100 THENORTHPOLE 



stretch of water still before us. The captain's remarks 

 when the strands of that cable parted I will leave to 

 the imagination of the reader. Had the accident 

 occurred at a time when the ship was between two 

 big floes, the fortress of the North Pole might still 

 remain uncaptured. It was after midnight before 

 we got under way, and half an hour later we were 

 stopped again by the impassable ice. 



On the fourth day we lay quiet all day long, with 

 a slight breeze from Princess Marie Bay setting us 

 slowly eastward; but, as the sun was shining, we util- 

 ized the time in drying our clothing, wet and soggy 

 from the almost continuous rain and snow of the pre- 

 vious two days. As it was still summertime in the 

 Arctic, we did not suffer from cold. The pools be- 

 tween the ice floes were slowly enlarging, and at nine 

 in the evening we were on our way again, but at eleven 

 we ran into a thick fog. All night we bored and twisted 

 through the ice, which, though thick, was not heavy 

 for the Roosevelt, and only once or twice we had to 

 back her. An ordinary ship could have made no head- 

 way whatever. 



Ward well, the chief engineer, stood his eight-hour 

 or twelve-hour watch the same as his assistants, 

 and during the passage of these dangerous channels 

 he was nearly always in the engine-room, watching 

 the machinery to see that no part of it got out of order 

 at a crucial moment — which would have meant the 

 loss of the ship. When we were between two big 

 floes, forcing our way through, I would call down 

 the tube leading from the bridge to the engine- 

 room: 



