uld be lifted very high, the bottom was made flat,
and this proved to be an excellent idea. I endeavored to determine
experimentally the friction of ice against wood, and taking into
account the strength of the ship, and the angle of her sides with the
surface of the water, I came to the conclusion that her strength must
be many times sufficient to withstand the pressure necessary to lift
her. This calculation was amply borne out by experience.

The principal dimensions of the ship were as follows: Length of keel,
102 feet; length of water-line, 113 feet; length from stem to stern
on deck, 128 feet; extreme breadth, 36 feet; breadth of water-line,
exclusive of ice-skin, 34 feet; depth, 17 feet; draught of water with
light cargo, 12 1/2 feet; displacement with light cargo, 530 tons;
with heavy cargo the draught is over 15 feet and the displacement is
800 tons; there is a freeboard of about 3 feet 6 inches. The hull,
with boilers filled, was calculated to weigh about 420 tons, and with
800 tons displacement there should, therefore, be spare carrying power
for coal and other cargo to the amount of 380 tons. Thus, in addition
to the requisite provisions for dogs and men for more than five years,
we could carry coal for four months' steaming at full speed, which
was more than sufficient for such an expedition as this.

As regards the rigging, the most important object was to have it as
simple and as strong as possible, and at the same time so contrived
as to offer the least possible resistance to the wind while the ship
was under steam. With our small crew it was, moreover, of the last
importance that it should be easy to work from deck. For this reason
the Fram was rigged as a three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. Several
of our old Arctic skippers disapproved of this arrangement. They
had always been used to sail with square-rigged ships, and, with the
conservatism peculiar to their class, were of opinion that what they
had used was the only thing that could be used in the ice. However,
the rig we chose was unquestionably the best for our purpose. In
addition to the ordinary fore-and-aft sails we had two movable yards
on the foremast for a square foresail and topsail. As the yards were
attached to a sliding truss they could easily be hauled down when not
in use. The ship's lower masts were tolerably high and massive. The
mainmast was about 80 feet high, the maintopmast was 50 feet high,
and the crow's-nest on the top was ab