Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22
SMALL SHIPS BEST :
FOR USE IN ARCTIC
FIexibiIity of Atwood Boats
and Light Draft Are
Cited.

WISCASSET, Me, December al
When the little auxiliary schooner
Bowdoin sailed from WiScaSset, Me-,
on June 20 it was with the usual COM
ments heard upon her previous de-
partures. "She will never come back.
She is far too small for such hazardous
work"
The average man being ignorant OF
the details Of Arctic work does not
realize that smallness coupled with
SturdinesS are the two main requisites
for q successful struggle with the Arctic
pack, for the navigation Of uncharted
waters where safety depends entirely
upon the sounding lead and careful
study of tide rips and the color of the
sea. The strongest. the biggest and the
best have been crushed and ground into
bits, and they will continue to be as
long as ships are built. Arctic history
Is full Of such disasters. He who calls
the Arctic friendly" has never done
real Arctic work.
In 1880 practically the whole Dundee
whaling feet, captained by griz2led
and this in spite of their wide and
varied experience. One ship, called
the Race Horse, was literally turned in
side out, her keel bursting through her
deck and her mastS falling over her
side.
Prey Of Relentless Pack.
The s. S. Jeanette, strengthened
and reinforced for her arduouS work
by the United States Government. was
crushed as fiat as the proverbial pam
cake, leaving Lieut.. De Long and his
men to fight their way over the pack
to the distant and inhoSpitable shores
Of Siberia, where a frozen hand was
found projecting from the snow, mark
ne nH io6
Of cold and starvation.
The S. 8. PolariS. made as strong as
United States engineers and naval
architects could make her, steamed
farther north than any ship ever
steamed, but when gripped by the re-
lentlesS pack the next year she sue
cumbed to q pressure Of millions of
pounds and gave up the fight, leaving
ner men marooned upon what they
found to be a barran sand spit in the
northwest coast OF Greenland.
Nineteen of the crew, including two
Eskimo women, one with a baby a
month old. sought the safety of the
noe, and drifted through the long Arc
tic night down through Baf1in Bay to
the Labrador Coast. distance of ], 800
miles, to be received by the s. s. IT,
gress, in May. 1874.
The ProteuS, chartered by the United
States Government for the relief Of the
Greedy expedition, was nipped in the
pack miles north of Cape Sabine.
The pressure was so terrific that blocks
OF ice were forced through her side and
came tumbling into the engine room.
Recalls Peary's Adventure.
The S. S. Roosevelt was so squeezed
and Jammed and tossed about in her
night to place Peary In striking dis
lance Of the Pole that she staggered
southwark like a drunken man. Had
1t not been for the sterling seamanShip
OF that peerless ice fighter, Capt. Bob
Bartlett, she never would have reached
home.
And so we might 60 on enumerating
ship after ship which started out with
high hopes and flying colorS, but which
now rests on the bottom In high lati-
tudes.
The Bowdoin is double timbered and
planked with three and a quarter Inch
native white oak, reinforced by an en-
circling five-foot belt of greenheart to
take the brunt Of the battle. Nodded to
her bow there is an 1,800-pound plate
OF steel to smash into and split ice, a
very essential feature Of the construc-
ton OF any Arctic ship.
Bowdoin Of Wood Construction.
Necessarily she is of wooden con-
struction, for such is elastic, resilient,
yielding and comparatively non-con-
Quoting to cold when exposed to ex-
IRENE temperatures of the Arctic night.
To live in q steel box at so degrees
below zero would result in two many
0iscomforts to set forth In this article.
Every Arctic ship should have two
means Of propulsion, for distances in
that desolate region are long and help
is remote. We are not in the steamship
lanes, where help may come within a