Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in underscores.

(cover)

SECRETS OF POLAR TRAVEL

THE STARS AND STRIPES FLYING FROM THE NORTH POLE

SECRETS OF POLAR
TRAVEL

BY
ROBERT E. PEARY

ILLUSTRATED WITH
PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1917

Copyright, 1917, by
THE CENTURY CO.

Published, October, 1917

INTRODUCTION

In my book “The North Pole” appeared a brief résumé, or synopsis, of my system of arctic exploration, which was the evolution of years of continuous practical work and experience in extreme high latitudes, wherein everything that could be thought of in the way of perfecting arctic methods and equipment was worked out.

Ideas that in the mind or on paper appeared promising were tested relentlessly under the most hostile conditions. Those that failed under the test were abandoned, and those that gave evidence of containing some meat were perfected, until at last the entire subject of perfected equipment and methods, combined with the thorough knowledge of all conditions to be encountered gained through years of experience, compelled success. This was the résumé:

The so-called “Peary System” is too complex to be covered in a paragraph, and involves too many technical details to be outlined fully in any popular narrative. But the main points of it are about as follows:

To drive a ship through the ice to the farthest possible northern land base from which she can be driven back again the following year.

To do enough hunting during the fall and winter to keep the party healthily supplied with fresh meat.

To have dogs enough to allow for the loss of sixty per cent of them by death or otherwise.

To have the confidence of a large number of Eskimos, earned by square dealing and generous gifts in the past, so that they will follow the leader to any point he may specify.

To have an intelligent and willing body of civilized assistants to lead the various divisions of Eskimos--men whose authority the Eskimos will accept when delegated by the leader.

To transport beforehand to the point where the expedition leaves the land for the sledge journey, sufficient food, fuel, clothing, stoves (oil or alcohol) and other mechanical equipment to get the main party to the Pole and back and the various divisions to their farthest north and back.

To have an ample supply of the best kind of sledges.

To have a sufficient number of divisions, or relay parties, each under the leadership of a competent assistant, to send back at appropriate and carefully calculated stages along the upward journey.

To have every item of equipment of the quality best suited to the purpose, thoroughly tested, and of the lightest possible weight.

To know, by long experience, the best way to cross wide leads of open water.

To return by the same route followed on the upward march, using the beaten trail and the already constructed igloos to save the time and strength that would have been expended in constructing new igloos and in trail-breaking.

To know exactly to what extent each man and dog may be worked without injury.

To know the physical and mental capabilities of every assistant and Eskimo.

Last, but not least, to have the absolute confidence of every member of the party, white, black, or brown, so that every order of the leader will be implicitly obeyed.

In “Secrets of Polar Travel” it is the intention to enlarge upon the above synopsis and to give the reader and the present and future polar traveler many details of serious polar work that it was impossible to embody in my former popular narratives without crowding out other and, as it seemed, more important matters.

Some of the things that will be described are well known to all polar explorers who have had serious practice, while others will be new to all except those who have had opportunities to obtain the information by personal conversation with members of my parties.

In extending the scope of the present book to touch on polar exploration, it seems well to post the reader at the very beginning on the striking antitheses of natural conditions, apparently known to only a few even among the best read and most intelligent people, existing at those mathematical points, the north and south poles, where the earth’s axis intersects the surface of the earth.

The north pole is situated in an ocean of some fifteen hundred miles’ diameter, surrounded by land. The south pole is situated in a continent of some twenty-five hundred miles’ diameter, surrounded by water. At the north pole I stood upon the frozen surface of an ocean more than two miles in depth. At the south pole, Amundsen and Scott stood upon the surface of a great, snow plateau more than two miles above sea-level. The lands that surround the north polar ocean have comparatively abundant life. Musk-oxen, reindeer, polar bears, wolves, foxes, arctic hares, ermines, and lemmings, together with insects and flowers, are found within five hundred miles of the pole. On the great south polar continent no form of animal life appears to exist.

Permanent human life exists within some seven hundred miles of the north pole; none is found within twenty-three hundred miles of the south pole. The history of arctic exploration goes back nearly four hundred years. The history of antarctic efforts covers a little more than one hundred and forty years. The record of arctic exploration is studded with crushed and foundering ships and the deaths of hundreds of brave men. The records of antarctic exploration show the loss of only three ships and the death of a score or more men.

For all those who aspire to the north pole the road lies over the frozen surface of an ocean the ice on which breaks up completely every summer, drifting about under the influence of wind and tide, and may crack into numerous fissures and lanes of open water at any time, even in the depth of the severest winter, under the influence of storms. For those who aspire to the south pole the road lies over an eternal, immovable surface, the latter part rising ten thousand and eleven thousand feet above sea-level. And herein lies the inestimable advantage to the south polar explorer which enables him to make his depots at convenient distances, and thus lighten his load and increase his speed.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I BUILDING A POLAR SHIP 3

II SELECTING MEN 40

III SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT 58

IV ICE NAVIGATION 84

V WINTER QUARTERS 126

VI POLAR CLOTHING 160

VII UTILIZATION OF ESKIMOS AND DOGS 179

VIII UTILIZING THE RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY 206

IX SLEDGE EQUIPMENT 240

X SLEDGE-TRAVELING 267

CONCLUSION 310

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Stars and Stripes Flying from the North Pole Frontispiece

Beginning of the “Roosevelt” 5

Midships Cross Section of the “Roosevelt” 5

Stem, Forefoot, and Bow Frames 11

Massive King-Post Trusses Strengthening the “Roosevelt’s” Sides Against Ice Pressure 11

