Another device which added to the effectiveness of the Roosevelt is the arrangement for raising and lowering the rudder while at sea, or lifting it when under pressure in the ice. A large open well was provided, reaching through to the main-deck. This was large enough to permit the massive rudder to be drawn up and hoisted on the deck for repairs, or into the overhang of the stern, out of the way of the ice. Instead of having to send a diver down to unfasten the gudgeons, these worked in an upright groove arranged in the after end of the stern-post, something like a window-sash. Heavy bolts attached the pintles to the rudder-post, and in unshipping the rudder, the gudgeons came up with the rudder itself, leaving the raking steel-clad stern-post as smooth and clean as the stem, with nothing for the ice to get a grip upon.
The problem of protecting the propeller-blades and keeping ice away from them, was solved partly by the full counter and overhanging stern of the Roosevelt, and partly by the design of the propeller. The blades of the propeller, though short, were large in sectional area, and particularly strong and massive. Their extremities were so shaped as to make it difficult for a cake of ice to get between them, and the blades were so arranged that either two or four of them could be used.
Powerful deck appliances were the windlass, steam-capstans forward and aft, and steamwinch, which enabled the ship to float herself should she get aground, or to warp herself out of a dangerous spot.
The special features of the Roosevelt’s model are a smooth and rounded form not readily gripped by the ice; midships transverse section that is a semi-circle; a sharply raking heavily steel clad stem and stern post giving large deck room, sufficient water line displacement and a short keel which makes the ship quick and handy in turning; an overhanging stern to assist in protecting rudder and propeller from the ice.
Her peculiarities of construction include unusually massive and close arrangement of beams and bracing to withstand pressure on the sides; filling the bow in almost solid with iron and timbers, where it gets the brunt of blows; strong and unusual reinforcement of the rudder-post; the introduction of a lifting rudder; heavy steel plates for stem and bow; a course of greenhart ice-sheathing to protect the outer planking.
Her peculiarities of rig are pole-masts; three-masted schooner rig, with big balloon staysails; and a very short bowsprit, which, when navigating through ice of some height, can be run inboard.
Her sail-plan is an American three-masted schooner rig, of light weight (a decided advantage when every pound saved in weight in rigging or fittings means an extra pound of coal on board), large enough to assist the engines considerably in favorable weather, or to get the ship home in case of her supply of coal becoming depleted.
The whole scheme on which the Roosevelt was built was to place all her strength, power, weight, carrying capacity below the main-deck; to make everything above deck, such as bulwarks, spars, sails, rigging, whale-boats, with their equipment, and deck-houses, as light as possible, in order to allow more coal to be stowed on board, and to waste no money on frills or fittings, but to use every dollar in the interests of strength, power, and effectiveness.
Constructed of southern oak and yellow pine, New England white pine and Oregon pine, by New England labor, the Roosevelt as a thoroughly American ship combines the qualities of shape which as in the Fram insure her rising under heavy ice pressure, with the splendid ramming qualities of the best of the Scotch whalers. These permit the ship to be fearlessly driven into the ice with all the force of her powerful engines.
The Roosevelt embodies all that a most careful study of previous polar ships and my own years of personal experience could suggest.