THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 37 



had been trapper and trader, and a whaler both on board ships and 

 with the Eskimos in their skin-boats. 



This last was an important consideration, for I look upon the 

 Eskimo skin boat, as do all those in Alaska who have had experi- 

 ence with it, as the one boat suited for use among ice. Such a 

 skin boat, or umiak, when thirty feet long, which is a common 

 size, will carry a cargo much larger than a 28-foot whale-boat, 

 although the whale-boat is three or four times as heavy. And the 

 whale-boat besides is very fragile. When the ordinary clinker- 

 built whale-boat is moving at a speed of six miles an hour it is 

 easily stove by contact with even a small fragment of floating ice, 

 while an Eskimo skin-boat going at the same speed can bump 

 into ice of almost any shape or size without injury. With a whale- 

 boat it is as if the ice were struck by an egg-shell; with a skin-boat 

 it is as if it were struck by a football. In one case there is a 

 crash and a dead stop; in the other a thump and a rebound. And 

 if the umiak suffers injury it is merely a cracked rib that can be 

 replaced, or a hole in the skin which can be patched with needle 

 and thread. An umiak capable of carrying more than a ton of 

 freight can be carried over land or solid ice by two men, and if 

 placed on a low sled of the type used for such boats it can be 

 pulled along by three or four dogs, or two or three men. 



Any one who goes to the polar regions in ships realizes that any 

 ship, no matter what the strength or what the style of construction, 

 will be broken by ice pressure if the pressure comes in any but a 

 certain way. If a ship is wedge-shaped like the Fram, or is semi- 

 circular in cross-section like the Roosevelt, she may be lifted up by 

 ice pressure if the ice is so low that it strikes her below her line 

 of greatest diameter. But as her greatest diameter is only a few 

 feet above the water, and as some ice cakes are ten, fifteen or 

 twenty feet out of water, it is generally luck that determines 

 whether the pressure is so applied as to lift the ship or to crush her. 



Peary says that "any vessel navigating in polar waters may at 

 any time be crushed so suddenly that nothing below can be saved." * 

 I am glad Peary puts this so clearly, for although I know of no 

 whaling captain or experienced ice traveler who is of any other 

 opinion, still, there is among arm-chair explorers a very common 

 belief that ships of a certain design or strength are immune against 

 being crushed. 



Realizing this, I was naturally particular about providing not 

 only the plans but the equipment for retreat towards land in such 



* "Secrets of Polar Travel," by R. E. Peary, p. 109. 



