fir, 4 inches in the main-deck and 3 inches elsewhere.  The beams are fastened to the ship’s sides by knees of Norwegian spruce, of which about 450 were used.  Wooden knees were, as a rule, preferred to iron ones, as they are more elastic.  A good many iron knees were used, however, where wood was less suitable.  In the boiler and engine room the beams of the lower deck had to be raised about 3 feet to give sufficient height for the engines.  The upper deck was similarly raised from the stern-post to the mainmast, forming a half-deck, under which the cabins were placed.  On this half-deck, immediately forward of the funnel, a deck-house was placed, arranged as a chart-house, from which two companions (one on each side) led down to the cabins.  Besides the ice-skin, there is a double layer of outside planking of oak.  The two first strakes (garboard strakes), however, are single, 7 inches thick, and are bolted both to the keel and to the frame-timbers.  The first (inner) layer of planks is 8 inches thick, and is only fastened with nails; outside this comes a layer of 4-inch planks, fastened with oak trenails and through bolts, as usual.  The two top strakes are single again, and 6 inches thick.  The ice-skin is of greenheart, and covers the whole ship’s side from the keel to 18 inches from the sheer strake.  It is only fastened with nails and jagged bolts.  Each layer of planks was caulked and pitched before the next one was laid.  Thus only about 3 or 4 inches of the keel projects below the planking, and this part of the keel is rounded off so as not to hinder the ice from passing under the ship’s bottom.  The intervals between the timbers were filled with a mixture of coal-tar, pitch, and sawdust, heated together and put in warm.  The ship’s side thus forms a compact mass varying in thickness from 28 to 32 inches.  As a consequence of all the intervals between the timbers being filled up, there is no room for bilge-water under the lining.  A loose bottom was therefore laid a few inches above the lining on each side of the keelson.  In order to strengthen the ship’s sides still more, and especially to prevent stretching, iron braces were placed on the lining, running from the clamps of the top deck down to well past the floor-timbers.

The stem consists of three massive oak beams, one inside the other, forming together 4 feet of solid oak fore and aft, with a breadth of 15 inches.  The three external plankings as well as the lining are all rabbeted into the stem.  The propeller-post is in two thicknesses, placed side by side, and measures 26 inches athwart-ship and 14 inches fore and aft.  It will be seen from the plan that the overhang aft runs out into a point, and that there is thus no transom.  To each side of the stern-post is fitted a stout stern-timber parallel to the longitudinal midship section, forming, so to speak, a double stern-post, and the space between them forms a well, which goes right up through the top deck.  The rudder-post is placed in the middle