CHAPTER III 



THE START 



FROM her berth beside the recreation pier at the 

 foot of East Twenty-fourth Street, New York, 

 the Roosevelt steamed north on the last expe- 

 dition, about one o'clock in the afternoon of July 6, 

 1908. As the ship backed out into the river, a cheer 

 that echoed over Blackwell's Island went up from the 

 thousands who had gathered on the piers to see us 

 off; while the yacht fleet, the tugboats and the ferry- 

 boats tooted their good wishes. It was an interesting 

 coincidence that the day on which we started for the 

 coldest spot on earth was about the hottest which New 

 York had known for years. There were thirteen deaths 

 from heat and seventy-two heat prostrations recorded 

 in Greater New York for that day, while we were bound 

 for a region where sixty below zero is not an excep- 

 tional temperature. 



We started with about one hundred guests of the 

 Peary Arctic Club on board the Roosevelt, and several 

 members of the Club, including the president, General 

 Thomas H. Hubbard; the vice-president, Zenas Crane; 

 and the secretary and treasurer, Herbert L. Bridg- 

 man. 



As we steamed up the river the din grew louder 

 and louder, the whistles of the power-houses and the 

 factories adding their salutations to the tooting of 



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