Bow of “Roosevelt” in Dry Dock 18

Stern of “Roosevelt” in Dry Dock 24

Putting on the Greenheart Ice-Sheathing 30

Bow of the “Roosevelt” in Ice 35

Launching the “Roosevelt” 35

Captain Robert Bartlett 41

Matthew A. Henson 47

Henson in Full Winter Costume with Snowshoes 47

Oo-tah 53

George Borup 53

Whale Meat for Dog Food 64

Labrador Whaling Steamer 69

Off for Whales--Labrador Coast 69

Dunham Snowshoes 76

Items of Sledge Rations 76

Beginning the North Pole Voyage 85

Drying Sails on the “Roosevelt” at Cape Sheridan 95

Shear-Poles for Handling the “Roosevelt’s” Injured Rudder 95

Comparative Pictures of Various Exploring Ships 101

Ice Navigation before the Advent of Powerful Steamers 108

The “Roosevelt” Beset in Wrangel Bay 108

The “Roosevelt” Steaming through the Ice-Pack 117

Floe in Lady Franklin Bay That Lifted the “Roosevelt” Nearly Clear of Water 117

The “Roosevelt” Lashed to the Ice Foot 123

In the Crow’s-Nest 123

Complete Polar Winter House 130

A Scene at Hubbardville 130

After a Winter Blizzard 139

Unloading Ship at Winter Quarters 139

An Inopportune Snowstorm 150

Polar Clothing 163

A “Tug of War” 163

Polar Clothing--Spring and Summer Working Costume 169

Polar Clothing--Full Winter Sledging Costume 175

Eskimo Dogs 175

Young Eskimo Mother and Baby 181

Eskimo Family and “Tupik,” or Summer Tent 181

Deck Scene on the “Roosevelt” (Not a Pink Tea!) 187

Some of My Hunters 187

Eskimo Man, Summer Costume 194

Eskimo Woman, Full Summer Costume 194

Eskimo King Dog 203

Giant Polar Bear Killed in Buchanan Bay, July 4 209

Bringing Narwhal Ashore 216

Walrus-Hunters and Their Kill 216

A Magnificent Bull Musk-Ox 225

Reindeer of 83° N. Lat. 225

Securing Birds at the Bird Cliffs 236

Hare Hunting at 83° N. Lat. 236

Eskimo Type Sledge 245

One of the Peary Sledges 245

Polar Sledge Costume 251

Compass Course Indicator 258

Peary Sledge in Action 258

Hugging the Shore to Get Around Huge Ice Fields 271

Party Leaving the “Roosevelt” for Cape Columbia 271

Over a Pressure Ridge 281

A Halt on the March 281

Sledge Party on the March with Good Going 287

Hard Going 287

Crossing Narrow Lead 298

Through a Cañon of the Polar Ocean 298

SECRETS OF POLAR TRAVEL

CHAPTER I

BUILDING A POLAR SHIP

Of all the special tools that a polar explorer requires for the successful prosecution of his work, his ship stands first and preëminent. This is the tool which is to place him and his party and supplies within striking distance of his goal, the tool without which he can accomplish nothing.

The builder of a polar ship should live with his craft from the time the keel is laid till she is complete and has made her trial trips. He should see that every timber that goes into her is sound, tough, and seasoned. He should see the tests of iron for her bolts, and know that the iron is tough and homogeneous. He should see the bolts driven and upset, or the nuts set tight, as the case may be. He should direct the scarfing and the notching of the timbers in order to secure the maximum strength and binding grip. He should watch the calking and the tarring like a hawk, and see that no place is slighted, that, when it is done, he may have that delight of a seaman, a tight ship. He should pass sleepless nights going over again and again the calculations for his engines and boilers; and in checking and rechecking weights, dimensions, displacement.

In this way, by following every step of the ship’s growth, and sitting up night after night studying every detail with a view to improving and strengthening it, when the work is done, he will know every inch of his ship inside and out. Later, in the grim, protracted fight with the ice, he will feel in regard to his ship as Sullivan and Willard each felt on the eve of a great battle regarding his powerful body, that it can be depended upon absolutely. It is a wonderfully satisfactory feeling, and it counts far toward success.

A quite general idea regarding the work of a polar ship seems to be that such a ship breaks up the ice of one season, like river and harbor ice-breakers. As a matter of fact, smooth, unbroken ice of uniform thickness is rarely found in Northern voyages except in Melville Bay, or at the end of the season, when new ice is forming. The chief work of a polar ship is to push and pry and wedge its way in and out among cakes and floes ranging from three to twenty or fifty and even up to one hundred and twenty feet thick. A passage cannot be smashed through such ice, and nothing remains but to squeeze and twist and dodge through it. A hundred Yermaks (the powerful Russian ice-breaker) merged in one could accomplish nothing in such ice.

BEGINNING OF THE “ROOSEVELT” First frame erected, ship now under construction, Bucksport, Maine, October, 1904

MIDSHIPS CROSS SECTION OF THE “ROOSEVELT” Looking aft. Note section nearly a semi-circle

Many qualities are necessary in a first-class polar ice-fighter. First, there must be such a generally rounded model as will rise readily when squeezed, and thus escape the death-crush of the ice. Then there must be no projection of keel or other part to give the ice an opportunity to get a grip, or to hold the ship from rising.

When the Jeannette was destroyed northeast of the New Siberian Islands, the ice on one side of her caught and held her firmly, while the floe on the other side, turning down under her side, caught the keel, and with its resistless pressure opened up the ship her entire length along the garboard-strake. She then filled, and when the ice pressure was released she sank.

The polar ship must be most heavily braced and trussed to enable it to withstand terrific pressure of ice-floes, and hold its shape until the pressure is released by the rising of the ship; or to make it possible for her to be supported at each end only or in the middle, or thrown out on to the ice, so she would rest on her bilge during a convulsion of the floes, without strain or injury. Power and strength and solidity to fight a way through ice rather than drift inertly with it, are absolutely essential. For ramming, she must have a sharply raking stem, which will rise on the ice at each blow. This not only makes it possible for a loaded ship to deliver blows at full speed without danger of smashing in her bows or starting her fastenings or seams, but also gives her an initial impetus astern when she backs for another blow.

