Preparations and Equipment. 65 



The inner one is of oak 3 inches thick, fastened with 

 spikes and carefully caulked ; outside this another oak 

 sheathing- 4 inches thick, fastened with through bolts 

 and caulked ; and outside these comes the ice-skin ot 

 greenheart, which like the other planking runs right 

 down to the keel. At the water-line it is 6 inches thick, 

 gradually diminishing' towards the bottom to 3 inches. 

 It is fastened with nails and jagged bolts, and not with 

 through bolts, so that if the ice had stripped off the 

 whole of the ice sheathing the hull of the ship would 

 not have suffered any great damage. The lining inside 

 the frame timbers is of pitch pine planks, some 4 

 some 8 inches thick ; it was also carefully caulked once 

 or twice. 



The total thickness of the ship's sides is, therefore, 

 from 24 to 28 inches of solid water-tight wood. It will 

 readily be understood that such a ship's side, with its 

 rounded form, would of itself offer a very good resistance 

 to the ice ; but to make it still stronger the inside was 

 shored up in every possible way, so that the hold looks 

 like a cobweb of balks, stanchions, and braces. In the 

 first place, there are two rows of beams, the upper deck 

 and between decks, principally of solid oak, partly also 

 of pitch pine ; and all of these are further connected 

 with each other, as well as with the sides of the ship, by 

 numerous supports. The accompanying diagrams will 

 show how they are arranged. The diagonal stays are, 

 of course, placed as nearly as possible at right angles to 



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