32 THENORTHPOLE 



uptake from the boilers, and on either side are the 

 cabins and the messrooms. My own cabin occupied 

 the starboard corner aft; forward from this was Hen- 

 son's room, the starboard messroom, and in the for- 

 ward starboard corner Surgeon Goodsell's room. On 

 the port side aft was Captain Bartlett's room, occupied 

 by himself and Marvin, and forward from this in suc- 

 cession the cabin of the chief engineer and his assist- 

 ant, the cabin of Percy, the steward, and the cabin of 

 MacMillan and Borup; then the mate and the boat- 

 swain were in the forward port corner of the deckhouse, 

 next the port messroom of the junior officers. The 

 starboard mess comprised Bartlett, Dr. Goodsell, 

 Marvin, MacMillan, Borup, and myself. 



I shall not dwell at great length upon the first 

 stage of the journey from Sydney to Cape York, 

 Greenland, for the reason that is only a pleasant sum- 

 mer cruise at that season of the year, such as any fair- 

 sized yacht may undertake without peril or adventure; 

 and there are more interesting and unusual things 

 to write about. In passing through the Straits of 

 Belle Isle, "the graveyard of ships," where there is 

 always danger of encountering icebergs in the fog, or 

 being swung upon the shore by the strong and capri- 

 cious currents, I remained up all night, as any man 

 would who had care for his ship. But I could not help 

 contrasting that easy summer passage with our return 

 in November, 1906, when the Roosevelt was standing 

 on end half the time, and the rest of the time was 

 rolling the rail under water, losing two rudders, being 

 smashed by the sea, creeping along the Labrador 

 coast in the berg season, through dense fog, and pick- 



