The stern is, on the whole, the Achilles' heel of ships in the Polar
Seas; here the ice can easily inflict great damage, for instance,
by breaking the rudder. To guard against this danger, our rudder was
placed so low down as not to be visible above water, so that if a
floe should strike the vessel aft, it would break its force against
the strong stern-part, and could hardly touch the rudder itself. As
a matter of fact, notwithstanding the violent pressures we met with,
we never suffered any injury in this respect.

Everything was of course done to make the sides of the ship as strong
as possible. The frame timbers were of choice Italian oak that had
originally been intended for the Norwegian navy, and had lain under
cover at Horten for 30 years. They were all grown to shape, and
10-11 inches thick. The frames were built in two courses or tiers,
closely wrought together, and connected by bolts, some of which were
riveted. Over each joint flat iron bands were placed. The frames
were about 21 inches (56 cm.) wide, and were placed close together,
with only about an inch or an inch and a half between; and these
interstices were filled with pitch and sawdust mixed, from the keel
to a little distance above the water-line, in order to keep the ship
moderately water-tight, even should the outer skin be chafed through.

The outside planking consists of three layers. The inner one is
of oak, 3 inches thick, fastened with spikes and carefully calked;
outside this another oak sheathing, 4 inches thick, fastened with
through bolts and calked; and outside these comes the ice-skin of
greenheart, which like the other planking runs right down to the
keel. At the water-line it is 6 inches thick, gradually diminishing
towards the bottom to 3 inches. It is fastened with nails and jagged
bolts, and not with through bolts; so that if the ice had stripped
off the whole of the ice sheathing the hull of the ship would not
have suffered any great damage. The lining inside the frame timbers
is of pitch-pine planks, some 4, some 8 inches thick; it was also
carefully calked once or twice.

The total thickness of the ship's sides is, therefore, from 24 to 28
inches of solid water-tight wood. It will readily be understood that
such a ship's side, with its rounded form, would of itself offer a
very good resistance to the ice; but to make it still stronger the
inside was shored up in every possible way, so that the hold looks
like a cobweb of balk