int, and it may even
be impossible to do so in one year, but, having reached and run into
the ice, another question comes to the front. The vessel in which the
drift of several years is to be made must not share the fate of the
"Jeannette," if human ingenuity can avoid it. And ingenuity has been
taxed to produce a ship of the most perfect kind.

Nansen's little vessel, launched at Laurvik last October, suits his
venture and himself as well as the famous "long serpents" of his
ancestors suited them and their voyages of conquest and discovery a
thousand years ago. She is built of wood, but is of a strength never
hitherto aimed at. The frame timbers, Nansen modestly says, "may be
said to be well-seasoned," for though cut from the gnarled oaks of
Italy they have been stored in a Norwegian dockyard during the whole
lifetime of the explorer. These timbers--the ribs of the ship--are a
foot thick, and are placed only two inches apart, the intervening
spaces being filled with a special composition, so that even the
skeleton of the ship would be water-tight should the planks be
stripped off. Inside, the walls are lined with pitch-pine planks
alternately four inches and eight inches thick, with cross-beams and
supports to resist pressure in every direction, as shown in the
accompanying section. Outside, there is a three-inch skin of oak,
carefully calked and made water-tight, then covered by another skin of
oak four inches thick, which in turn is encased in a still thicker
layer of the hard and slippery greenheart. Bow and stern are heavily
plated with iron to cut through thin ice. Finally, to render her fit
for living in during the coldest weather, the water-tight compartment
set apart for this purpose (one of three) is lined, walls and ceiling,
with layers of non-conducting material. Tarred canvas, cork, wood,
several inches of felt enclosed by painted canvas, and finally a
wooden wainscot, promise to effectually keep out the cold. In the
roof, a layer of two inches of reindeer's hair has also been
introduced.

The form of the vessel is as original as her material. She measures
one hundred and twenty-eight feet in extreme length, thirty-six in
beam, and is seventeen feet deep. With a full cargo she will draw
fifteen feet, and have a freeboard of little more than three feet. She
is pointed fore and aft, the stern being so formed that the propeller
and rudder are deeply immersed to escape floating ice, and both these
vital fitt