Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-03

-~rLong's Men 10 One Boat
carried two boats. each of which weighed,
with It's httings nearly LOO pounds These
craft We're but little larger than ours NOT 60
strong and four times as heavy IT was
slNty-seVen years ago that Parry made that
Journey from SpitZbergen. with a late starr
ana without dogs. and yet the record which
ne made has to this day been beaten only
forty-five miles
How These Bonts Are Built.
our boats are eighteen feet long. four end
onc-half feet beam. two feet deep amid
salps. with breadth carried well forward and
art, thus giving stability and capacity They
contain no frames, the gunwales of alumni
mum angie bars the thwarts and knee
braces and the water-tight compa rtments
III either END giving the necessary rigidlty
Too much rigidity is undesirable, elasticity
serving to cushion the blows of the ice and
to transmit the force of conclusion through
tne whole structure The plating is Jnly
three thlrty-Seconds of an inch thick but SO
strong and tough is II that vigorous blows
with Il heavy hammer or sledge upon any
part OF the boat caused no injury and il
was Impossible to see where the blows had
struck. The keel is plate of aluminium
stood vertically and riveted in. The two
Water-ught compartments, which are to be
used also Tor stoWage of instruments, rec
ordS and other articles of which special ca re
must be taken, render the craft practically
non-snkaDie. A bamboo mast will support
the sail in case we find open water The
plates which form the skin of the boat are
rlVeted together. clinker style. with strips
of Canton flannel between, after the usual
manner of building metallic boats A water
proof awning will cover each boat and
within these little houses we expect 20 sleep,
TO COOK and eat and rest our weary limbs
after each days toll amid the ice for a pc
Rod of more than one hundred days. With
one OF the water-tight compartment decks
Tor desk, we hope to write there many
nf n Nfrrra
back. with appropriate Illustrations from
photographs developed in our portable dark
room. for the entertainment of the readers
of The Star.
Sledges ms Well rs Boats.
A distinctive feature of these boats is the
shoe for running upon snow and ice One
of our illustrations shows this device quite
clearly. 1t is composed of two keels Of ash
ten feet long. placed two feet apart upon
the bottom of the craft. Across the bottom
of these keels, and up their outer sides. is
riveted a sheet of aluminium an eighth of an
inch thick, thus forming a perfectly smooth
broad bearing surface. a part of the boat
Itself, for running upon the snow the
slush or the hard ice. Our boats. there
fore, are sledges as well as boats. The
space between the bottom plate the two
ash runners and the skin of the boat Is
packed with cork, not for the sake of buoy-
ancy, but to take up and distribute the
pressure and the blows which will be sure
to come upon the bottom plate or
sledge. Boats used in former expeditions
OF this character have been mounted upon
sleds, or have had separate runners fasten-
ed to their bottoms. The sleds are heavy
and unwieldy, and runners standing apart
one from the other are likely to be broken
or twisted off by hard usage. More than
one expedition has been delayed or defeat
ed by the turning in of sledge runner In
our construction the runner is as solid as
the boat itself. 1t stiffens the craft enor-
mously fore and aft. 1t cannot well be
broken, and the two pieces of wood en-
tirely covered by metal. are not liable to
become water soaked or to splinter or
crack. Again, ordinary separate runners
cut into soft snow and make the task of
pulling exceedingly difficult. With their
broad, smooth bearing surface our boats
are expected to run over snow or slush of
any consistency.
Two OF our boats are of the size already
given, while the third is smaller, only four
teen feet long, though built in the same
manner. 1t is working boat, a tender
Though we have built the first aluminium
boats In this country, racing shells only ex-
cepted, we believe they are the lightest, the
handsomeSt, the strongest, the most per-
fectly adaptable boats ever used in the
arctics. That they are also the most ex-
penSive, costing a thousand dollars apiece
cuts no figure. How well they serve us,
and what we succeed in accomplishing
with them, we hope to tell the readers of
The Star in letters from the far north dur
ing the coming summer.
WALTER WELLMAN.