Our polar flight

by Roald Amundsen; Lincoln Ellsworth

There was not the slightest use in trying to turn round for another little five-minute snooze, for immediately after eight Dr. Ræstad would come on with his orders. I was therefore very impressed by the earliness of the hour at which the Doctor started his day, but it was not very long before I learned just exactly what attire he was in when he rang! (The last remark, to use a flying expression, was a “side-slip.”)

Back to the spot where I began to glide.

None of our goods were delayed anywhere, not even the tiniest little case. And for this we owe much gratitude to the Railway Goods Managers, the Bergen Steamship Company’s Despatch Managers, and the Nordenfeld Steamship Company’s Despatch Managers in Trondhjem, and also Einer Sundbye of Oslo, and to Horten’s Quay.

In Tromsö our “Goods Manager,” Zapffe, collected and stored everything. When we checked our lists everything was in order.

We should have taken over “Hobby” on the 30th of March. At that date it lay at the shipyard without cylinders in the engine, but by Tuesday the engines were in order. When, however, the boat should have proceeded to the quayside to begin loading, the engines refused to turn the propeller round. The explanation was that they had changed the propeller for a new one which was too large. The boat went back into dock and was fitted again with its old propeller. Fortunately the S. S. “Vaga” was belated on account of stormy weather. This delay, therefore, did not inconvenience us. As there were no cranes in Tromsö we had had to order the S. S. “Vaga” to Narvik.

During Wednesday, the 1st of April, “Hobby” finished loading everything which should go into the hold, and we left at night for Narvik, arriving Thursday evening. On Friday, April the 3rd, “Vaga” arrived at 6 A.M. The cases were undamaged to our great joy. The “Vaga” had indeed had bad weather on several occasions during the journey, but Captain Eriksen forgot the interests of his owners and steamed slowly on account of our goods.

By Friday afternoon we had all our cases ashore and on the railway to be run along under the cranes, and the loading of S. S. “Hobby” began. The cases with the reserve parts went down into the hold.

The engine cases should also have gone down into the hold, but we found that my measurements were for the outer edge of the hatches instead of for the actual dimensions of the opening. The cases would not go down, not even when we tried them on the slant. We took the engine gondolas out of the cases, thus dividing them in two, and placed the first part down in the hold, with the second part stowed on top of it.

On Thursday we had one case stowed away in the large hold and speedily set about building a foundation for the wing cases, which should lie on top of that hatch. The aft mast stood a foot further forward in one sketch than it did in reality, therefore we could not get sufficient room to lay the wing cases behind each other alongships. This was a bad business. Either we must lay the cases across the decks where they would stretch out one and one-half meters each side, or we must charter an additional ship. I approached a Shipping Company, which had a small boat lying at Narvik, but as they wanted 20,000 kronen to carry one wing case to Spitzbergen, I had no choice left in the matter but to carry on as well as possible with S. S. “Hobby.”

During Sunday night the whole expedition nearly came to a sudden end. A hurricane of tremendous force suddenly arose. The wing cases and the propellers, alongside the engine cases, stood directly in the wind on a railway wagon on a branch line near by. The watchman called for help and ran to the rescue, assisted by the despatching staff, and in a short time they managed to get the cases securely fastened to the railway wagon, which in turn they secured to the quay. Just as they finished, the wagon which held the engine cases decided to set off on its own account, and tore away, driven by the wind, at the very moment when the brake was released inadvertently by some one during the course of operations. Fortunately, in the center of the quay it collided with a shed and came to a full stop by running into a stack of timber.