When Otto Sverdrup was to use the Fram for his Polar expedition, he had a number of alterations carried out.  The most important of these consisted in laying a new deck in the fore part of the ship, from the bulkhead forward of the engine-room to the stem, at a height of 7 feet 4 inches (to the upper side of the planks) above the old fore-deck.  The space below the new deck was fitted as a fore-cabin, with a number of state-rooms leading out of it, a large workroom, etc.  The old chart-house immediately forward of the funnel was removed, and in its place a large water-tank was fitted.  The foremast was raised and stepped in the lower deck.  A false keel, 10 inches deep and 12 inches broad, was placed below the keel.  A number of minor alterations were also carried out.

After the Fram returned in 1902 from her second expedition under Captain Sverdrup, she was sent down to Horten to be laid up in the Naval Dockyard.

Not long after the vessel had arrived at the dockyard, Captain Sverdrup proposed various repairs and alterations.  The repairs were carried out in part, but the alterations were postponed pending a decision as to the future employment of the vessel.

The Fram then lay idle in the naval harbour until 1905, when she was used by the marine artillery as a floating magazine.  In the same year a good deal of the vessel’s outfit (amongst other things all her sails and most of her rigging) was lost in a fire in one of the naval storehouses, where these things were stored.

In 1903 the ship’s keel and stem (which are of elm and oak) were sheathed with zinc, while the outer sheathing (ice-skin), which is of greenheart, was kept coated with coal-tar and copper composition.  In 1907 the whole outer sheathing below the water-line was covered with zinc; this was removed in 1910 when the ship was prepared for her third commission under Roald Amundsen.

In 1907 a thorough examination of the vessel was made, as it was suspected that the timber inside the thick cork insulation that surrounded the cabins had begun to decay.

On previous expeditions the cabins, provision hold aft, and workrooms forward of the fore-cabin, had been insulated with several thicknesses of wooden panelling.  The interstices were filled with finely-divided cork, alternately with reindeer hair and thick felt and linoleum.  In the course of years damp had penetrated into the non-conducting material, with the result that fungus and decay had spread in the surrounding woodwork.  Thus it was seen during the examination in 1907 that the panelling and ceiling of the cabins in question were to a great extent rotten or attacked by fungus.  In the same way the under side of the upper deck over these cabins was partly attacked by fungus, as were its beams, knees, and carlings.  The lower deck, on the other hand, was better preserved.  The filling-in timbers of spruce or fir between the frame-timbers in the cabins were damaged by fungus, while the frame-timbers themselves, which were of oak, were good.  The outer lining outside the insulated parts was also somewhat damaged by fungus.