PUTTING ON THE GREENHEART ICE-SHEATHINGThis view shows the sharpness of the bows and the pronounced rake of the stem
PUTTING ON THE GREENHEART ICE-SHEATHINGThis view shows the sharpness of the bows and the pronounced rake of the stem
PUTTING ON THE GREENHEART ICE-SHEATHING
This view shows the sharpness of the bows and the pronounced rake of the stem
As I write these lines, I see her slowly but surely forcing a way through the crowding ice. I see the black hull hove out bodily onto the surfaceof the ice by a cataclysm of the great floes. I see her squeezed as by a giant’s hand against a rocky shore till every rib and timber is vocal with the strain.
And I see her out in the North Atlantic lying to for days through a wild autumn northeaster, rudderless, with damaged propeller, and shattered stern post, all pumps going, a scrap of double reefed foresail keeping her up to the wind, riding the huge waves like a seagull till they are tired out.
After my return from the north pole in 1909, theRooseveltwas purchased from the Peary Arctic Club, which had built her for me, by John Arbuckle, the great tea, coffee, and sugar merchant of Brooklyn.
Mr. Arbuckle’s personal hobby was wrecking. He desired theRooseveltas a powerful ocean-going wrecking-tug. He made some changes in her rigging, removing the mainmast completely, and replacing the foremast with a powerful boom derrick. Air-compressors and additional powerful winches were installed upon her deck. Thus equipped, theRooseveltassisted in the attempts to save theYankee, and salvaged other wrecks along the coast as far south as Florida.
Mr. Arbuckle’s death put a stop to this work, and for a year or two theRooseveltand other craft of his wrecking fleet lay in a Brooklyn slip almost under the east end of the Brooklyn Bridge,where thousands of passers-by could look almost directly down into her big, elliptical smoke-stack.
Then theRooseveltwas purchased by the Bureau of Fisheries of the Department of Commerce for an Alaskan patrol-boat. The bureau changed theRooseveltto an oil-burner, restored her foremast, and made some minor changes in her accommodations for officers and men.
For a time she made her headquarters at Norfolk, Virginia, whence she went out on various fisheries trips. In the spring of 1917 she went through the Panama Canal, and proceeded to Seattle, Washington, to fit out for her work of patrolling the Alaskan coast, carrying supplies to the various stations and settlements, inspecting the canneries and seal-rookeries, and giving assistance, when necessary, to ships along that coast. For this work theRooseveltis specially adapted, and will be able to perform her duties in all weathers and at all seasons of the year.
While waiting at Seattle, theRoosevelttook part in an important local event, carrying the official party and leading the naval pageant on the occasion of the opening of the Lake Washington ship canal connecting the lake with Puget Sound, and giving Seattle a double water front.
I was on board theRooseveltfor an hour late in May, and as I stood again on the bridge the succession of scenes that passed before me was as rapid as the changing pictures of a movie.
I was much pleased to have the Government take over theRoosevelt. Naturally my feeling for the ship was strong; yet I personally had neither the means to purchase her nor to maintain her after purchase. Nor did I feel like suggesting to the friends who had splendidly furnished the money for the discovery of the pole that the ship be purchased and taken care of.
From time to time I receive letters suggesting some action—public subscription or otherwise—for the maintenance and preservation of theRooseveltas a national object of interest. These letters have referred to the government ownership by Italy of Abruzzi’sStella Polare, by Norway of Nansen’sFram, and by England of Nelson’sVictory; but none of these suggestions ever materialized.
Some day it is my hope to build aRoosevelt IIto carry the Stars and Stripes around and into the heart of the antarctic regions. Drawings for such a ship, both in general and in detail, based on my experience in designing, building, and using theRoosevelt, were one of my amusements and occupations during the two long winter nights which the ship spent at Cape Sheridan. These plans contain a number of new ideas and improvements over theRoosevelt. The actual sail-plan, cross-section and longitudinal models to the scale of a quarter of an inch to the foot, are now stored on Eagle Island.
