The remainder of my report will nearly be an illustrated book accompanied by a little text in order to avoid what Amundsen has already written in his account.
PREPARING THE PLANES, AT SPITZBERGEN, FOR THEIR ARCTIC FLIGHT
THE LAST VIEW OF SPITZBERGEN
It was a disappointment that the ice stretched so far out. On the ships’ arrival it was so thick that none of them could break it. The next day, however, on account of the mild weather, the ice got so brittle that “Knut Skaaluren” (although with difficulty) managed to break up a channel for us all. As the “Skaaluren” had a good deal of cargo to discharge “Hobby” could not get to the quay for several days. It was a disappointment, but turned out to be a piece of good luck. I had thought about rigging up some booms (which we had on board) to the crane on the upper deck in order to discharge our large cases onto the quay. We had no time to wait until “Skaaluren” was finished, so we had to take our chance with “Hobby’s” own derricks and winches. The last were not specially suitable for lifting heavy pieces. They were electrical ones and could go full speed one way or the other. This would mean stopping with a nasty wrench. In order to reduce this we rigged up some tackle instead of leaving the single wire.
EDGE OF THE POLAR PACK. THE EXPEDITION FLEW 100 MILES OVER THIS BEFORE REACHING SOLID ICE
When I said that the disappointment turned out to be a piece of good fortune, I meant that on account of these circumstances we saved a lot of time by using “Hobby’s” own gear and discharging right onto the ice without loss of time.
In order to reduce the weight of the bodies of the machines we first of all took off the packing.