436 POLAR PROBLEMS 



one can tell a thing about ice conditions until he gets up there and 

 sees for himself. It all depends on the winds early in the spring. No 

 matter how mild or severe the winter is, the thing that does or doesn't 

 give us open water to navigate in is continuous offshore winds. In 

 a calm spring and summer the ice stays just where it is. 



Of course with a powerful ice breaker one could negotiate the ice 

 in July or August. The warm sun of June and July melts the top of 

 the land ice, and this has the effect of sending large volumes of fresh 

 water into the fiords. But it is the offshore winds that give the open 

 water. Sometimes the winds are continuous southwesterly to west, 

 and in this case they keep the ice north, thus offsetting the strength 

 of the Arctic current. Strong north winds send the drift ice south, and 

 the bergs also are set in motion. The ice is plowed up and broken 

 into small floes. Then comes the surface current, accelerated by the 

 melting of snows from the hills, valleys, and plains. 



It has been my good fortune to see ice conditions in Bering Sea, 

 Bering Strait, off and near the Siberian coast, and along the Alaskan 

 coast eastward to Martin Point. Ice conditions there are much the 

 same as we find them along the Greenland coast and in Davis Strait 

 and Baffin Bay and through the straits, fiords, and basins north to 

 the Polar Basin itself. Ice conditions vary there as on the eastern 

 side of America. In getting along, if one hasn't a good ship, he has to 

 play the waiting game. The same thing more or less applies to the 

 eastern side. No one can make a good ice pilot who is afraid of losing 

 his ship and having to face court-martial — and if he loses his ship he 

 loses his job. The best thing for him to do is stay out of the ice or 

 radio home "safety first." No government can afford to have ships 

 lost or broken up. No captain in a government position ever lost his 

 job by being careful of his ship. In Arctic work government expedi- 

 tions are rarely successful. 



Wooden Ships Versus Steel Ships 



I myself have been amongst the ice in a sailing vessel only, and 

 that with a small crew,- and have had to do lots of things that the 

 old fellows in the days gone by had to do to get their vessels along. 

 When first I went sealing nearly all the men that comprised the crew 

 of thePanther had been on sailingvessels. They were inured to hardships 

 and knew how to handle a brig as well as a Long Island Sound boy 

 can handle a catboat. They used the square yards to back and fill 

 in the ice, going through the evolution of going ahead and astern by 

 bracing and balking the fore and after yards. They carried royals 

 and skysails, also stemsails, on those sealers. About forty to fifty 



- But for the large crews carried on the whalers and exploring ships, they never could have got 

 along. Many of these small ships carried 150 men. In the Roosevelt we had only 15 sailors, firemen, 

 engineers, cook, mates, and captain. 



