II.

First Crossing of Greenland

In 1888 Norwegian explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen chose Sverdrup and four other men to participate in an expedition to cross Greenland from east to west. Icy conditions forced them to land some 320 km (200 mi) south of their intended starting point on Greenland’s east coast. They began crossing on August 15, 1888, several weeks later than planned, and encountered severe cold and snowstorms. Nansen had designed the man-drawn sledges used for the crossing, and the design would remain standard in polar exploration for many decades. Toward the end of the journey, Sverdrup and the others tried out a new sledge-sailing technique; by rigging up sails to their sledges, they were able to use the strong winds to increase their speed.

On September 26 the expedition reached the west coast of Greenland in a triumphant first crossing of the island. At that point, Sverdrup oversaw the construction of small boats, using available willow branches and sailcloth, that the party used to sail south along the coast to Godthåb (now Nuuk), the capital of Greenland. The successful expedition had demonstrated that the Greenland ice cap extended in an unbroken sheet across the island.