When an expedition starts for distant and mysterious regions for an uncertain length of time, and particularly when its objective point is the frozen heart of the Arctic Circle, it is natural that those who know and are interested in its objects and plans should turn with interest to its personnel and its surroundings and environment while en route to the scene of action.

The opening scenes of an Arctic voyage are comparatively familiar to those conversant with Arctic literature. The main features of the play are much the same: A crowded and littered ship, regrets at leaving, confusion, and, if the weather be decent, an effort to get into shape, or, if the weather be bad, a surrender by most of the party to abject misery in cramped quarters. In the present instance, some of these features were entirely absent, and others appeared only in a mild form.

Experience and a roomy ship almost completely obviated the lumbering of the decks, beyond the inevitable and inseparable feature of the coal, a portion of which must at first always be carried on deck.

Such few things as were dumped on deck at the last moment, were quickly and readily disposed of; and quarters specially arranged for the party and on deck, insured fair room for each member of the expedition.

As to regrets, no pronounced symptoms were noticeable in the others, and I had made the voyage too often to consider it more than a trip to Europe.

Under these favourable circumstances let us look at the personnel of the party whose home for an uncertain length of time, in the ice of the Polar Sea, was to be the good ship Roosevelt. First the captain, Robert A. Bartlett, sailing master and ice navigator, who was 30 years of age, 5 feet 10½ inches tall, and weighed 174 pounds. Bartlett is one of the new generation of Bartletts, a hardy family of Newfoundland sailors and navigators, almost all of whom have been associated with Arctic work. A great uncle was master of the Tigress when that ship picked up the drifting floe party of the Polaris expedition; two uncles, Samuel and John, were respectively master and mate of the Panther in which Hayes and Bradford visited Melville Bay; recently Captain Sam was master of the Canadian Government steamer Neptune, which wintered in Hudson Bay; and both of these, as well as Harry, a younger uncle, had been masters of my ships during one or the other of my several voyages north. Robert was mate in the Windward in the expedition of ’98 to ’99.

Blonde, smooth-shaven and close-cropped, stockily built and clear-eyed, he had already been farther north in these regions than any of the other Newfoundland ice masters, and his youth, ambition, and the Bartlett blood all counted in his favour.

Moses Bartlett, mate, a second cousin of the captain, was 47 years old, 6 feet high, and weighed 184 pounds. He had already been as far north as Cape Sabine three times; twice as mate of my ships and once as mate of the Neptune, and had also spent a year on this ship in Hudson Bay in the employ of the Canadian Government. Weather-beaten, grizzled, and keen of eye, he was regarded as one of the best of the Newfoundland ice pilots.

George A. Wardwell, chief engineer, was a native of Bucksport, Maine, 44 years of age, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and weighed 240 pounds. Acting as engineer in the shipyard in which the Roosevelt was built and intimately employed in her construction, he was deeply interested in her proposed work and anxious to join the expedition. His phlegmatic temperament, and evident capacity for work, combined with non-use of liquor and tobacco, were all strong points in his favour.

John Murphy, boatswain, was a native Newfoundlander, 31 years of age, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and weighed 165 pounds. Sailor and fisherman from the age of eighteen, he had also been as far north as Cape Sabine on the Neptune and had wintered with her in Hudson Bay.

Murtaugh J. Malone, assistant engineer, was a native of Portland, Maine, 49 years of age, 5 feet 7½ inches tall, and weighed 150 pounds.

Dr. Louie J. Wolf, surgeon of the Expedition, was a native of Oregon, 30 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 150 pounds, was a graduate of the Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, California, becoming later House Surgeon at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Portland, Oregon, and still later Assistant Attending Physician at the Cornell University Medical College, and of the outdoor medical dispensary of Bellevue Hospital.

Ross G. Marvin, secretary and assistant, was a native of Elmira, N. Y., a graduate of Cornell University, 25 years of age, 6 feet tall, and weighed 160 pounds. Subsequently he had three years of naval training on board the school ship St. Mary’s.

Charles Percy, my steward, was a native of Newfoundland, 54 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, and weighed 180 pounds. He had previously made a summer voyage as far north as Cape Sabine in my ship the Diana in 1899, and later had spent two years with Mrs. Peary and myself at Cape Sabine, from 1900 to 1902. Subsequently he had been in my employ as resident in charge of Eagle Island.

Matthew Henson, my personal attendant, was a coloured native of the District of Columbia, 39 years of age, 5 feet 6¾ inches high, and weighed 145 pounds. In my employ in one capacity or another most of the time since I took him to Nicaragua with me in 1888, and a member of all of my Arctic expeditions, his quality and capabilities were fully known.

The crew and firemen, with the exception of one of the latter, Charles Clark, a native of Massachusetts, were natives of Newfoundland, of the usual type of sailors and sealers common to that island. One of the firemen had been with me on the Eagle in 1886, and previously to that had been on one of the whalers in search of the Greely party in 1883. Another fireman had been north with me in the Hope in 1898, and one of the sailors had made a voyage to Hudson Bay.