438 POLAR PROBLEMS 



meant keeping up steam in one of the boilers to pump her out, for 

 we were leaking badly above the tank tops. In other words, nothing 

 but a wooden structure has the elasticity and strength to withstand 

 polar ice without inj ury . And should you receive inj ury when squeezed 

 in ice you can always drive things into place with wedges; and with 

 oakum, tar, pitch, and canvas you can fix things up. A steel ship is 

 crippled much more easily than a wooden ship. Her weight and thin 

 plates, frames, stringers, and scantling make her rigid. There is no 

 give; so, in resting on an uneven bottom, she is bound to strain, bend, 

 and loosen rivets, plates, and frame. A wooden ship will generally 

 conform more or less to her surroundings and after getting afloat 

 again — if she is a well-constructed ship — will settle back to her former 

 shape. 



The great menace to a ship in ice navigation is inexperience. So 

 many things have to be studied in regard to ice floes, weather, calms, 

 frost, snow, rough and smooth water, bergs, growlers, currents, varying 

 seasons, fogs, winds, and how these act on bodies of ice. Even on a 

 very fine night a ship steaming in the direction of a light sky has to 

 be careful because bergs and floating ice are then not thrown into 

 relief at all. This is noticeable when going toward the south, where 

 as a rule the sky is dark. In summer the part of the northern sky that 

 is below the midnight sun has a long twilight arch. 



Ice Movements in Baffin Bay and Labrador Waters 



The amount of ice and its location and movement vary from year 

 to year. A person beginning an Arctic voyage cannot tell what condi- 

 tions he will meet. The regions of his visit are so vast and so little 

 known from direct and special observation that no prediction can be 

 vouchsafed. Since the Ice Patrol has been inaugurated we know 

 about the drift of bergs in the North Atlantic, and I suppose in future 

 years, should wireless be used for broadcasting weather conditions in 

 the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, one would be able at the start of 

 the trip in spring to get a better idea of northern conditions than in 

 former times. The U. S. Hydrographic Office and of course the 

 Canadian Government and the Danish Hydrographic Office give us 

 much information. So far the only information of ice drift from our 

 side was obtained from Tyson's drift on an ice floe and McClintock's 

 in the Fox. After all is said and done, there is little or no reliable 

 information regarding the Labrador Current. Only fragmentary 

 information has been gathered by a few vessels that have gone north 

 during the summer and fall months. There are no data for the winter 

 season. On several occasions I have found little or no current on 

 coming south. Neither the depth nor the breadth of the current is 

 known. Of course we know that large volumes of cold water pour into 



