Knut Frænkel

He was a major in the Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps, and grew up in mountainous Jämtland in the eastern middle part of Sweden, where he acquired an interest in outdoor activities and sports.

He later went to the Palmgren School in Stockholm and graduated with a civil engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1896, and was preparing himself to enter the Army engineers when the chance came up in 1897 to join S. A. Andrée's planned balloon expedition to the North Pole.

Frænkel replaced the meteorologist Nils Gustaf Ekholm, who had participated in the preparations but dropped out at the last moment, critical of the construction of the balloon.

Having drifted for weeks, they reached the southwest of Kvitøya (White Island) and landed on 5 October 1897.

Strindberg died first and was buried by Andrée and Frænkel shortly afterwards among the rocks (though no marker was placed on his grave).