1852.] DOCKING. 53 



apparent fear of wreck ; boats and gear ready on the ice. 

 This was a calm uip, and here it ended, with merely the 

 loss of rudder ; but had the outer floe been pressed by 

 the addition of wind, distant, although not felt by us, and 

 the "piling" of the broken floe commenced, which result 

 generally continues until all the weaker points have 

 yielded and the giants are firmly opposed by equal re- 

 sistance in each other's embrace, the consequences would 

 probably have been serious. In very few minutes every 

 rudder of the Squadron was unshipped and hung to the 

 stern-davits, and parties engaged cutting docks for the 

 vessels, a duty on which the crews were engaged until 

 nearly six A.M. About four the ' Resolute' was released, 

 and docked with us ; and as her rudder was found too 

 much injured for immediate repair, the spare one was 

 got up, put together, shipped, and ready for service be- 

 fore the following noon. 



I am aware that my naval friends will require no ex- 

 planation as to "docking" in ice, but landsmen may wish 

 information, and, dry as it may be, I will endeavour to 

 afford it in as few words as possible. I have already ob- 

 served that the danger consists in being caught between 

 the edges of two fields of ice in motion, and that, when 

 these bodies come into contact, with a force impossible 

 to calculate, all weaker objects, including the icy pro- 

 jections themselves, undergo " the crushing force," until 

 equal forces overcome the caiises in operation. It must 

 therefore be very apparent, that where such vast sur- 

 faces, miles in extent, are so firmly cemented together, 

 if objects be sufficiently withdrawn into gaps within the 

 line of their opposing vertical projections, they are safe. 



