Leaving Etah soon after midnight of August 16th, the _Roosevelt_ swung out from the harbour of Etah and severed all communication with the civilised world. Below decks the ship was filled with coal until her plank sheer was nearly to the water; on deck were more than two hundred Eskimo dogs; and on the topgallant forecastle, and the tops of both forward and after deck-houses were over half a hundred Eskimos, men, women and children, and their belongings. The heavy pack ice surging down Smith Sound, past Littleton Island, gave me an opportunity to see what good work the ship could do and as we bored through it toward Cape Sabine, she realised my expectations in regard to her, even though very deeply loaded and her boiler power reduced to one-half. The sharply raking stem was a revelation even to me, though it was my idea. Deep and heavy as the ship was, she rose on the opposing ice without pronounced shock, no matter how viciously she was driven at it, and either split it with the impact, or wedged it aside by sheer weight. Bartlett obeyed my first orders, to give her full speed and I would be responsible, with some misgivings. The sealing captains are always very cautious with their ships when first going out heavy with coal. At the end of an hour or two he was enthusiastic, both at the ease with which the most crushing blows could be delivered, and the whaleboat-like facility with which the ship wheeled and twisted through the tortuous passages. But there were some areas of ancient ice which a thousand _Roosevelts_ merged in one could not have negotiated, and we were soon deflected to the southwest, and only when within some ten miles of Cape Isabella did we find it practicable to work northward again. Cape Sabine and Payer Harbour, which had been my headquarters for sixteen months in 1901–1902, were densely packed, permitting no near approach, and we bored away to the northeast, till the ice became impracticable for further advance, then retraced our route, and worked towards Bache Peninsula, getting about half-way across Buchanan Bay when we were stopped by large floes barring our passage to open water under Cape Albert. The ice later appearing more favourable to the eastward, we retraced a portion of our route and I very carefully reconnoitred Sabine and Payer Harbour again as I was loath to give up my sub-base there, this being part of my programme as outlined to the Club. But the conditions were entirely impossible, and making a detour to the east, the _Roosevelt_ gained the open water at Bache Peninsula, and steaming to the bight south of Victoria Head, the northwestern headland of the peninsula, landed a depot of boats, coal, and provisions.