Jason was a Norwegian whaling vessel laid down in 1881 by Rødsverven in Sandefjord, Norway, the same shipyard which later built Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance.

The ship, financed by Christen Christensen,[1] an entrepreneur from Sandefjord, was noted for his participation in an 1892–1893 Antarctic expedition led by Carl Anton Larsen.

[3] Amedeo gathered an expeditionary crew of Italian and Norwegian civilians and sailed from Christiana on 12 June of that year.

During the expedition, Amedeo lost two fingers to frostbite, and had to hand command of the voyage over to Captain Umberto Cagni.

Amedo's uncle was murdered and the widow made a silver replica of Stella Polare at a cost of 12.000 lire and placed it at the Virgin Mary's wonder-working picture in the cathedral of Torino, Italy.

She was taken under tow from the arsenal in La Spezia and anchored at Ripa Grande in the river Tiber, a little upstream of the Aventine Hill.