On the spar deck, the engineers installed a steam-powered winch that, in times of heavy ice, could hoist the rudder and propeller out of harm’s way. The winch could also be used to “warp” the ship—that is, to advance the vessel, by means of ropes or chains attached to ice anchors, through leads in the pack. The Mare Island machinists built two new state-of-the-art boilers and installed a desalination apparatus that could distill more than five hundred gallons of fresh water a day.
