4 o THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



order, and the vitally important organisation of our 

 system of boats and sledges. 



" Our boats were three in number, all of them well 

 battered by exposure to ice and storm, almost as 

 destructive of their sea-worthiness as the hot sun of 

 other regions. Two of them were cypress whale-boats, 

 26 feet long, with 7 feet beam, and 3 feet deep. 

 These were strengthened with oak bottom - pieces 

 and a long string-piece bolted to the keel. A wash- 

 board of light cedar, about 6 inches high, served to 

 strengthen the gunwale and give increased depth. A 

 neat housing of light canvas was stretched upon a ridge- 

 line sustained fore and aft by stanchions, and hung down 

 over the boat's sides, where it was fastened (stopped) to 

 a jack-stay. My last year's experience on the attempt 

 to reach Beechy Island determined me to carry but one 

 mast to each boat. It was stepped into an oaken thwart, 

 made especially strong, as it was expected to carry sail 

 over ice as well as water : the mast could be readily 

 unshipped, and carried, with the oars, boat-hooks, and 

 ice-poles, alongside the boat. The third boat was my 

 little Red Erie. We mounted her on the old sledge, 

 the Faith, hardly relying on her for any purposes of 

 navigation, but with the intention of cutting her up 

 for firewood in case our guns should fail to give us a 

 supply of blubber. 



" Indeed, in spite of all the ingenuity of our carpenter, 

 Mi\ Ohlsen, well seconded by the persevering labours of 

 McGary and Bonsall, not one of our boats was positively 

 sea-worthy. The planking of all of them was so dried 

 up that it could hardly be made tight by caulking. 



" The three boats were mounted on sledges rigo-ed 



O OCT 



with rue-raddies ; the provisions stowed snugly under 

 the thwarts ; the chronometers, carefully boxed and 

 padded, placed in the stern-sheets of the Hope, in 



