July 30th and 31st the weather was fine, the channel pack surging back and forth with the tides close alongside, and every now and then large pieces crowding in against us, necessitating shifting the Roosevelt by the lines to avoid them. The channel pack consisted of very large floes packed closely together and showing no signs of leads throughout the entire width of the channel and as far north and south as could be seen. The ship’s people assisted by the Eskimos worked night and day to complete the finishing touches to the new rudder so that we could take advantage of the first opportunity to get away from this exposed and dangerous position. From the Captain I learned the story of the Roosevelt’s experiences after the ice opened at Cape Sheridan. She had had a crucial trial which few if any other ships would have survived, and twice everything had been landed from her in the belief that she would never leave her present position.

The Captain was enthusiastic over the model of the ship and the ease with which she rose when nipped.

The Chief was enthusiastic about the size and strength of her shaft which at one time during the nip that did her so much damage, held the entire weight of the after part of the ship.

About 6 A. M. of the 31st, the ice loosened close along the ice-foot towards Lincoln Bay, but before our lines could be cast off it had closed in again. From here I sent five Eskimos across overland after the skins of some musk-oxen which had been killed earlier in the season. About breakfast time Sipsu and his wife came in from Conger. He was dressed out in cavalry officer’s uniform, and he and his wife and his one dog were loaded with pots and pans and packs and bundles of every description till they looked like a troupe of tramp pedlars.

At 5 P. M. the ice eased off along the ice-foot again and we got under way. The Roosevelt was very light and in excellent trim for escaping a nip, but she was leaking a good deal about the stern, and her twisted stern-post made her very difficult to steer. After running into the ice-foot two or three times she managed to work her way around the point into Lincoln Bay, along its north shore to its head, and across to the south side where she was made fast in a comparatively sheltered place. Her position was a vast improvement upon her previous one where the caprice of a big floe might at any moment force her high and dry on the shore. As soon as we were fast, I sent one man back to Shelter River to wait the return of the five men, five others out after hare, and two others south to assist Ootah, the other Conger Eskimo who was in camp at Shift Rudder Bay, his wife having given birth to a boy while en route to the ship. Here for the first time since June 1st, I undressed and went to bed like a civilised man. It seemed a bit strange. At 2 P. M. we got under way again (one of the crew enlivening this occasion by falling overboard and narrowly escaping drowning), and worked along the ice-foot to the northern point of Wrangel Bay. Here a floe several miles in diameter delayed us for an hour or more until it moved enough for us to squeeze between it and the point into the bay which was full of slack ice. Forcing a way through this into the head of the bay, we dropped anchor in water so shoal that it was thought it would keep all heavy pieces of ice away from us. I was very glad to reach the shelter of this bay. The stretch of coast between Wrangel and Lincoln bays is one of the worst places in this region for a ship to be caught. The Roosevelt steered a little better than the day before, but it still required very careful management to get her along.

The ice offered no opportunity for leaving the bay during the 2d, and about midnight it filled the bay so completely that it forced the Roosevelt ashore. She was pulled off during the 3d, but was again pushed ashore late in the evening. All the Eskimos including the family from Shift Rudder Bay came in on this date. Very early on the 4th an unsuccessful attempt was made to get around Cape Beechy, the ice crowding in upon us and compelling the Roosevelt to retreat at full speed. During the 5th we remained inactive, the ice densely packed everywhere. During the night of the 5th a reconnaissance from the peak of Cape Frederick VIII showed water under the Greenland shore and early in the morning of the 6th, the Roosevelt for the third time essayed the crossing of Robeson Channel through the dense pack, this time heading for Thank God Harbour. The ice encountered was very heavy, but the Roosevelt kept moving slowly until about 2 A. M. of the 7th, when she was somewhat east of the middle of the channel and a little south of Cape Beechy. At this time the ice ran together with the turn of the tide preventing further movement, so we made fast to a big floe and began drifting southward with the pack. Soundings in the centre of the channel gave depths of from 298 to 339 fathoms. During the 7th, 8th, and 9th we drifted southward, and some big floes jamming across the channel from Cape Lieber to Joe Island, we were shunted into the mouth of Lady Franklin Bay on a line between Cape Baird and Discovery Harbour.

