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Photo # NH 92155:  'A Vessel Designed for Arctic Exploration'

Online Library of Selected Images -- Supplemental Data

Photo #s NH 92155 & NH 92156 Supplemental Material --
"Memoranda of Design for Construction and Fitting of a Vessel for Arctic Exploration"

This page features images and a description of an Arctic exploration steamer designed by Chief Engineer George W. Melville, USN, in 1880-1881, while he was participating in the Jeannette Arctic Expedition.


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Photo #: NH 92155

"A Vessel Designed for Arctic Exploration"


Sheer, half-breadth and body plans of an exploration steamer designed by Chief Engineer George Melville, USN, during the Jeannette expedition, 1880-1881.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume II, page 885, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 208KB; 915 x 1225 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 92156

"A Vessel Designed for Arctic Exploration"


Inboard profile, hull section and deck plans of an exploration steamer designed by Chief Engineer George Melville, USN, during the Jeannette expedition, 1880-1881.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume II, page 885, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 194KB; 1200 x 765 pixels

 

The following text, accompanying the two images presented above, was published in 1884 as Appendix F of "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume II, page 880-887, edited by Emma DeLong:

"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."


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions.


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