When it is understood that this ramming may continue for hours (I have used my ship in this way continuously for twenty-four hours in crossing Melville Bay), striking a blow, backing, then going ahead full speed for another, the value of this little assistance with each blow will be appreciated. The shape of the bow is also important in ramming. If too bluff, headway is deadened, and the force of the blows is lessened. If too sharp, the ship may stick at each blow, and require more time and power to back out each time. The run of the polar ship should be full rather than fine, to keep the passing ice away from the propeller as much as possible.

The ship must be as short as practicable and have a lively helm to enable her to twist and turn rapidly and sharply through the narrow, tortuous lanes of water among the ice-fields.

It will be seen at once that a ship for arctic or antarctic work must be as small as the size of the party and the amount of supplies, equipment, and coal for the proposed work will permit. The smaller a ship can be built, the greater will be her strength and the ease with which she can be handled.

Finally the polar ship must be a good sea boat to ride out the furious autumn gales of the North Atlantic and polar oceans.

This is especially important in South Polar work with its long voyage and cyclonic blizzards.

Many are under the impression that steel should be used in constructing polar ships. This idea is erroneous, for though a ship so made would be strong structurally, she would be particularly vulnerable to the ragged, sharp corners of heavy ice. Wood, with its elasticity and toughness, is the prime essential in the construction of a ship of this kind. It is also virtually impossible to repair injury to a steel ship during the voyage. But steel and methods of composite ship building, used in a vessel’s interior, may reduce weight and increase her strength.

Numbers of failures and catastrophes in polar work are directly attributable to the unsuitable model of the ship. Particularly striking examples of this were the Polaris and the Jeannette. Neither of these ships should ever have been allowed to go into the ice, as their straight sides gave them no possible chance to lift when squeezed by the ice, and their destruction was only a matter of time, when they should be squarely caught between two floes. In the case of the Jeannette Melville’s engineering skill postponed the catastrophe for a time, but the final result was inevitable.

The Esquimaux of the Ziegler Expedition and the Duke of the Abruzzi’s Stella Polare were scarcely better, but the skill of the Italians enabled their ship to pull through and bring the party home.

Virtually all the ships used in the history of ice navigation have been the sailing-vessels built in Scotland, Norway, and the United States for the whaling and sealing industries. These whalers were short, stocky, heavily sparred, and square rigged. The Victory, used by John Ross, in 1829, was fitted with auxiliary steam-power, and was the first attempt to utilize such motive power for ice work. The innovation of steam with paddle-wheels, than which nothing could have been more impracticable for ice navigation, proved a decided failure, and the engine was finally torn out and thrown overboard, and the voyage continued under sail.

The Norwegians operating in the waters about Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, and Nova Zembla; the Americans, in Bering Sea and Hudson Bay, encountered ice conditions strikingly different from those met by the Scotch whose region of operations was chiefly in Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, together with their tributaries, and the seas about eastern Greenland. Broadly speaking, the work of Norwegians and Americans was carried on among floes and broken ice drifting in open seas, through which they had to thread their way, while the Scotch in Melville Bay encountered an almost solid stretch of one season’s ice, and in the narrow, landlocked channels to the westward the currents of which are notoriously strong, they had to contend with old and heavier ice. Some one has very aptly said that American whalers used steam to avoid ice, the Scotch, to go into and through it.

STEM, FOREFOOT, AND BOW FRAMES January 11, 1905

MASSIVE KING-POST TRUSSES STRENGTHENING THE “ROOSEVELT’S” SIDES AGAINST ICE PRESSURE The horizontal timber in center of picture is 14 in. × 16 in.

The following average proportions of beam to length among these whalers is rather interesting: Scotch, 1:5.75; Norwegian, 1:4.7; American, 1:4.5. The average ratio in modern schooners built in Bath is 1:4.78.

The Scotch, thanks to the shrewdness of their seamen and builders and over one hundred years of experience in whaling work, where the best ships secured large financial returns, have gradually evolved the more powerful and efficient type of ship, and this type has been used exclusively by the British even in their latest expeditions.

It had long been a recognized fact that a form of hull which would permit a ship to rise readily and easily under pressure was desirable; yet the Fram was the first ship built to meet this requirement. The Fram was built with a special view to drifting in and with the ice. Her beam was about one-third her length, and her hull was so designed as to allow her to rise easily under pressure. While she was well adapted for this work, she would have been still better fitted for it if she had been bowl-shaped. Moreover, appearance, speed, ability to push through the ice, and virtually everything that goes to make a ship seaworthy was sacrificed to insure this quality.

The Gauss, the German antarctic ship, was much like the Fram, though less pronounced in type, having a broad beam of 36 feet, but with a greater length to make her more seaworthy for the long voyage to the antarctic regions. Her ratio is 1:4.25 as compared with the Fram’s ratio of 1:3.25.

The British Discovery, built for antarctic exploration, was also of the sailing type, with auxiliary steam-power. She was built with a little broader beam and a draft slightly less than that of the Scotch whalers, with a ratio of 1:5.27. She differed from the Fram and the Gauss in that she was not specially constructed to rise under pressure, and the rake of her stem was somewhat greater than in previous ships.

With the building of the Roosevelt came a complete reversal of former practice in ships for the arctic and antarctic regions. She was the first Polar ship built that was first of all a powerful steamer. All her predecessors had been sailing-vessels, usually full-rigged barks, with steam as a secondary consideration. This was done to economize on coal and enable the ship to cover long distances at slow speed and be gone for years, if necessary.

