During the winter of 1897, Holmes read a book that impressed him very much. That book, Farthest North, was written by Fridtjof Nansen and it was an account of his attempt, beginning in June 1893, to reach the North Pole.

Nansen had left Norway with twelve men and a ship that had been specially designed to withstand the pressures of being frozen into Arctic waters. His plan was to sail north until the boat became stuck in the ice and then to rely on the polar current to move it due west over the pole. This, he knew, would be a slow process, and he had provisioned the ship with food and fuel sufficient for a twelve-man crew and a five-year trip.