Introduction. 33 



ice screw itself together as much as it likes the more 

 the better. The ship will simply be hoisted up and will 

 ride safely and firmly. It is possible it may heel over 

 to a certain extent under this pressure ; but that will 

 scarcely be of much importance. . . . Henceforth 

 the current will be our motive power, while our ship, 

 no longer a means of transport, will become a barrack, 

 and we shall have ample time for scientific observations. 

 "In this manner the expedition will, as above 

 indicated, probably drift across the Pole, and onwards 

 to the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. And 

 when we get down to the 8oth degree of latitude, or 

 even sooner if it is summer, there is every likelihood of 

 our getting the ship free, and being able to sail home. 

 Should she, however, be lost before this which is 

 certainly possible, though as I think very unlikely if 

 she is constructed in the way above described the 

 expedition will not, therefore, be a failure, for our 

 homeward course must in any case follow the polar 

 current on to the North Atlantic basin ; there is plenty 

 of ice to drift on, and of this means of locomotion we 

 have already had experience. If the Jeannette 

 Expedition had had sufficient provisions, and had 

 remained on the ice-floe on which the relics were 

 ultimately found, the result would doubtless have been 

 very different from what it was. Our ship cannot 

 possibly founder under the ice pressure so quickly but 

 that there would be time enough to remove, with all 



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