THE STORY OF PEARY'S GREAT EXPLOIT 51 



1905. The designer was William E. Winant, of New York, who 

 worked from Peary's own suggestions. She is 182 feet in length, 

 with a beam of 35.5 feet, a depth of 16.3 feet, and a mean draught, 

 with stores, of 17 feet. Her gross tonnage is 614 and her estimated 

 displacement about 1,500 tons. She is a three-masted fore-and-aft 

 schooner-rigged steamship. She was built entirely of white oak, 

 with treble frames close together, double planked. Her walls are 

 from 24 to 30 inches thick. The keel, 16 inches thick, is reinforced 

 with false keels and keelson. Her heavy bow is backed by twelve 

 feet of solid deadwood. Her stern, reinforced by iron, had a long 

 overhang, to protect the rudder from the ice, but the rudder itself 

 was so arranged that it could be lifted out of the water when jammed 

 or entangled. 



It had been Peary's purpose to set out in 1907, but the ship 

 could not be got ready in time, so that it became necessary to defer 

 the trip till 1908. This failure in his plans prevented the possibility 

 of a very interesting event, which might have taken place if he had 

 got off at the time 'originally intended. In that case his dash to the 

 Pole would probably have been made in 1908, and the strange con- 

 tingency might have happened of the two rival explorers, Cook and 

 Peary, meeting at the end of the earth's axis. In such a possible 

 case what else would have occurred? Would the bad blood which 

 has since developed have manifested itself there, and the Pole have 

 been the scene of a royal battle for its possession? Or would the 

 rivals have consented to bury the hatchet with their records and drag 

 ^ck the coveted prize in friendly union? No one can say; but in 

 v.ch event, in any case, the present unhappy controversy could not 

 have arisen. 



At any rate, this interesting possibility was prevented by 

 Peary's year's delay, it being on July 6, 1908, that the "Roosevelt," 

 with a picked crew and thoroughly stocked for a three years' stay 

 in the North, set sail from New York. The scientists on board were 

 the following : Dr. John W. Goodsell, of New Kensington, Pa. ; Pro- 



