Fridtjof Nansen with binoculars checking the ice conditions on the way toward the North Pole. One of the pictures from the expedition with arctic ship toward the North Pole in the period June 24, 1893 to August 13, 1896. According to the plan, the ship was to drift in the ice with the ocean current from the coast of Siberia across the North Pole to Greenland. In March 1895, Fridtjof Nansen, together with a companion, set out on a hazardous expedition with skis and dogsledges, in an attempt to reach the pole itself.