Here we remained without motion for eight days, parties of Eskimos going ashore every day both to Cape Baird and Distant Cape and Bellot Island. These hunting parties secured some hare, a square flipper seal, a common seal and on two or three occasions came near getting a narwhal.

On the morning of the 18th the ice in which we were imprisoned began to set into the bay again, doubtless owing to pressure from the northward. This motion continued throughout the day, and, toward midnight the Roosevelt was subjected to severe pressure which forced her up on to the heavy floe to which we were moored, twisted her stern-post over to the port side, and for a time threatened to tear another blade from her propeller. We were now in the centre of the Bay about six miles inside of Cape Baird, and opposite the western entrance of Discovery Harbour. Motion continued during the 19th, and at night the Roosevelt was again subjected to pressures, which increased the leak and it was necessary to keep the pumps going continually. In this new position we remained motionless until the 24th. During this time the hunting parties to the shore were continued, obtaining more hare, two additional square flipper seals, one common seal, and nine musk-oxen. Eight families of the Eskimos also, who believed that the Roosevelt would not get south this season, went ashore with all their belongings in order to begin hunting for their winter food supply as soon as possible. I was not at all sorry to have them go and fitted them out with guns and ammunition, for if we did get away they and their families would be so many less to look out for during the southern voyage, and if we did not, their work ashore would count toward the winter supplies of the entire party.

I confess that, though not admitting it, I was myself doubtful as to our escape as the days wore along. The Alert and Discovery got away from Discovery Harbour August 20th, and the Proteus on the 26th and they were much nearer to possible avenues of escape than we, located as we were in the depths of the bay. The weather and our surroundings also reminded me altogether too strongly of our experience at Cape D’Urville in 1898.

The outlook for our escape became so doubtful that I made plans for another year’s enforced delay, the programme contemplating the scouting of the entire region from Cape Desfosse to Lincoln Bay, and west through the drainage basin of Lake Hazen, by several hunting parties working simultaneously; and the establishment of colonies at Conger, Lake Hazen, and the head of Archer Fiord.

About noon of the 24th the ice slackened a trifle, and we were able to work about three miles toward Cape Baird, then the ice and the fog both shut down on us. After this we drifted eastward very slowly until midnight, remained motionless during the 25th, and on the 26th lost it all and settled back into the bay again. At 4 A. M. of the 27th, a very light air out of Lady Franklin Bay began to drift us almost imperceptibly eastward. At 5:30 the ice slackened slightly, and we began to hammer our way eastward for freedom and the water under the Greenland shore. At first progress was fearfully slow, but improved later and we worked across toward Cape Tyson, then rounding an enormous floe were able to work down along its eastern side and squeeze between it and Joe Island.

Whatever else might be in store for us there was no longer any danger that we would be pocketed in Lady Franklin Bay for another year, or that we would be smashed against the savage cliffs that line the shore of Daly Peninsula from Cape Lieber to Cape Desfosse. From this time the Roosevelt made very satisfactory progress until 6 A. M. of the 29th when she was stopped by impenetrable ice south and east of Hayes Point.

From Joe Island to Hans Island our course lay close to the Greenland shore among very large and heavy floes. We passed east of Hans Island, and from Hans Island to Cape Calhoun had practically open water. From Cape Calhoun until we came to a stop heavy floes were encountered again, becoming more and more closely packed as we advanced. While passing Franklin and Crozier Islands a fresh northeasterly wind enabled us to set foresail, mizzenspencer, and forestaysails, and for a little while gave the Roosevelt a speed of ten knots. From the afternoon of the 29th until 6 P. M. of September 5th we were unable to move, the ice which held us drifting slowly but steadily to the southwest and packing against Bache Peninsula and into Buchanan and Princess Marie bays. During most of this time the weather was fine and numbers of seals were observed upon the ice, several of which the Eskimos secured.

