergs occasionally thundered in the distance.

Nansen and his colleague, Hjalmar Johansen, lived in the same clothes all winter. They lacked almost everything. 鈥淲hat would we have not given even for a single box of dog-biscuits鈥攆or ourselves?鈥� the Norwegian noted. He longed for a book鈥攖he ultimate irony for me. My ship had a book club. We read Nansen鈥檚 memoir as we tracked his haunting journey and discussed it over late afternoon glasses of wine. My 21st century ship was also prepared for disaster. It had tents for passengers and crew鈥�16 allocated to each鈥攊n case it sank or was stranded. We all had bulky insulated immersion suits stored under our beds. They were bright orange to make us easier to be detected in the desert of ice. Our weather was cold and windy on deck or during outings atop ice floes鈥攁t one point hitting 28 knots. But we could retreat to beds, showers, laundry, and thermostats in our rooms. We marveled at the polar bears, seals, and walruses, with no need to shoot them for meat, skin, housing, or blubber.

In April 1896, after a desolate winter and three years since leaving Norway, Nansen and Johansen set off again for home. They still faced repeated mishaps, including their kayaks going adrift with the last supplies. Nansen had to swim frigid waters to retrieve them. I was constantly struck by the advances in technology today as I read Nansen鈥檚 memoir. He was born only 87 years before I was, but my ship offered the polar plunge as a perk at the North Pole, complete with attending medical staff and hot toddies afterwards. (Having read Nansen鈥檚 account, I didn鈥檛 bother.)

Nansen鈥檚 salvation was an accidental encounter, two months later, that rivaled Stanley discovering the stranded Dr. Livingstone in east Africa a quarter. Hearing a voice in the distance, Nansen ran over an icy hummock and 鈥渉allooed with all the strength of my lungs鈥� in hopes someone would hear him. Someone had.

鈥淎ren鈥檛 you Nansen?鈥� inquired Frederick Jackson, a British explorer also navigating the Arctic, when they reached each other face-to-face.

鈥淵es, I am,鈥� the Norwegian replied. In his journal, Nansen chronicled how he was stinky, his hair and beard unkempt, with both skin and clothes blackened from the amassed dirt and blubber oil. He expressed envy at the sweet soap scent emanating from the Brit.

鈥淏y Jove! I am glad to see you,鈥� Jackson retorted. No one had heard about the fate of Nansen or the Fram for three years.

Nansen reached Norway weeks later to global acclaim for the Fram expedition鈥檚 pioneering discoveries about the Arctic. (The Fram, by spectacular coincidence, reached Norway a week later.) Jules Verne, the acclaimed author of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, wrote Nansen, 鈥淚 present my homage to鈥he hero of the North Pole.鈥� The international media dubbed Nansen a modern Viking. He became the model and mentor for the great explorers who followed him鈥擲hackleton, Amundsen, and Scott.

It was another eight decades before a ship actually sailed all the way to the North Pole. The Soviet Union鈥檚 Arktika was in 1977. The second didn鈥檛 arrive for another decade. Getting there is still an ambitious accomplishment. As my ship approached the North Pole, expedition leaders and passengers alike were out on the windy deck with our GPS devices tracking every second as we neared the landmark. We all knew how much it meant. When we arrived, the ship blared 鈥淭op of the World鈥� across the deck loudspeakers. Many of us danced, conga-style, around 90 degrees north as we toasted being able to literally travel around the world in about ten seconds.

Nansen did so much more with his feat and fame. He used the global recognition garnered by his discoveries and daring to help sever Norway from Sweden. He was named its first ambassador to Britain. Increasingly acclaimed as a diplomat, Nansen was chosen to be the first High Commissioner for Refugees at the League of Nations. That鈥檚 where he made the greatest contribution of his storied life by dealing with the flood of humanity produced by the First World War, the Soviet revolution, the Armenian genocide, and a host of other international crises. He originated the idea of international travel papers for the stateless and refugees鈥攅ventually recognized by more than 鈥攖hat became known as 鈥淣ansen passports.鈥� His work saved the lives of an estimated . Among them were the parents of one of my closest friends, who went on to be a US ambassador to Ukraine. For his humanitarian work, Nansen the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

In correspondence between Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein in 1932, Freud described Nansen as a 鈥渓over of his fellow men鈥� who 鈥渢ook on himself the task of succoring homeless and starving victims of the World War.鈥� Nansen used the prize money for international relief efforts. His life鈥檚 work is memorialized today at two museums in Oslo鈥攖he Fram Museum, which is the ship鈥檚 final resting place, and at the Nobel Museum for its Peace Prize laureates.

At the end of his memoir, after returning home, Nansen reflected, 鈥淭he ice and the long moonlit nights, with all their yearning, seemed like a far-off dream from another world鈥攁 dream that had come and passed away. But what would life be worth without its dreams?鈥� His was the North Pole. So was mine. And, luckily, I made it, thanks partly to all he did to make it possible for the rest of us.