In the Roosevelt sail power was a mere auxiliary, and everything was given over to making steam-power first and foremost and her strength sufficient to withstand the ice. This is undoubtedly the correct principle on which to build any Polar ship for effective results. For this method the Smith Sound route is specially advantageous, affording a coasting voyage, ample facilities for caching coal, as well as presenting opportunities to obtain coal en route.

As the Roosevelt was to be built for navigating the very seas where the Scotch gained their valuable experience and for which their ships were specially designed and improved, the Scotch model seemed the proper one to use as a base for studies.

In the case of Nansen, and the British and German polar expeditions, the size of the ship was determined by fixing the size of the party, the length of the expedition, and the amount of coal which would be consumed by the engines and the cargo to be carried, all of which factors, when the dead weight of the ship and machinery was added, would give the displacement required.

In the case of the Roosevelt I believed it advisable to settle in advance the size and proportions which would come nearest to balancing and meeting the various requirements, allowing the difference between her displacement and her dead weight to go for cargo capacity, chief of which would be coal. The size determined was 184 feet over all, with 35 feet beam and 16 feet draft, loaded, and a load water-line of 166 feet. These dimensions make her almost as long as, but with a slightly greater beam than, the Discovery, the British antarctic ship. Her length ratio, while not quite as fine as that of the Scotch model, is much finer than the Norwegian or American averages.

After determining her length and beam, came the question of draft. For the ship navigating the waters of Smith Sound a light draft is far better than a heavier one, permitting her to hug the shore in order to get round barriers, or, when crowded by heavy ice, to retreat close to the shore and let it ground outside the ship. Another distinct advantage of light draft in a ship is the greater ease with which she will rise under the heavy pressure of ice-floes. The greater her draft, the harder it is for her to rise and avoid the grip of the ice.

So much depends on the ship in the serious work of ice navigation that it may be well to describe in detail the ship which I consider the ablest of ice fighters.

BOW OF “ROOSEVELT” IN DRY DOCK Note massiveness and rounded, egg-like curves

The official measurements of the Roosevelt are as follows: length, 184 feet; breadth, 35.5 feet; depth, 16.2 feet; gross registered tonnage, 614 tons; maximum load displacement, about 1500 tons. The keel, main keelsons, stem- and stern-posts, frames, plank sheer, waterways, and garboard-strake, are white oak. Beams, sister-keelsons, deck clamps, ’tween-deck waterways, bilge-strakes, ceiling, and inner course of planking, are yellow pine. The outer planking is white oak and the decks of Oregon pine. Both the ceiling and the outer course of white-oak planking are edge-bolted from stem to stern, and from plank sheer to garboard-strake. The fastenings are galvanized iron bolts, going through both courses of planking and the frames, and riveting up over washers on the inside of the ceiling.

The great oak timbers of the keel, false keel and keelsons, bolted and strapped and scarfed together in every way that experience and ingenuity could suggest formed a rigid backbone over six feet high. The oak timber sources were searched to secure these timbers, and some of them perhaps could not be duplicated to-day.

Massive oak timbers formed the stem, stern and rudder posts, bolted and strapped to each other and to the keel.

The frames or ribs of the Roosevelt were placed almost close together, each made of three courses of selected timbers bolted together.

At the stem the ribs were close together and the triangular space at the bow between the port and starboard ribs was filled in solid for a distance of some ten feet aft of the stem with oak timbers bolted and scarfed together to make a solid ram, or fighting head or cæstus.

Main deck beams and ’tween deck beams were unusually large and spaced unusually close together. The latter were placed on a water line instead of with a sheer, so that they were just below the load water line where the severest and most frequent ice pressure would come.

Each main deck beam together with the ’tween deck beam below it, and four stout diagonal braces to the ship’s sides and a 2½″ vertical steel tie-rod from the bottom of the keel to the upper side of the deck binding all together, formed a double king post truss, one superimposed upon the other.

This truss arrangement was made possible by my method of housing the personnel of the expedition in light roomy quarters on deck, rather than below the decks.

The sides of the ship varied from twenty-four to thirty inches in thickness. These sides, supported at every four feet of the ship’s length by the truss system above described, and still further reinforced by three solid timber transverse bulkheads, were immune from being crushed in.

To avoid unnecessary weight, no planking was used between decks; there were no interior fittings; and spars and rigging were as lightly made as possible. The hatch coamings were of stout white oak, built almost as high as the top of the bulwarks, to add to the safety of the ship in heavy weather.

To protect her planks from the gnawing of the ice while steaming through it, as well as to reduce friction, the ship was surrounded at the water line with an armor belt of dense slippery greenheart.

This wood imported from Guiana expressly for the purpose, is so tough and dense that spikes or bolts cannot be driven into it but must have holes bored for them.

The shipyard which puts on the greenheart usually has to get a new set of saws, planers and drills for the next job, and the echoes of profanity linger for a long time.

The massive construction of the Roosevelt so impressed the inhabitants of Bucksport, accustomed to usual ship building, that one of the village oracles is said to have delivered himself around the glowing stove of the “hotel” office of the following, “By heck there’s so much wood in the d---- ship that she’ll sink when they launch her.”

After the hull of the Roosevelt was completed, she was put into dry-dock and “watered”; that is, water was pumped into her to detect any bolt-holes that had not been filled with a bolt, or any seam that had been overlooked in calking, just as one would test a pail by filling it with water to see if it leaked.

By this test leaks are located that cannot be detected in any other way, and the explorer during his voyage is saved the maddening annoyance of listening to the trickling of incoming water as he lies in his bunk at night, of the daily clank of the pumps, and of a ship with bilges full of ice at the end of the Polar winter.

