of the Sea Elephant, especially under the supervision of such an officer as Captain Brace, who would not permit a plank, beam, or knee to be used that was not as sound as bronze.
The manning and officering of the Sea Elephant was another matter for much thought.
She would be when finished about 700 tons, and would carry provisions for three whole years. Every pound or parcel of these would be from the best firms, and hermetically sealed with such care that there would be no danger of anything going wrong should it have to be kept for many years.
I cannot spare space to describe in detail all the articles of food and drink which the two vessels would carry between them, nor their armour. As to the latter, independently of ordinary rifles and ammunition, they had specially built tanks for explosives of tremendous power; and these, I may inform you, were so packed for safety that even if the ship was in flames above them, there could be no danger of catastrophe.
The uses these would be put to we shall see anon, but there was a skilled artificer in charge of them, a man of the name of Macdonald, who had worked in dynamite factories since his boyhood—a steady, sober, long-headed Scot, whose rating was to be Captain of Explosives (Captain X. he was called for short).
The Sea Elephant was going to war, it is true, but it was war with Nature’s forces, for the age has at last come in which Man is master here below.
Ingomar was in constant and loving correspondence with his mother and sister. He wrote to his father, too, but told him nothing about his intention of disappearing from the civilized world for a time. All he said was, that he was embarking upon an honest though daring enterprise, which, he trusted, would, if he were successful, restore him once more to his father’s favour. If he succeeded, then, he would return, the prodigal son to his father’s house; if he failed, that father would never hear of him any more.
The captain of the Sea Elephant was an officer of high repute in the United States Navy, who had seen service in the Polar regions. His name, Bell.