FIRE ON BOARD THE 'FRAM.' 465 



fifty gallons of spirit. It was so placed that it was impossible 

 to move it, and if it once caught fire, the fate of the ship was 

 sealed, .and perhaps that of the entire expedition also. It held, 

 thank Heaven ; but so great was the heat that, on looking at it 

 afterwards, it was found that it had melted the tinning on the 

 outside of the tank. 



On both sides of the conflagration the doors were open, and, 

 before it was possible to shut them, the flames had spread to the 

 'tween decks, though without doing much harm. 



Luckily there was plenty of water to be had close by the ship's 

 side, and, when the cases of gunpowder had been safely removed, 

 the work of extinguishing the flames went on rapidly. Bucket 

 after bucket of water was thrown, hissing and steaming, over the 

 deck ; men shouted and ran in and out of the heat, the sweat on 

 their brows and their hands black with soot. They hurried back- 

 wards and forwards to the ice and up to the vessel again ; for our 

 craft was dear to us, and fight they meant to for every plank of 

 the old ' Frarn ' our only bit of Norway up there in all that 

 solitude. 



After a good half-hour had passed, some breathless, steaming 

 men stood on the deck who pointed, spat, and gazed sometimes 

 up at the mainmast, sometimes across the deck ; but the fire was 

 quenched, and the ' Fram ' saved. 



The fire caused us considerable loss. First and foremost, all 

 the kayaks were burned; then, also, a quantity of 'ski' and 

 wood, as well as a score of prepared polar-ox skins, and some bear- 

 skins. The main-rigging sails lay under the tarpaulin which 

 covered the mainsail, and were all burned ; we lost the main- 

 boom and gaff, as well as all the coils of running rigging and some 

 blocks, while the rack on the starboard side was also destroyed. 



The actual hull did not suffer any injury worth mentioning. 

 The deck was only slightly burned. Nor had the mast suffered 

 to any great extent, and after planing away the charred wood, it 

 was as right as ever again. If we were to have a misfortune of 

 the kind, we could hardly have got off more cheaply than we did. 

 We had plenty of spare rope and sailcloth, and the vessel soon 

 carried her sails as before. 



VOL. i. 2 H 