In regard to engine power, my ideas have been radically different from those of other navigators. I have believed in all the power it was possible to get into the ship. I know of few more comfortable feelings for the commander of a ship beset in the ice than the knowledge that he has beneath his feet the power that with the least slackening of the ice pressure will enable him to force his ship ahead on her course.

The motive power of the Roosevelt consisted of a single, inverted, compound engine, capable of developing a thousand horse-power, and driving an eleven-foot four-blade propeller. Two water-tube boilers and one Scotch boiler supplied steam.

Two specially distinctive features of the machinery of the Roosevelt were a large “by-pass,” by means of which, by turning a valve, steam from all the boilers at full pressure could be turned directly into the big fifty-two-inch low-pressure cylinder, more than doubling the power for a short time; that is, as long as the boilers could meet this excessive demand. The object of this was to give me a reserve of power with which to extricate the ship from a particularly dangerous position. On at least two occasions this device accomplished all that was expected of it, and, by resistlessly forging the ship ahead a length or two against all odds, removed her from the line of deadly pressure, and so saved her.

STERN OF “ROOSEVELT” IN DRY DOCK Note rounded curves, massiveness of propeller, skeg and rudder, and lavish use of steel plates. Rudder is of white oak timbers 16 in. × 16 in.

The other was an enormously heavy and strong propeller and shaft. The shaft was a twelve-inch diameter solid steel forging, a shaft big enough for a 2000-ton tramp steamer. The propeller was correspondingly heavy. The object of this was to prevent the complete crippling of the ship by breaking of shaft or propeller.

This idea entailed unusual weight and expense, but it served its purpose and was never regretted.

When in July, 1906, the Roosevelt was smashed against the unyielding ice-foot at Cape Union, tossed about like an egg-shell, and treated generally as if she were of no account, a particularly vicious corner of an old floe struck her astern, broke one propeller-blade square off, tore off the ponderous white-oak skeg, or after stern-post, and, catching under propeller and projecting end of shaft, lifted the whole after part of the ship as a man would lift a wheel-barrow, until her heel was out of water, and held her in this way for several hours until the tide changed. Had propeller and shaft been of usual proportions, neither would ever have made another revolution. As it was, my twelve-inch shaft was not even thrown out of line, and barring the broken propeller-blade, the machinery suffered no damage.

Another device which added to the effectiveness of the Roosevelt is the arrangement for raising and lowering the rudder while at sea, or lifting it when under pressure in the ice. A large open well was provided, reaching through to the main-deck. This was large enough to permit the massive rudder to be drawn up and hoisted on the deck for repairs, or into the overhang of the stern, out of the way of the ice. Instead of having to send a diver down to unfasten the gudgeons, these worked in an upright groove arranged in the after end of the stern-post, something like a window-sash. Heavy bolts attached the pintles to the rudder-post, and in unshipping the rudder, the gudgeons came up with the rudder itself, leaving the raking steel-clad stern-post as smooth and clean as the stem, with nothing for the ice to get a grip upon.

The problem of protecting the propeller-blades and keeping ice away from them, was solved partly by the full counter and overhanging stern of the Roosevelt, and partly by the design of the propeller. The blades of the propeller, though short, were large in sectional area, and particularly strong and massive. Their extremities were so shaped as to make it difficult for a cake of ice to get between them, and the blades were so arranged that either two or four of them could be used.

Powerful deck appliances were the windlass, steam-capstans forward and aft, and steamwinch, which enabled the ship to float herself should she get aground, or to warp herself out of a dangerous spot.

The special features of the Roosevelt’s model are a smooth and rounded form not readily gripped by the ice; midships transverse section that is a semi-circle; a sharply raking heavily steel clad stem and stern post giving large deck room, sufficient water line displacement and a short keel which makes the ship quick and handy in turning; an overhanging stern to assist in protecting rudder and propeller from the ice.

Her peculiarities of construction include unusually massive and close arrangement of beams and bracing to withstand pressure on the sides; filling the bow in almost solid with iron and timbers, where it gets the brunt of blows; strong and unusual reinforcement of the rudder-post; the introduction of a lifting rudder; heavy steel plates for stem and bow; a course of greenhart ice-sheathing to protect the outer planking.

Her peculiarities of rig are pole-masts; three-masted schooner rig, with big balloon staysails; and a very short bowsprit, which, when navigating through ice of some height, can be run inboard.

Her sail-plan is an American three-masted schooner rig, of light weight (a decided advantage when every pound saved in weight in rigging or fittings means an extra pound of coal on board), large enough to assist the engines considerably in favorable weather, or to get the ship home in case of her supply of coal becoming depleted.

The whole scheme on which the Roosevelt was built was to place all her strength, power, weight, carrying capacity below the main-deck; to make everything above deck, such as bulwarks, spars, sails, rigging, whale-boats, with their equipment, and deck-houses, as light as possible, in order to allow more coal to be stowed on board, and to waste no money on frills or fittings, but to use every dollar in the interests of strength, power, and effectiveness.

Constructed of southern oak and yellow pine, New England white pine and Oregon pine, by New England labor, the Roosevelt as a thoroughly American ship combines the qualities of shape which as in the Fram insure her rising under heavy ice pressure, with the splendid ramming qualities of the best of the Scotch whalers. These permit the ship to be fearlessly driven into the ice with all the force of her powerful engines.

The Roosevelt embodies all that a most careful study of previous polar ships and my own years of personal experience could suggest.

With the sturdiness of a battleship and the shapely lines of a Maine built schooner, I regard her the fittest ice-fighter afloat.

PUTTING ON THE GREENHEART ICE-SHEATHING This view shows the sharpness of the bows and the pronounced rake of the stem

As I write these lines, I see her slowly but surely forcing a way through the crowding ice. I see the black hull hove out bodily onto the surface of the ice by a cataclysm of the great floes. I see her squeezed as by a giant’s hand against a rocky shore till every rib and timber is vocal with the strain.

