46 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



devious channels through which ships drawing even more water 

 than the Karluk can navigate if they have either a good chart or 

 expert local pilotage. A boat could be lowered and sent with a 

 sounding lead ahead, the Karluk following when the boat had 

 signalled sufficient depth of water. By this method we could enter 

 the lagoon at Cross Island, proceed thirty or forty miles east and 

 come out into the ice again at that point. But of course it was 

 always possible that the northwest winds would continue through 

 the entire season, and that the freeze-up would come without giv- 

 ing us a chance to leave the lagoon till next summer if we once 

 entered it. 



We never had on the Karluk any formal consultation of all the 

 oflEicers, any organization approaching in character a "General 

 Staff." But informally the ship's officers and scientists discussed 

 all questions of policy freely and every man among them knew the 

 opinions of every other. The only exception to this rule happened 

 to be myself. We had taken the ship over from a whaling captain, 

 Captain S. F. Cottle, and her internal arrangements were still in 

 general those that immemorial experience has shown to be best on 

 small ships that make long voyages; the sailors bunked forward 

 and had their mess; the rooms of all men of the grade of officer — 

 mates, engineers, and in our case the scientific staff — were amid- 

 ships, and they had their own mess. The commander alone was 

 aft, in quarters that differed from the others not so much in being 

 luxurious, though they were roomy, as in being isolated. Partly 

 through this isolation, inherited from my predecessors the whaling 

 skippers, partly through inclination, I discussed ice navigation little 

 except with two men — Bartlett because he was sailing master, and 

 Hadley because he was an old friend and a fountain of inexhaust- 

 ible northern lore. 



Directly, then, my views of ice navigation were not well known 

 to officers and men. Indirectly they were well known, for Hadley 

 talked freely with every one and it was understood, and correctly, 

 that his views and mine seldom differed materially, being founded 

 on a common experience in the same sector of the Arctic. 



As we are now at an important point of the expedition, it is 

 best to take a backward glance in order that the situation of the 

 moment be made clear. 



When I first learnt from the National Geographic Society and 

 the American Museum of Natural History that they would furnish 



