THE SECOND EXPEDITION 



wooden vessels of from 500 to 800 tons burden, 

 but with the season of 1927 a new 1400 ton motor- 

 ship, the Disko, was to be placed in commission 

 and make Holstensborg a port of call. 



Arrangements were therefore made to take the 

 expedition of 1927 to Copenhagen and proceed 

 from there to Holstensborg on the Disko scheduled 

 to depart on her second cruise on or about May 

 28th. Since we were to establish an aerological sta- 

 tion for summer and winter alike, it was necessary 

 to lay our plans with much thoroughness, and 

 everything needed for the entire year had to be 

 taken with us, including the lumber for the station. 



As originally planned Peter Freuchen, veteran 

 Danish Greenland Explorer who had been a mem- 

 ber of Rasmussen's Thule expeditions, was to oc- 

 cupy a secondary observing station on the inland- 

 ice during the winter. This would permit of a 

 valuable comparison with the main station. This 

 arrangement had been given up for the reason 

 that shortly before we set out Freuchen had to sub- 

 mit to the amputation of a portion of his left foot, 

 which had been badly frozen on the last Thule 

 expedition to Arctic America. Despite this handi- 

 cap Freuchen was still anxious to carry out the 

 original plan, but this risk I could not take. An- 

 other well known Danish explorer, Helge Bang- 



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