42 8 POLAR PROBLEMS 



hale and hearty. Three years ago I made a trip on her, and for 

 forty-seven days we were beset in the heavy Arctic pack and drifted 

 in its relentless grip from a few miles north of St. Lawrence Island 

 through Bering Strait one hundred miles or so north over the con- 

 tinental shelf, and only after this did she work her way to freedom. 

 For several hours in a gale of wind with blinding snow and a strong 

 current she was caught between two very large sheets of heavy ice, 

 and the pinch was at the engine room, 



Nansen says the stern of a ship is the heel of Achilles. That is the 

 vulnerable spot. I say in ships with steam boilers and reciprocating 

 engines that the engine room is the vulnerable spot. And strong as 

 the Fram, the Discovery, and the Roosevelt were in a heavy nip, unless 

 they were fairly light it would go ill with them, for it is difhcult with 

 coal bunkers and engine room space to make sufificient thwartship 

 bracing. Fortunately for the Bear she was not heavily laden, and her 

 strength and design helped some, for had she not been able to rise 

 upon the ice with the lateral pressure the corners of the floe would 

 certainly have gone clean through her. 



The history of Arctic voyages began away back in the days of 

 King Alfred of England and in the voyages of the Norsemen to Green- 

 land. The history of Antarctic explorations began at a much later 

 period. It is unnecessary to go into details and describe the different 

 expeditions that went south looking for the Great Southern Continent. 

 It is amazing how these early explorers got their vessels around in 

 uncharted waters, in fogs, gales of wind, strong currents, calms, 

 ice, and bergs. Calm weather with a strong current is about as bad 

 a thing as a wind-driven vessel has to contend with when in the 

 vicinity of ice, icebergs, and growlers; and lots of these ships had in- 

 experienced officers and crews. 



We that know the game today and do it with auxiliary power in 

 the shape of steam and oil engines wonder just how they managed it; 

 and yet it is not hard to fathom the mystery, for those were the days 

 of iron men and wooden ships. Ships and men since the days of Sir 

 John Franklin, Scoresby, Parry, Wilkes, Ross, Cook, John Davis, and 

 many others have changed in size, form, and speed. The advent of 

 steam changed the method of ice navigation with ships, both as to their 

 construction and method of handling, and of course lessened the 

 hardship and dangers to life and property. Those of us who read the 

 sailing-ship voyages of the early explorers and have gone over the 

 same ground under similar conditions appreciate their great skill, 

 their seamanship, and their tenacity of purpose. These qualities they 

 must have had to do this tremendous task of getting ships through 

 ice and fog, uncharted shoals, calms, light and strong head winds, 

 and many other discouraging conditions. As I have said, up to the 

 construction of the Fram many of the ships used in ice navigation had 



