248 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



pump. We are satisfied that it can, and now we must 

 see if our gate can be made so tight as to make the 

 Baxter engine do all the work. To get at the gate we 

 have to rip up a heavy flooring and that takes time. 



Febi^uary 10th, Tuesday. — Upon getting down to 

 the gates in the water-tight bulkhead we found that 

 the starboard one was neither broken nor sprung, both 

 seeming perfectly tight, that is, no leak was apparent 

 through them. There must, therefore, be some leak 

 through between the frames and the planking to ac- 

 count for the water finding its way abaft this bulkhead, 

 but as it is impossible for us to get at its exact locality, 

 we can as yet see no way of remedying it. By run- 

 ning the Sewell pump sometimes five and sometimes 

 ten minutes every hour, we hold the water in check in 

 the fire-room bilge ; while as fast as the water banks 

 up forward of the water-tight bulkhead it is pumped 

 out by the bilge-pump run by the Baxter engine. This 

 is, however, kept running nearly all the time. 



February 12th, Thursday. — Although unable to find 

 any leak through the water-tight bulkhead, the carpen- 

 ters (Nindemann and Sweetman) have been employed, 

 touching and filling up all doubtful places. By the 

 stupidity of one of the firemen (Boyd) we were able 

 this morning to decide that the leak does not occur in 

 the bulkhead itself or through the gates. In order to 

 keep the Baxter boiler from choking up with salt it is 

 our habit to blow it out once in twelve hours. Before 

 blowino; out the fires are hauled, and new ones built 

 when required. Boyd attempted to blow out w^ithout 

 ascertaining whether the out-board delivery pipe was 

 clear or frozen. As a consequence, the pipe being frozen, 

 so much time was lost before the pump could be started 

 again, that thirty inches water had accumulated for- 



