Report concerning the remaining part of the expedition. 171 
“Alabama’’s winter quarters, 
Shannon Island, May 27, 1910. 
Report concerning the condemnation of the expedition ship 
“Alabama”. 
The following explains our reasons for condemning the “Alabama”. 
As the ship on the 17th of Aug. 1909 struck the ice, she received 
some serious bumps, and after the last of them her mast got a severe 
shock; she was again jammed in the ice between two heavy floes the 
foot of one of which was under the keel. She lay between these floes 
in a heavy swell until the morning of thel8th, when the ice slackened, 
and the only damage noticeable from on board was that the rudder 
stem was strained, but we were able to repair it. The pumps were 
sounded all through the night, and the water did not appear to rise 
more than usual. 
On our further passage through the ice, until we reached land, 
the ship was, moreover, exposed to some pressure, the total effect 
being that she was completely wedged in and lifted upon the ice. Through 
the pressure the stern shaft and the rudder were damaged, the latter 
for the second time, but although when we got into our winter quarters, 
no damage could be observed to the ship herself, it is the unanimous 
opinion, that she had suffered a lot by the heavy passage through the 
ice. Shortly after our arrival at Shannon Island, she began to leak 
more than usual, but this was reduced after a couple of days. This took 
place, however, before we were ice-bound. 
It should here be stated that the ship in the course of the winter 
had come close up to the tidal cracks, as the latter had gradually moved 
further out, and may have caused some damage to the ship. 
During the winter of 1909—1910 violent shocks were observed, but 
up to the end of January the water did not show any signs of rising, 
but was maintained steadily at about 5 cm under the upper edge of 
the keel. But on Jan. 28th 1910 it was observed that the deck under 
the forecastle had sunk, and when we proceeded to strengthen it, we 
discovered that there was a lot of water in the hold under the fore- 
castle and also under the pump well. We immediately got the buckets 
to work and baled out the water from the whole ship. On Feb. 12th 
1910 water again appeared in the hold, and we got rid of it in a similar 
manner. 
On the departure of the two sledging parties on 3rd of March 1910 
there was again a lot of water in the ship, but it was baled out four days 
afterwards and again on the 12th of March. But after this last baling 
out, the water in the ship again rose rapidly and forced Lieutenant Jør- 
GENSEN and UNGER, to abandon the ship and move ashore, which they 
did on March 26th. Before they left, however, they had moved aft 
into the cabin on the 14th of March, the water at this time not having 
reached the cabin. Until the return of the second sledge party, attempts 