In the evening of the 8th, the ice slackened to the southeast, I abandoned the idea of picking up my Victoria Head Depot, and the Roosevelt was headed for Cairn Point on the Greenland coast. From the evening of September 5th until midnight of September 7th, we were able to make intermittent runs of a few hours duration, the sum total of which placed us somewhat more than half across Kane Basin. During the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th we lay imprisoned among very heavy old floes close to a group of four icebergs, a position which caused me considerable uneasiness, particularly as a strong southerly gale was blowing during two days of the time.

At 7 P. M. of the 11th we made another short run and during the five following days we worked southeastward at every opportunity, gaining a mile or two at almost every tide, then being nipped and crowded (wedged is the better word, perhaps) southwestward toward Sabine, by some huge field of ice forging down along the Greenland coast.

The weather was getting very sharp now, the young ice formed and became extremely tough with great rapidity, and while this time I had at heart no doubt of our eventual escape unless some unforeseen event occurred, still the lateness of the season and our surroundings were such as to make a repetition of the Polaris’s experience, and a winter’s drift in the pack by no means impossible.

The unforeseen contingency seemed to have arrived when it was reported on the 14th that the propeller was loose, and if we did any backing we would lose it. Such a loss would of course mean a certainty of wintering in the pack. Much to my relief an examination of the propeller showed that only the nuts holding the blades in place were loose, and these after nearly two days of effort were with much difficulty tightened up, and this danger, for a time at least, averted. During the night of the 14th a floe not less than eight or ten miles in diameter, crowding south on the ebb-tide, wedged us and the ice about us over to within ten miles of Cape Sabine. In return, however, for this apparent injury it gave us a bear, the first seen by the Expedition, and left along its northern edge a line of cleavage through which we were able to butt and squeeze a passage eastward once more, and reach a series of areas of young ice from three to five inches in thickness. To many a ship this ice would have been as impracticable as the heavy floes through which we had been working; but to the fine bow of the Roosevelt, which Captain Dix had so carefully moulded, it proved no obstacle, and she walked steadily through it in spite of her crippled propeller and reduced boiler power.

And when after rounding the northeastern angle of the floe and heading more to the south, it was possible to set the sails to the fresh northerly wind, she trod the ice under her fore-foot with a steady roar at a four or five knot pace. Finally after one or two temporary delays where the corners of big floes locked together, the ship, at 4 A. M. of the 16th, pushed her nose into open water somewhat north of Littleton Island and steamed into Etah, thus ending a most gallant battle with the ice which had begun on July 4th and lasted for seventy-five days.

During the crossing of Kane Basin six seals, one bearded seal, two hood seals, and one polar bear were obtained. Soundings made by Marvin at various points across the basin, showed a very regular bottom, and depths much less than in Robeson and Kennedy Channels or between Sabine and Littleton Island. These soundings ranged from 101 to 139 fathoms.

At Etah I found not only the Eskimo families whom I had transplanted there the summer before, but others who had come since with a view to meeting the ship on her return. They had given up hopes of our return this season until some three days previous when active old Ahmah, Merktoshah’s wife, walking overland to Anoritok had seen our smoke far out in Kane Basin. From these natives I learned that the season had been an unusual one, the ice everywhere remaining until very late. As soon as we arrived the heavy anchor and cable which we had left here the year before were taken on board, and Captain Bartlett reconnoitred several places in the vicinity looking for a suitable place to beach the Roosevelt and repair her stern and propeller. Nothing satisfactory was found and we steamed up to the head of the fiord in the northeast corner of which was a place that could be made to do. Here the stern of the Roosevelt was warped close inshore at high tide, and during the next few tides the stern was calked, the stern-post, which had been twisted back and forth by the ice so many times that it was now only a menace to the propeller, was cut away, and the nuts fastening the propeller-blades set up again. Some ballast was also taken on board between times. During all this time the wind was blowing strongly from the north and Smith Sound seen out through the mouth of the fiord was a cauldron of whirling clouds, fog and snow. When this work was completed we steamed back to Etah and took on board the coal. This work was greatly hampered first by the strong wind which on one trip swamped our boat raft, and afterwards by the young ice through which it was at times almost impossible to warp the raft back and forth between the ship and the shore. The lower portion of the coal also was frozen and had to be loosened with dynamite. Late in the evening of the 20th, the Roosevelt steamed out of Etah leaving about half of my Eskimos there.