Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/611

The most important feature in the Fram's construction is, therefore, that she is built on such lines as will tend to lift her, and thus make her escape the grasp of the ice when it begins to press. The sides are not perpendicular as those of ships generally are, but slope from the bulwark to the keel; her "dead rise" is great, so that when the ice-floes are pressed against her sides, they meet with no perpendicular wall to press against and break, but with sloping walls, along which they will glide downwards, and at last pass under the keel of the ship, tending to lift her out of the water. The keel is not projecting, in order that the ice shall not get hold of it. On the whole, everything is made as smooth and rounded as possible. There are no edges, no projecting corners for the ice to catch hold of; she is like a bowl, and a transverse section of the Fram resembles very much that of a cocoa-nut.

The length of the Fram is 128ft., the greatest beam is 36ft.; she is consequently very broad compared with the length. Her draught at present is about 16ft., and her freeboard is only 3ft., but now she is heavily loaded, as we have taken as much coal as we can carry. This will, however, gradually be burnt in our engines, and she will soon be lifted again. The size of the ship is about 310 tons register, and her displacement with her heavy cargo at present is, I should say, about 800 tons, or a little more.

She is rigged as a three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. The mainmast is high, and on the top is the crow's-nest at a height of about 105ft. above the water. From there you have a splendid view over the ice-fields, and can easily see where to steer your ship through open water.

The Fram has an auxiliary engine of about 200 indicated horsepower. Deeply loaded as she now is, however, she does not get a speed of more than about five knots from the engine alone, but with a lighter cargo she makes six or even seven knots. She is consequently not a fast vessel, but this is relatively of no great importance on an expedition like ours, where we shall have to depend principally on the speed of the current and the ice-movement, and unfortunately not on that of the ship.

The members of the expedition are the following: Otto Sverdrup, master of the ship. He was my companion on the expedition across Greenland. Sigurd Scott Hansen, lieutenant of the Norwegian navy and leader of our meteorological, astronomical, magnetic, and geodetic observations. Henrik Blessing, physician of the expedition and botanist. Claudius Theodor Jacobsen, mate of the Fram; formerly sealer and shipmaster in the Arctic Sea round Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. Peder Hendriksen, harpooner; formerly sealer and shipmaster in the Arctic Sea round Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. Hjalmar Johannesen, lieutenant of the Norwegian army; on board the Fram he is fireman and general utility man. Ivar Mogstad, carpenter, etc.; has also occasionally served as steward. Bernhard Nordahl, electrical assistant and fireman. Anton Amundsen, engineer. Lars Pettersen, engineer. Adolf Juell, steward and sailor; formerly shipmaster. Bernt Bentsen, sailor. We are thirteen all told.

We have one saloon in common, where we take our meals and spend our leisure time.