Secrets of Polar Travel

by Robert E. Peary

The following average proportions of beam to length among these whalers is rather interesting: Scotch, 1:5.75; Norwegian, 1:4.7; American, 1:4.5. The average ratio in modern schooners built in Bath is 1:4.78.

The Scotch, thanks to the shrewdness of their seamen and builders and over one hundred years of experience in whaling work, where the best ships secured large financial returns, have gradually evolved the more powerful and efficient type of ship, and this type has been used exclusively by the British even in their latest expeditions.

It had long been a recognized fact that a form of hull which would permit a ship to rise readily and easily under pressure was desirable; yet the Fram was the first ship built to meet this requirement. The Fram was built with a special view to drifting in and with the ice. Her beam was about one-third her length, and her hull was so designed as to allow her to rise easily under pressure. While she was well adapted for this work, she would have been still better fitted for it if she had been bowl-shaped. Moreover, appearance, speed, ability to push through the ice, and virtually everything that goes to make a ship seaworthy was sacrificed to insure this quality.

The Gauss, the German antarctic ship, was much like the Fram, though less pronounced in type, having a broad beam of 36 feet, but with a greater length to make her more seaworthy for the long voyage to the antarctic regions. Her ratio is 1:4.25 as compared with the Fram’s ratio of 1:3.25.

The British Discovery, built for antarctic exploration, was also of the sailing type, with auxiliary steam-power. She was built with a little broader beam and a draft slightly less than that of the Scotch whalers, with a ratio of 1:5.27. She differed from the Fram and the Gauss in that she was not specially constructed to rise under pressure, and the rake of her stem was somewhat greater than in previous ships.

With the building of the Roosevelt came a complete reversal of former practice in ships for the arctic and antarctic regions. She was the first Polar ship built that was first of all a powerful steamer. All her predecessors had been sailing-vessels, usually full-rigged barks, with steam as a secondary consideration. This was done to economize on coal and enable the ship to cover long distances at slow speed and be gone for years, if necessary.

In the Roosevelt sail power was a mere auxiliary, and everything was given over to making steam-power first and foremost and her strength sufficient to withstand the ice. This is undoubtedly the correct principle on which to build any Polar ship for effective results. For this method the Smith Sound route is specially advantageous, affording a coasting voyage, ample facilities for caching coal, as well as presenting opportunities to obtain coal en route.

As the Roosevelt was to be built for navigating the very seas where the Scotch gained their valuable experience and for which their ships were specially designed and improved, the Scotch model seemed the proper one to use as a base for studies.

In the case of Nansen, and the British and German polar expeditions, the size of the ship was determined by fixing the size of the party, the length of the expedition, and the amount of coal which would be consumed by the engines and the cargo to be carried, all of which factors, when the dead weight of the ship and machinery was added, would give the displacement required.

In the case of the Roosevelt I believed it advisable to settle in advance the size and proportions which would come nearest to balancing and meeting the various requirements, allowing the difference between her displacement and her dead weight to go for cargo capacity, chief of which would be coal. The size determined was 184 feet over all, with 35 feet beam and 16 feet draft, loaded, and a load water-line of 166 feet. These dimensions make her almost as long as, but with a slightly greater beam than, the Discovery, the British antarctic ship. Her length ratio, while not quite as fine as that of the Scotch model, is much finer than the Norwegian or American averages.