Colin Archer was born in Larvik, Norway, after his parents immigrated from Scotland, on July 22nd, 1832. Was a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder, known for building durable and safe ships.
The most notable single ship built by Colin Archer was the Fram, which participated in Fridtjof Nansen’s expeditions to the North Pole and, later, in Roald Amundsen’s historic first expedition to the South Pole. Archer also designed a sturdy sailing vessel class for the Redningsselskapet (The Norwegian Lifeboat institution), which was used for many years and now is referred to as a Colin Archer; the prototype rescue lifeboat, “Colin Archer RS 1”, is still afloat and in use as a floating museum.
Archer’s designs were adapted to pleasure sailing in the twentieth century. In 1904, he built a boat for the writer Robert Erskine Childers named the Asgard; the boat is now in a museum and considered the “most important yacht in the history of Ireland”