And I see her out in the North Atlantic lying to for days through a wild autumn northeaster, rudderless, with damaged propeller, and shattered stern post, all pumps going, a scrap of double reefed foresail keeping her up to the wind, riding the huge waves like a seagull till they are tired out.

After my return from the north pole in 1909, the Roosevelt was purchased from the Peary Arctic Club, which had built her for me, by John Arbuckle, the great tea, coffee, and sugar merchant of Brooklyn.

Mr. Arbuckle’s personal hobby was wrecking. He desired the Roosevelt as a powerful ocean-going wrecking-tug. He made some changes in her rigging, removing the mainmast completely, and replacing the foremast with a powerful boom derrick. Air-compressors and additional powerful winches were installed upon her deck. Thus equipped, the Roosevelt assisted in the attempts to save the Yankee, and salvaged other wrecks along the coast as far south as Florida.

Mr. Arbuckle’s death put a stop to this work, and for a year or two the Roosevelt and other craft of his wrecking fleet lay in a Brooklyn slip almost under the east end of the Brooklyn Bridge, where thousands of passers-by could look almost directly down into her big, elliptical smoke-stack.

Then the Roosevelt was purchased by the Bureau of Fisheries of the Department of Commerce for an Alaskan patrol-boat. The bureau changed the Roosevelt to an oil-burner, restored her foremast, and made some minor changes in her accommodations for officers and men.

For a time she made her headquarters at Norfolk, Virginia, whence she went out on various fisheries trips. In the spring of 1917 she went through the Panama Canal, and proceeded to Seattle, Washington, to fit out for her work of patrolling the Alaskan coast, carrying supplies to the various stations and settlements, inspecting the canneries and seal-rookeries, and giving assistance, when necessary, to ships along that coast. For this work the Roosevelt is specially adapted, and will be able to perform her duties in all weathers and at all seasons of the year.

While waiting at Seattle, the Roosevelt took part in an important local event, carrying the official party and leading the naval pageant on the occasion of the opening of the Lake Washington ship canal connecting the lake with Puget Sound, and giving Seattle a double water front.

I was on board the Roosevelt for an hour late in May, and as I stood again on the bridge the succession of scenes that passed before me was as rapid as the changing pictures of a movie.

I was much pleased to have the Government take over the Roosevelt. Naturally my feeling for the ship was strong; yet I personally had neither the means to purchase her nor to maintain her after purchase. Nor did I feel like suggesting to the friends who had splendidly furnished the money for the discovery of the pole that the ship be purchased and taken care of.

From time to time I receive letters suggesting some action--public subscription or otherwise--for the maintenance and preservation of the Roosevelt as a national object of interest. These letters have referred to the government ownership by Italy of Abruzzi’s Stella Polare, by Norway of Nansen’s Fram, and by England of Nelson’s Victory; but none of these suggestions ever materialized.

Some day it is my hope to build a Roosevelt II to carry the Stars and Stripes around and into the heart of the antarctic regions. Drawings for such a ship, both in general and in detail, based on my experience in designing, building, and using the Roosevelt, were one of my amusements and occupations during the two long winter nights which the ship spent at Cape Sheridan. These plans contain a number of new ideas and improvements over the Roosevelt. The actual sail-plan, cross-section and longitudinal models to the scale of a quarter of an inch to the foot, are now stored on Eagle Island.

On the conclusion of the war, with the new impetus that has been given to wooden ship-building, perhaps it may be possible to realize these ideas, and send a ship south that will place the name of the United States high in the record of antarctic work. Such a ship, under command of Bartlett, and utilizing the experience gained and the methods developed in twenty-three years of north polar work, could probably do in a given time twice as much work as any existing ship.

There are three pieces of antarctic work of major importance and of great attractiveness that lie ready to the hand of the United States whenever we are ready to undertake them.

One is the complete delimitation of the great Weddell Sea indentation in the antarctic continent lying southeast of Cape Horn. Another is the establishment of a station at the south pole for a year of continuous, systematic scientific observations. A third is the exploration, survey, and study through several seasons of the entire periphery of the antarctic continent.

The first of these, the exploration of Weddell Sea, which thus far has baffled the efforts of every expedition, Scotch, German, French, Swedish, and British, is, from its location in the Western Hemisphere, in our sphere of influence, and would also be likely to give the maximum amount of general results in the shortest time and at the least expense.

BOW OF THE “ROOSEVELT” IN ICE Impressive in its massive sturdiness and evident power

LAUNCHING THE “ROOSEVELT” Bucksport, Maine, March 23, 1905. Very appropriate that the baptism of the ship should be in ice-filled water

The second, an observation station at the pole, might be an adjunct of the first, an overland party from the head of Weddell Sea establishing and provisioning the station. The traverse of such a party from the head of Weddell Sea to the south pole would, with the journeys of Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton from McMurdo Sound on the opposite side, give a complete cross section of the antarctic continent.

The natural conditions in the antarctic region, that is, a continuous permanent surface from year to year, as compared with the north polar ocean, which may become intersected with lanes of open water at any time as the result of a storm--makes it possible for a party equipped like my north-pole party, to establish and maintain a regular route and system of transporting supplies right through the antarctic night. Or a few aëroplanes, working from a base at the head of Weddell Sea, could in a few weeks of the antarctic summer provision such a station for a year, as British planes in the Mesopotamia campaign carried supplies to Kut-el-amara.

Such a station, by making simultaneous observations with other existing stations, ought to add greatly to our meteorological and magnetic knowledge. If at the same time a similar station at Cape Columbia, the most northerly easily accessible point of land in the arctic regions, should be established, and take synchronous observations, the value of all would be still further increased.

