CAPTAIN CHAS. B. DIX. BUILDER OF THE “ROOSEVELT”
THE “ROOSEVELT” ON HER TRIAL TRIP, JUNE, 1905
THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB’S S. S. “ROOSEVELT”
In approaching the general question of a ship for Arctic or Antarctic ice navigation, one thing is immediately apparent to anyone at all conversant with the matter, i. e., that she should be as small as is consistent with carrying the party, supplies, equipment, and coal for the work planned.
The reasons for this are evident. The smaller a ship is, the stronger she is, and the more easily handled.
In looking for facts to show the results of past experience in this field, it is at once discovered that practically all ice boats past and present have been built by the three countries, Scotland, the United States, and Norway, for the prosecution of the whale and seal fisheries.
In this work the Norwegians have operated in the seas about Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, East Greenland, and Nova Zembla; the United States in Hudson Bay and Bering Sea; and the Scotch principally in the chain of waters comprising Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound and their tributaries, with a few voyages to East Greenland and Hudson Bay.