8 
THE VOYAGE OP THE VEGA. 
pay for any excess of value over 10,000 Swedish crowns (about 
550/.); and finally the vessel of the expedition was permitted 
to be equipped and made completely seaworthy at the naval 
dockyard at Karlskrona, on condition, however, that the excess 
of expenditure on repairs over 25,000 crowns (about 1,375/.) 
should be defrayed by the expedition. 
On the other hand my request that the Vega, the steamer 
purchased for the voyage, might be permitted to carry the 
man-of-war flag, was refused by the Minister of Marine in 
a letter of the 2nd February 1878. The Vega was therefore 
inscribed in the following month of March in the Swedish 
Yacht Club. It was thus under its flag, the Swedish man- 
of-ioar flag with a crowned 0 in the middle, that the first 
circumnavigation of Asia and Europe was carried into effect. 
The Vegci, as will be seen from the description quoted farther 
on, is a pretty large vessel, which during the first part of 
the voyage was to be heavily laden with provisions and coal. 
It would therefore be a work of some difficulty to get it afloat, 
if, in sailing forward along the coast in new, unsurveyed waters, 
it should run upon a bank of clay or sand. I therefore gladly 
availed myself of Mr. Sibiriakoff’s offer to provide for the 
greater safety of the expedition, by placing at my disposal 
funds for building another steamer of a smaller size, the Lena, 
which should have the river Lena as its main destination, but, 
during the first part of the expedition, should act as tender to 
the Vega, being sent before to examine the state of the ice 
and the navigable waters, when such service might be useful. 
I had the Lena built at Motala, of Swedish Bessemer steel, 
mainly after a drawing of Engineer B. Buneberg of Finland. 
The steamer answered the purpose for which it was intended 
particularly well. 
An unexpected opportunity of providing the steamers with 
coal during the course of the voyage besides arose by my 
receiving a commission, while preparations were making for 