The Cape Columbia station like the one at the south pole could be established and provisioned by aëroplanes in a few weeks from Whale Sound less than 400 miles distant and easily accessible every summer. With two such stations at the extremities of the globe observing simultaneously with selected stations in the inhabited portions of the world, there would certainly result a broader knowledge of meteorological, magnetic, and other natural conditions. The proposition has the approval of distinguished scientists, and will undoubtedly be eventually put in execution.

The third proposition, a complete systematic study of the entire periphery of the antarctic continent and its adjacent waters by a party of scientific experts in a special ship during a succession of seasons, would appeal most strongly to the scientists and museums of the country.

It would be an American Challenger expedition, with all the improvements and widened horizon of investigation that forty-four years of scientific progress represent. Such an expedition with good fortune could complete the circuit of the Antarctic continent in three or four seasons, coming north to pass each winter at some convenient port as Punta Arenas in the Straits of Magellan; Wellington, N. Z.; Hobart, Tasmania and Cape Town.

Each year the observations and collections could be sent home, and any necessary changes be made in the personnel.

The materialization of this program will give our museums a large amount of valuable material from a region which at present is most meagerly represented in their collections, and will furnish our scientists with material and observations to keep them occupied for years.

The financing of the work could be met by a group of American museums. Or it presents an opportunity for some man of means to place himself permanently in the scientific record of the nation by furnishing the funds for its realization.

CHAPTER II

SELECTING MEN

In my polar parties the matter of personnel has been different from that of other expeditions because of my extensive utilization of the Eskimos. From the beginning of my interest in polar matters my conception of an ideal polar party was one in which the rank and file should be composed of Eskimos, with one or more white men in command.

But I was not able to realize this ideal at the start of my polar work, and in my first expedition the entire work was done by the six members of my party. In my second expedition the Eskimos assisted for a short distance on the ice-cap. In the work and journeys of my long expedition of 1898–1902 (four years, three months, and seventeen days), my plans crystallized into actual shape, and all parties were made up of Eskimos and a white man or two, sometimes one member of my party commanding fifteen or sixteen Eskimos. In my last two expeditions of 1905–06 and 1908–09 the system was still further perfected.

Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History CAPTAIN ROBERT BARTLETT

In these last two expeditions another phase entered. With the close of my 1898–1902 expedition I had worked out the ultimate possibilities of sledging from a base south of the 79th parallel, and recognized that the pole could not be reached from such a base. The preliminary journey from the base to the most northern land made too serious a drain upon the energies of dogs and men to enable them to negotiate the final and most difficult part of the journey over the surface of the polar ocean. The only answer to the problem was a ship which would put me within striking distance of the pole.

The result was the Roosevelt, and in my last two expeditions the presence of a ship added to the personnel of my expedition the new element of ship’s officers and crew. Thus in the final evolution of my work my parties were made up of three elements: myself and my assistants for the exploration sledge-work; the ship’s officers and crew; and the Eskimos, these last being more numerous than both the others combined.

The Eskimo element is taken up more fully in another place, and I shall not go into it here. The selection of the ship’s personnel threw no burden of time or attention on my shoulders, as, with the exception of the chief engineer and his assistant, whom I myself selected, and who were Americans, I turned this matter over to Bartlett, himself a Newfoundlander, and held him responsible for a picked crew of these ideal, hardy ice-navigators.

In the general scheme of work it was not expected that any of this ship personnel should take part in the sledging expeditions. Bartlett’s eagerness to have a share in the sledge work, however, together with his personal qualifications, made him an invaluable addition to my field parties, and two or three of the men before the mast volunteered for, and did good, preliminary depot and hunting work.

My own particular work of selecting personnel was confined, therefore, to the limited number of my own assistants, and in the last expedition three of these, Henson, Percy, Marvin (I mention them in the order of length of service), were tried and faithful men from previous expeditions.

The day of large parties in successful polar work has passed. Effective results in these regions can, and in the future will be, obtained by very small parties. The records of some of the earlier expeditions show the fallacy of the popular idea that there is safety in numbers.

Franklin’s party of 138 men, the largest in the history of polar exploration, equipped with everything that the ample resources of the British Government could provide in that day, met with disaster, not a single member surviving to tell the fate which overtook them. Too large a party was, in my opinion, the direct cause of the utter loss of this expedition, and many of the tragedies which have preceded and followed it would not have occurred had the parties been small ones.

The whole situation in polar regions is against large parties. Starvation is inevitable when, as a result of the loss of ship or supplies, a large number of men find themselves dependent upon the resources of the country even for a short time, whereas a small company would have an abundant food-supply. On more than one occasion, on long sledge journeys with one or two companions, a single hare has made a hearty meal for us, which, followed by a good sleep, made it possible for us to travel some days more without meat. Had there been five or six of us, the portion of each would only have aggravated our hunger, and the strength and endurance of none would have been materially increased.

An illustration of this is an incident in the land beyond the ice-cap on my second trip across northern Greenland. Five hundred miles separated me and my companions from any other human beings. Then I wrote:

I saw a fresh hare-track, and a few hundred yards beyond came upon the hare itself, squatting among the rocks a few paces distant. With the sight of the beautiful, spotless little animal, the feeling of emptiness in the region of my stomach increased. I called to Matt, who was some little distance back, to stop the dogs and come up with his rifle. He was so affected by the prospect of a good supper that, though usually a good shot, his first and second bullets missed the mark; but at the third the white object collapsed into a shapeless mass, and on the instant gaunt hunger leaped upon us like a starving wolf upon its prey. A little pond, surrounded by high banks a short distance away, offered the advantage of ice for cooking purposes, and here we camped, lit our lamp, and cooked and ate the entire hare. It was the first full meal we had had since the Eskimos left us thirty-five days ago--the first meal possessing proper substance and staying quality to fit a man for a heavy day’s work.

