ip, as well as we could, into
comfortable winter quarters; while at the same time we took every
precaution to assure her against the destructive influences of cold,
drift-ice, and the other forces of nature to which it was prophesied
that we must succumb. The rudder was hauled up, so that it might not
be destroyed by the pressure of the ice. We had intended to do the
same with the screw; but as it, with its iron case, would certainly
help to strengthen the stern, and especially the rudder-stock, we let
it remain in its place. We had a good deal of work with the engine,
too; each separate part was taken out, oiled, and laid away for the
winter; slide-valves, pistons, shafts, were examined and thoroughly
cleaned. All this was done with the very greatest care. Amundsen
looked after that engine as if it had been his own child; late and
early he was down tending it lovingly; and we used to tease him about
it, to see the defiant look come into his eyes and hear him say:
"It's all very well for you to talk, but there's not such another
engine in the world, and it would be a sin and a shame not to take
good care of it." Assuredly he left nothing undone. I don't suppose
a day passed, winter or summer, all these three years, that he did
not go down and caress it, and do something or other for it.

We cleared up in the hold to make room for a joiner's workshop down
there; our mechanical workshop we had in the engine-room. The smithy
was at first on deck, and afterwards on the ice; tinsmith's work
was done chiefly in the chart-room; shoemaker's and sailmaker's, and
various odd sorts of work, in the saloon. And all these occupations
were carried on with interest and activity during the rest of the
expedition. There was nothing, from the most delicate instruments
down to wooden shoes and axe-handles, that could not be made on
board the Fram. When we were found to be short of sounding-line,
a grand rope-walk was constructed on the ice. It proved to be a very
profitable undertaking, and was well patronized.

Presently we began putting up the windmill which was to drive the
dynamo and produce the electric light. While the ship was going, the
dynamo was driven by the engine, but for a long time past we had had
to be contented with petroleum lamps in our dark cabins. The windmill
was erected on the port side of the fore-deck, between the main-hatch
and the rail. It took several weeks to get this important appliance
into working order.