118 ON THE WAY TO THE SOUTH 



been reason to fear that he would repent of the transfer ; 

 but no, he quickly became life and soul an engineer. 

 This did not prevent our seeing him on deck again 

 many a time during the passage through the west wind 

 belt, when there was need of a good man during a gale. 



The motor, which during the Atlantic cruise had been 

 a constant source of uneasiness and anxiety, regained 

 our entire confidence under Sundbeck's capable com- 

 mand ; it hummed so that it was a pleasure to hear it. To 

 judge from the sound of the engine-room, one would have 

 thought the Fram was moving through the water with 

 the speed of a torpedo-boat. If this was not the case, 

 the engine was not to blame; possibly, the screw had 

 a share of it. The latter ought probably to have been 

 somewhat larger, though experts are not agreed about 

 this; in any case, there was something radically wrong 

 with our propeller. Whenever there was a little sea- 

 way, it was apt to work loose in the brasses. This dis- 

 advantage is of very common occurrence in vessels which 

 have to be fitted with lifting propellers on account of 

 the ice, and we did not escape it. The only remedy 

 was to lift the whole propeller-frame and renew the 

 brasses an extremely difficult work when it had to be 

 done in the open sea and on as lively a ship as the 

 Fram. 



Day by day we had the satisfaction of seeing how 

 the dogs found themselves more and more at home on 

 board. Perhaps, even among ourselves, there were one 