While we were enjoying our feast, it began snowing, and at its conclusion we lay down as we were, upon the snow-covered shore of the little pond, without tent or sleeping-bag or anything except the clothes we wore, and, with the snowflakes falling thickly upon us, slept.

Demoralization is also much more easily caused by a disloyal or cowardly member in a large party than in a small one. The success of any expedition depends upon the magnetism and force of its leader. His example is contagious, his courage, activity, and cheerfulness being reflected in each person of his party up to a certain mark.

But the infusion of fresh courage into a member whose mental and physical strength has been impaired by cold, hunger, or discouragement is a drain upon the leader’s nerve force. The larger the party, the more difficult it becomes to fill it with courage and hopefulness when confronted by serious disappointment or disaster, or to put down insubordination. The impetus of a sledge party in particular centers in the physical condition of its leader, and my various sledge-journeys have shown me how vital it is that things that drain his energies should be reduced to a minimum.

MATTHEW A. HENSON

HENSON IN FULL WINTER COSTUME WITH SNOWSHOES

Next after the leader and a suitable ship, is an ice master, and an ice navigator must be born to the art.

He must possess good judgment, nerve, endurance, quick decision, and an uncanny prevision as to what the ice is going to do next.

Bartlett is the type I have in mind, accustomed to the ice and to ships from his early teens, wide experience in different portions of the globe, great endurance, abundant nerve, good judgment, and with the intensive training and experience of two voyages with me in what is probably the worst ice-navigation of the north polar regions.

To this has now been added his unusual experience during his voyage in the Karluk in Bering Sea.

Much has been accomplished by small parties in polar work. Schwatka made his great sledge-journey with four white men and an Eskimo. Captain Holm made his eastern Greenland trip with four men; Payer’s party of seven in Franz-Josef Land was found impracticable, and was reduced to three. Striking examples of what one determined man can accomplish are found in the records of Hall’s early explorations and Graah’s sledge-trip along the eastern coast of Greenland. Nansen’s most striking work was done with a party of two. Captain Cagni’s main party to the then highest north, 86° 34´, numbered four. Amundsen reached the south pole with a party of five. Scott’s south pole party numbered five. Stefansson did valuable work through several years with one companion. My own work has been done with from two to six in the party, the latter being the number in my north pole party.

I have always limited my parties to the number absolutely necessary for the work I had laid out, believing that every addition means an element of danger and failure. My reconnaissance of the Greenland inland ice in 1886, resulting in the penetration of the ice-cap to a greater distance than ever before by a white man, and the attainment of the greatest elevation on the ice-cap, was made with only one companion.

My Greenland expedition in 1891–92, the record of which includes the determination of the insularity of Greenland, a survey of Inglefield Gulf and Whale and Murchison sounds, the first accurate and complete record of the arctic Highlanders, was composed of seven members. And the 1200-mile sledge-trip across the Greenland inland ice-cap was accomplished by me and one companion.

The work of my expedition of 1893–95, covering a period of twenty-five months, included a second sledge-journey of 1200 miles across the ice-cap, the discovery of the Cape York meteorites, the completion of the survey of the region about Whale Sound, and the completion of the study of the natives. There were fourteen members in this party, eleven of them returning in August, 1894, leaving three of us to carry on the work for the last year. Summer trips were made in 1896 and 1897 to secure the last and largest of the meteorites. There were five men in the first party, seven in the last.

Twenty-one white men, including the crew and firemen of the Roosevelt, and forty Eskimos made up the personnel of my 1905–06 expedition, which resulted in the attainment of “farthest north.” The personnel of my last and successful attempt to reach the pole (1908–09) included twenty-two white men and forty-nine Eskimos.

As to the quality of the personnel of a polar expedition, my experience has proved over and over again the accuracy of my theory that it should be made up wholly of young men, of first-class physique, perfect health, education, and attainment. Such men, interested in their work and the success of the expedition, with resources within themselves and plans for the future, are able to resist in a large measure the depressing effects of the long polar night, and in field-work their enthusiasm more than makes up for lack of experience or toughened endurance.

To nine out of ten the word polar is synonymous with cold. To one who has spent a year within the arctic or antarctic it is more likely to be synonymous with darkness. Any healthy man properly fed and clothed can pass the year in these regions with little discomfort so far as the cold is concerned. But when it comes to almost four months of polar night, it is different. A man of the most sanguine temperament cannot avoid entirely its effects, and there are those of nervous temperament whom a night in the arctic would drive insane. Not that it is so extremely dark, for the three or four winter moons give a brilliant light, and at other times the darkness is not greater than at home on starlit nights in the winter. It is only during heavy storms that the darkness becomes intense and tangible. It is the absence of the actinic or the physiological effects of the sun’s rays and the contraction of the physical horizon by the darkness which render a polar night so trying. As far as I was able I have selected blondes for the personnel of all my expeditions.

Men for the field-parties should be wiry, and their weight should be within the limits of not less than two pounds, nor more than two and a half pounds per inch of height. This means for a six-foot man a minimum of 144 pounds, a maximum of 180 pounds, and a mean of 162 pounds.

When I returned from the north pole sledge-trip, which was a trip of arduous and protracted exertion, but not a journey on half-rations, as had been the case on some of my earlier trips, my own weight, stripped to the buff, was 160 pounds, which, by the way, was the same weight to which I trained for my junior-class crew in college at the age of twenty.

OO-TAH This photo of my best Eskimo, taken immediately after our return from the North Pole, indicates the type of Eskimo for Polar work. The portrait shows the protecting roll of bearskin about the face.