14 COLIN ARCHER. [noew. pol. exp. 



was discharged. This may partly be accounted for on the supposition that the 

 ice had drawn some of the oakum out of her seams, a thing not to be wondered 

 at considering the scouring she had gone through, which had left numerous 

 traces in the shape of erosions on the ice sheathing. But this is not in 

 itself sufficient to fully explain the increase of leakage. Capt. Scott-Hansen 

 states that when sudden and violent changes of temperature set in, a crack- 

 ling noise was heard all over the ship, arising in all probability from the 

 expansion and contractions of timbers and planking; and this, in conjunction 

 with the expansion of the water when being converted into ice in seams and 

 cracks, would necessarily have the effect of compressing the oakum and to 

 some extent the wooden planking, widening the seams and giving access to 

 the water when milder weather set in, and the ice melted. As the increase 

 of leakage could not be traced to structural weakness or to any part of the 

 planking having given way to outside pressure, this explanation seems the 

 most plausible, and sho^vs the importance of using the hardest and and most 

 unyielding kind of timber in the planking, and of having the caulking well 

 and carefully done. The vessel was hove down and the ice sheathing recaulked 

 before she started on her pressent voyage, reducing the leakage to a trifle. 

 At no time can it be said to have been considerable. Half an hours spell 

 at the handpump every watch was sufficient to keep the ship dry on her 

 voyage home from the far north. Perhaps no better proof can be adduced 

 of the unimpaired condition of the structure than the fact, that Capt. Sverd- 

 rup has started on his second voyage — perhaps no less hazardous than 

 the first — without having found reason to suggest any repairs whatever 

 (beyond the caulking mentioned above) to any part of the original hull. 



Professor Nansen's expedition in the Fram has tought us many useful 

 lessons scientific and practical. And not the least important of these is the 

 practical proof it affords of the possibility of building ships capable, in all 

 human probability, of resisting with impunity the assaults of such ice, as is 

 to be met with in the arctic seas. 



Larvik, November, 1898. 



COLIN ARCHER. 



