258 THE SEA. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



THE SECOND GERMAN EXPEDITION. 



The First German Expedition Preparations for a Second Building of the Gcrmania The Hansa The Emperor 

 William's Interest in the Voyage The Scientific Corps Departure from Bremerhaven Neptune at the Arctic 

 Circle The Vessels Separated among the Ice Sport with Polar Bears Wedged in by the Grinding Ice 

 Preparations to Winter on the Floe The Hansa lifted Seventeen Feet out of the Water A Doomed Vessel Wreck 

 of the Hansa. 



ON the 24th of October, 1868, a number of gentlemen were assembled round a festive board 

 in Bremen to celebrate the happy return of the first German expedition, under Captain 

 Karl Koldewey. Among the guests was Dr. A. Petermann, the eminent geographer, to whose 

 exertions in great part the inauguration of the expedition had been due. Its object had 

 been to reach as near the North Pole as might be, the route selected being that between 

 Greenland and Spitzbergen. Baffled by an icy barrier off the South Cape of Spitzbergeu, 

 at which time a terrific storm was raging, he had steered to the eastward, passing among 

 clusters of icebergs, some of which were taller than his vessel's masts. After passing 

 safely through many perils, he returned to the South Cape, and coasted Spitzbergen to- 

 the north-west; later he had endeavoured to make the ice-girt shores of East Greenland, 

 but not succeeding, again returned to Spitzbergen, and after sundry explorations, turned 

 his vessel's head towards home. 



It was at the banquet above-mentioned that expression was first given to the idea of 

 a second expedition to the inhospitable regions of the far North. There had been some 

 slight surplus of funds left from the first expedition, and it was determined to make an 

 appeal to German liberality to complete a sum sufficient to build a steamer specially adapted 

 for Arctic waters. Committees were formed in Berlin, Munich, Bremen, Hamburg, and 

 numerous other cities, and the result in the end was very satisfactory. The Germania, a 

 steamer of 143 tons burden, was laid on the stocks at Bremerhaven on March 10th, 1869, 

 and thirty-six days afterwards was launched. She was about the average size of a Brazilian 

 or West Indian fruit or coffee schooner, ninety feet long, twenty-two and a half feet broad, 

 and eleven feet deep. Although, therefore, an extremely small steamer, she had been built 

 in the strongest manner, with extra beams, thick iron sheathing, and every other improvement 

 which might render her comparatively safe in the ice- Her sharp build proved subse- 

 quently of great advantage to her when sailing. Including the machinery and ship's fittings, 

 the Germania cost 3,150. A second vessel, the purchase-money for which had been 

 guaranteed by some Bremen merchants, although eventually the subscriptions released them, 

 was a Prussian schooner of 76| tons burden, which was re-christened the Hansa, and was 

 meant to be, in some sense, a tender to the Germania, although fate eventually decreed 

 otherwise. Great care was taken with the victualling and equipment of the ships ; but little 

 salt or dried meat was taken. Many presents of " the good Rhine wine " and other luxuries, 

 as well as books, instruments, and other kindly remembrances, came in from friends of the 

 expedition. 



The officers and scientific members of the expedition counted among their number 

 several men who had previously or have since become famous. The commander of the 



