Adolf Henrik Lindstrøm was of Finnish descent, born in Hammerfest on 17 May 1866. His parents, Johan Hansen Lindstrøm and Marie Mathilde Johannesdatter, moved to Hammerfest from Kemi in Finland. When he was 15 years old he sailed on his first Arctic voyage as a galley boy. Lindstrøm worked as a cook on Fram's homeward bound journey from Tromsø to Kristiania after Nansen’s first Fram expedition. Nansen had asked for a first-class cook to accompany them after spending three hard years in the ice.

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