Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.
[Illustration: (cover)]
SECRETS OF POLAR TRAVEL
[Illustration: THE STARS AND STRIPES FLYING FROM THE NORTH POLE]
SECRETS OF POLAR
TRAVEL
BY
ROBERT E. PEARY
ILLUSTRATED WITH
PHOTOGRAPHS
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: BEGINNING OF THE “ROOSEVELT”
First frame erected, ship now under construction, Bucksport, Maine,
October, 1904]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: STEM, FOREFOOT, AND BOW FRAMES
January 11, 1905]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: BOW OF THE “ROOSEVELT” IN ICE
Impressive in its massive sturdiness and evident power]
[Illustration: 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.