9

Taking on Water from the Cape York Glacier
1908-09
Greenland


Credits:
How Peary Reached the Pole: the personal story of his assistant, by Donald B MacMillan. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1934.

10

'The Roosevelt' was built at the request of Robert Peary - he needed a vessel capable of pushing through Arctic ice, reaching as far north as possible. The equation was apparent to Peary: the shorter the distance over the ice by sledge teams, the greater the chance of successfully arriving at the north pole.
The ship was built on Verona Island, Maine, and incorporated many innovations: although rigged for sails, the ship was powered by steam engines, using sails for auxiliary power; a heavy propellor driven by the steam engines allowed the ship to break through the arctic ice; extra planking and steel trusses reinforced the wooden hull; winches and windlasses on the deck allowed the ship to be winched out of tight situations. With a skilled captain at the helm, the ship at a length of 184 feet and a draft of 16 feet, could manouver through pack ice and sail close to shore to avoid ice and wind.