EQUIPPED FOR AN ARCTIC CRUISE 47 



There were times when the rest of us found it more 

 comfortable to keep to our beds, and, in truth, there was 

 nothing much to get up for, if one did not feel like eating. 



For the first meal, and for some time after that, the 

 cabin boy ran around the deck ringing a bell. We all 

 gathered in the dining saloon. Delicious steaks were 

 served from two reindeer carcasses that had been shipped 

 at St. Michael; salmon cutlets and sundry vegetables, 

 coffee or tea, fruit and pudding augured well for the 

 future. 



The morning of our second day on board da'^Tied 

 bright and calm. We were making good progress toward 

 the coast of Siberia. Jimmie, the cabin boy, called us at 

 six-thirty, and breakfast was served at seven. Dinner 

 at noon was announced by a hand-bell, like supper of 

 the evening before. Jimmie was most attentive to our 

 comfort. He saw that the little tin bottle, which con- 

 tained water for our toilet and was placed in a Httle 

 washstand, was always filled; and that the waste can 

 under the tin basin of the stand was always empty. I 

 think on one of those early days I saw him also making 

 an attempt to sweep out our stateroom. After much 

 tossing in the sea had worn off the keen edge of Jimmie's 

 finer feelings we did all these things for ourselves. 



It will be seen from the foregoing description that the 

 "Abler's" cabin house was a high affair of Hght wooden 

 construction placed on the poop deck, and contained our 

 two staterooms, the dining saloon, galley and captain's 

 room. Just forward and pressed up against this cabin 

 the pilot house rose a few feet higher into the air. For- 

 ward of that the main deck stretched about eighty feet 

 up to the bow. The main deck was about three feet 

 above the water line, and protected from the combers 