On the conclusion of the war, with the new impetus that has been given to wooden ship-building, perhaps it may be possible to realize these ideas, and send a ship south that will place the name of the United States high in the record of antarctic work. Such a ship, under command of Bartlett, and utilizing the experience gained and the methods developed in twenty-three years of north polar work, could probably do in a given time twice as much work as any existing ship.
There are three pieces of antarctic work of major importance and of great attractiveness that lie ready to the hand of the United States whenever we are ready to undertake them.
One is the complete delimitation of the great Weddell Sea indentation in the antarctic continent lying southeast of Cape Horn. Another is the establishment of a station at the south pole for a year of continuous, systematic scientific observations. A third is the exploration, survey, and study through several seasons of the entire periphery of the antarctic continent.
The first of these, the exploration of Weddell Sea, which thus far has baffled the efforts of every expedition, Scotch, German, French, Swedish, and British, is, from its location in the Western Hemisphere, in our sphere of influence, and would also be likely to give the maximum amount of general results in the shortest time and at the least expense.
BOW OF THE “ROOSEVELT” IN ICEImpressive in its massive sturdiness and evident power
BOW OF THE “ROOSEVELT” IN ICEImpressive in its massive sturdiness and evident power
BOW OF THE “ROOSEVELT” IN ICE
Impressive in its massive sturdiness and evident power
LAUNCHING THE “ROOSEVELT”Bucksport, Maine, March 23, 1905. Very appropriate that the baptism of the ship should be in ice-filled water
LAUNCHING THE “ROOSEVELT”Bucksport, Maine, March 23, 1905. Very appropriate that the baptism of the ship should be in ice-filled water
LAUNCHING THE “ROOSEVELT”
Bucksport, Maine, March 23, 1905. Very appropriate that the baptism of the ship should be in ice-filled water
The second, an observation station at the pole, might be an adjunct of the first, an overland party from the head of Weddell Sea establishing and provisioning the station. The traverse of such a party from the head of Weddell Sea to the south pole would, with the journeys of Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton from McMurdo Sound on the opposite side, give a complete cross section of the antarctic continent.
The natural conditions in the antarctic region, that is, a continuous permanent surface from year to year, as compared with the north polar ocean, which may become intersected with lanes of open water at any time as the result of a storm—makes it possible for a party equipped like my north-pole party, to establish and maintain a regular route and system of transporting supplies right through the antarctic night. Or a few aëroplanes, working from a base at the head of Weddell Sea, could in a few weeks of the antarctic summer provision such a station for a year, as British planes in the Mesopotamia campaign carried supplies to Kut-el-amara.
Such a station, by making simultaneous observations with other existing stations, ought to add greatly to our meteorological and magnetic knowledge. If at the same time a similar station at Cape Columbia, the most northerly easily accessible point of land in the arctic regions, should be established, and take synchronous observations,the value of all would be still further increased.
The Cape Columbia station like the one at the south pole could be established and provisioned by aëroplanes in a few weeks from Whale Sound less than 400 miles distant and easily accessible every summer. With two such stations at the extremities of the globe observing simultaneously with selected stations in the inhabited portions of the world, there would certainly result a broader knowledge of meteorological, magnetic, and other natural conditions. The proposition has the approval of distinguished scientists, and will undoubtedly be eventually put in execution.
The third proposition, a complete systematic study of the entire periphery of the antarctic continent and its adjacent waters by a party of scientific experts in a special ship during a succession of seasons, would appeal most strongly to the scientists and museums of the country.
It would be an AmericanChallengerexpedition, with all the improvements and widened horizon of investigation that forty-four years of scientific progress represent. Such an expedition with good fortune could complete the circuit of the Antarctic continent in three or four seasons, coming north to pass each winter at some convenient port as Punta Arenas in the Straits of Magellan; Wellington, N. Z.; Hobart, Tasmania and Cape Town.
Each year the observations and collections couldbe sent home, and any necessary changes be made in the personnel.
The materialization of this program will give our museums a large amount of valuable material from a region which at present is most meagerly represented in their collections, and will furnish our scientists with material and observations to keep them occupied for years.
The financing of the work could be met by a group of American museums. Or it presents an opportunity for some man of means to place himself permanently in the scientific record of the nation by furnishing the funds for its realization.