"Memoranda of Design for Construction and Fitting
of a Vessel for Arctic Exploration"
"By George W. Melville, Chief Engineer, U.S.N."
"A ship for Arctic cruising should be as small as
possible, and yet be able to carry her weight and billet her
people with comfort. A light draft is desirable to enable her
to clear unknown shoals in strange waters, and to seek safety
in shallow harbors out of the way of running ice. The 'dead rise'
should be made great, for it gives a vessel more of a tendency
to rise when nipped or underrun by ice, thus exposing less of
her body to the ramming and underriding of ice floes. A kettle-bottomed
ship is to be avoided, for every consideration of safety. The
only reason for building ships thus is because of their carrying
capacity, -- for their 'great bowels,' as the sailors say."
"Great speed is not necessary in an Arctic ship;
it would only result in her destruction if injudicious or accidental
ramming should take place, although great power is requisite
at times to enable her to force her way through ice obstructions.
A coincidence has occurred in our last two American Arctic cruisers.
The Polaris and Jeannette both had their 'fore-foot'
damaged, so as to cause continuous pumping while their crews
remained with them, and in the end the Jeannette had her
keel pushed right out of place, bursting open her garboard strakes,
letting the water up through her bottom. Moral: Have neither
keel or stem piece to expose to this danger. Have a false keel
that will be pushed off its place, not out of its place,
and fore-foot and wood ends enclosed or encased in iron sheathing
around the bows, not on the surface of the water alone, but to
go all the way down to and beyond the fore-foot, and clamp the
whole together. Narrow bars of iron are a snare. The whole surface
of the ship should be covered by one fourth inch sheeting of
mild steel, for the following reasons: The ice of the Arctic
Ocean is as hard as marble, and when the square edge of a floe-piece
comes against the side of a wooden ship it does not glance off
or slip by: it cuts and gouges in; the soft wood yields, and
where an iron-sheathed ship would slip up out of the grasp of
the ice like a greased pig from the hands of a clown, the unsheathed
ship would be held fast and crushed. Again, if the frames and
planking of an iron-sheathed ship were crushed, the sheathing
would prevent the rapid inflow of water into the ship, after
the manner of a sail as applied to a damaged ship's bottom. Pure
air and freedom from dampness are as essential to the health
and comfort of a ship's company as pure water and good food.
This can only be accomplished by billeting every one above the
spar deck, and having a condensing chamber surround the apartment
of the people to collect the moisture. Heretofore, it was supposed
that it would be too cold to quarter men above the spar deck,
but in the Jeannette the driest and warmest place in the
ship was in the trunk cabin above the spar deck, and the rudely
made deck house forward was always comfortable in winter time.
In this ship the men's quarters are in the centre of the ship,
on the spar deck, with a three-foot space all around it, and
a low pilot house for the man at the wheel to stand inside the
quarters and steer his trick at the wheel; another wheel being
fitted aft for fine weather or sailing the ship by the wind."
"Economic systems of heating the ship and distilling
water for potable purposes are requisite and necessary, and I
have no hesitancy in saying that the freedom from scurvy enjoyed
by the ship's company of the Jeannette was wholly due
to the system of ventilation, the use of distilled water, and
a liberal supply of food. For this purpose a heater and distiller
are designed for cabin and forecastle, and the steam after heating
the apartments is condensed and used for drinking purposes. A
ship in the vicinity of glacier ice can dispense with the steam
heater, and use the less expensive system of stoves for heating.
To carry out these economic and sanitary arrangements a large
supply of coal is necessary: the ship as designed can stow two
hundred tons of coal. For ease and rapidity of working cargo
an auxiliary boiler and engine is fitted, which can also be used
for working ship, raising the propeller, receiving and discharging
stores, unshipping the rudder in time of danger; and in case
of the ship springing a leak the auxiliary engine can be used
to work one or all six bilge pumps. Then these pumps are of the
simplest and most efficient kind, and can be worked by hand while
steam is being prepared. The bulkheads are fitted in such a manner
that they cannot leak, the inner and outer planking of the
ship being fitted and caulked against a double frame, and
the bulkheads in turn fitted to inner skin of ship, as set forth
in the drawings; so that the bulkheads, in addition to being
as strong a truss as can be put in a ship, are watertight. No
sluice valves are needed, although fitted as a pair of pumps
that can be worked by hand or steam to each compartment. One
peculiarity of the ship is that the rudder can be lifted at any
time, even while the ship is under way, and can be used at any
immersion from a foot of water near the surface all the way down
to its full draft of water. There is no lock, and the rudder
is outside of all parts of the ship, after the manner of a Dutch
galliot, and is made to slide up or down a bobb iron in lieu
of gudgeons and pintles. The iron plating is put on in a peculiar
manner with wood screw bolts, the edges of the sheets being beveled,
and the bolt holes placed and countersunk in such a manner as
to give a clean, smooth surface to the ship's bottom and sides.
The keel is fastened on outside of the plating, and in case of
a great strain being brought on the keel it is pushed off and
lost without material damage to the ship except sailing quality.
A light house and deck cover in such manner that all people are
accomodated above the water line, and the whole of the bowels
of the ship are given up to engine, coal, and stores; a fair
division of the cabin space is allotted to each person, and the
berths are made movable, so as to remove any ice that may form
against the cold sides of the ship. Drying room, bath room, closets,
instrument room, photographer's dark room, and dispensary are
all in convenient position and roomy. Cook house for officers
and crew, and pantries to suit, are all arranged on the spar
deck. Provisions are stowed forward, coal amidships, clothing
and fine stores aft. Compound engines and boilers of the most
approved type are fitted. General dimensions of ship from flank
ends forward to forward rabbet of stern post 140 feet on water
line, 38 feet beam, 12 feet draft. All of the foregoing requirements
are fitted in the ship in question, and fully set forth in the
drawings." |