Fram

I am the Fram, the outstanding wooden schooner which travelled the world on adventurous and infamous expeditions. My most famous is that of the South Pole expedition lead by the Norwegian explorer Ronald Amundsen.

My mission: to get to Cape Town where frequent ships to Antarctica depart

Amundsen's race for the South Pole started as an expedition to cross the Atlantic and later to claim the North Pole. After hearing the news that Frederick, A. Cook and Robert, E. Peary had beaten him to the north, Amundsen focussed his sights on the much anticipated South Pole.  Keeping his plan a secret from his crew, the explorer turned the Fram around and headed for the Southern Ocean. In the summer of 1911 Amundsen announced his plan to his crew which eventually filtered back to Robert Falcon Scott setting out from New Zealand for the same goal. The two explorers raced. With different strategies and different routes, neither party knew who would reach the pole first.

Amundsen and his party on the 14th December 1911 became the first people to ever reach the South Pole. Scott reached the pole just 35 days later to find the Norwegian flag already planted firmly in the snow. Sadly Scott and his party perished on their return journey, a mere 11 miles short of their supply store.

The Fram has now been restored and housed at the Fram Museum in Oslo. Well worth a visit if you get the chance. Visit their website for more information on the wooden icebreaker and the explorers it has served: http://www.frammuseum.no/Home.aspx.