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AMERICAN POLAR EXPEDITION.

DEPARTURE OP THE ROOSEVELT.

Writing on July 20 the American correspondent of the S.A. “Register^ 5 says:

A more beautiful day could hardly have been selected for the departure of Lieut. Peary’s polar steamer Roosevelt than July 16, when in the afternoon she dropped down the bay from Sandy Hook under slow headway. In the Narrows pleasure boats and steam yachts dipped their hags and wished “Good luck” to the explorers. Flags which for some time had been at half-mast at the forts in the harbour in honour of the late Secretary Hay were hoisted to the truck, and gave “Good-bye” to the travellers. Peary, although he directed the start, did not sail on his ship. He left New York at midnight for Sydney, Cape Breton Island, where he will join the Roosevelt. Before starting Peary said : —“I have the best-equipped expedition that ever started out to >plant the flag on the uppermost part of the globe. Elvery passible thing that would facilitate the work of discovery and every comfort for the men have been attended to.” Among those who accompany Peary is Dr Louis J. Wolf, who for the past six months has been in the dispensary at Bellevue. He is a graduate of Cooper Medical College of San Francisco. Lieut. Peary, speaking a few days ago of his plans for reaching the Pole, said:—“lfrom Sydney, Cape Breton, we will proceed across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and through the Straits of Belle Isle, north along the Labrador coast, then across Davis Straits to the west shore of Greenland, then to Melville Bay and the Whale Sound region. Here we will stop to get Esquimaux and dogs, and to lay in walrus meat for the dogs. At Cape Sabine we will establish a subbase, properly equipped with necessary supplies and provisions. At- this point my Esquimaux will assemble, those of the Whale Sound tribe, which are the best of all Esquimaux. From this tribe I will select 20 or 25 of the best hunters, and will take them on board ship with me, along with their families. From Cape Sabine we 'will drive the ship through Kennedy • and Robeson Channels to the northern shore of Grant land, where the vessel will be put in winter quarters. We expect to reach there about September 1. The arctic night begins then and lasts until February. Then, as soon as the long arctic day begins we will start in our sledges for the Pole. From where we will leave the ship to the pole is, roughly, 490 miles.” Asked what he expected to find at the Pole, Peary replied—“l expect nothing. There is nothing abnormal there. lam sure of that —no open sea, no anything out -of the ordinary. Without instruments of precision one might walk over the exact spot and never know it.” Dr Henry E. Emerson Wetherell, who applied to Peary for the position of surgeon upon the Roosevelt, and received no reply to his communication, declares his intention of racing Peary to the Pole. He' says that if he can raise £50,000 he will make the attempt. Wetherell would adopt Nansen’s plan of going around to the north of Siberia, and after getting caught in the ice floe of the channel drift with it in the hope that* his vessel would be carried to the pole. The Roosevelt, which is to' carry Peary and his fortune®’, was built in Portland, Maine. She has many peculiarities of model, among others a pronounced raking stem and wedged-shaped how, very sharp dead rise of floor, affording a form of side which cannot he grasped by the ice; a full run to keep the ice away from the', propeller, a pronounced overhang at the stem to still further protect the propeller, and a raking stern post. Her principal dimensions are: — Length, 184 ft: breadth, 351 ft; depth, 16jft; gross registered tonnage, 614 tons; and maximum load displacement, about 1500 tons. The filling in of the boAV, where it is to meet the ice, is almost solid. To lessen the danger of having propeller flanges broken off by the ice the propeller has been so constructed as to be easily disconnected, and hoisted upward.into' a well. The main features of the machinery are in a compound engine of massive construction; an unusually heavy shaft of forged steel, 12in diameter; a massive propeller, 104 ft diameter, but with blades of large area, detachable in case of in j ury; a triple boiler battery ; arrangements for admitting live steam to the low-pressure- cylinder, in order to largely increase the power for a limited time, and an elliptical cruiser type smokestack to reduce •wind resistance.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL19050906.2.53

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 26

Word Count
781

AMERICAN POLAR EXPEDITION. New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 26

AMERICAN POLAR EXPEDITION. New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 26