On their way home, Johansen and Nansen were forced to spend the winter on Franz Josef Land because of severe damage to their kayaks when crossing open channels in the ice.

During the expedition, Johansen once fell through the ice and was barely saved by Nansen, and also received a blow on his head from a polar bear.

[3] [4] On the return of the Nansen parties to Norway, Johansen and other members of the crew of the Fram were celebrated as heroes.

[6] Johansen had disagreed with the early start and had to rescue a less experienced member of the party, Kristian Prestrud, from freezing to death on the return journey.

On the expedition's landfall in Tasmania Amundsen dismissed Johansen from the Fram, paid him off, and ordered him to return separately to Norway.

Once Johansen had left Amundsen's party, the triumphant leader made the entire remaining crew sign a paper that stated that they were to keep quiet about the whole expedition.

After returning separately to Norway, Johansen found that he was never to be credited by Amundsen for any contribution to the expedition, including his heroic rescue of Prestrud.

In 1997, however, biographer Ragnar Kvam, Jr. published a biography of the forgotten explorer, Den tredje mann: Beretningen om Hjalmar Johansen .

In 2005, the International Hydrographic Organization officially approved the proposal by American arctic scientist Jonathan E. Snow to name Hjalmar Johansen Seamount, a newly discovered volcanic edifice on the floor of the Arctic Ocean northwest of Svalbard.