BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 97 



" No language," he says, " I am convinced, can convey 

 an adequate idea of the terrific grandeur of the effect 

 now produced by the collision of the ice and the tem- 

 pestuous ocean." 



But when the moment arrived that the strength of 

 the little bark was to be placed in competition with that 

 of the great icy continent, and doubts might reasonably 

 have arisen of her surviving the unequal conflict, the 

 crew preserved the greatest calmness and resolution. 



Captain Beechey says : 



" If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried, it 

 was assuredly not less so on this occasion ; and I will 

 not conceal the pride I felt in witnessing the bold and 

 decisive tone in which the orders were issued by the 

 commander of our little vessel (Franklin), and the 

 promptitude and steadiness with which they were exe- 

 cuted by the crew. Each person instinctively secured 

 his own hold, and, with his eyes fixed upon the masts, 

 awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concussion. 

 It soon arrived ; the brig, cutting her way through the 

 light ice, came in violent contact with the main body. 

 In an instant we all lost our footing, the masts bent 

 with the impetus, and the cracking timbers from below 

 bespoke a pressure which was calculated to awaken our 

 serious apprehensions." 



Captain Beechey proceeds to give a vivid and graphic 

 account of the state of the ship, accompanied by a spirited 

 and well-executed print, descriptive of her situation. 

 "Her motion," he says, "was so great, that the ship's 

 bell, which in the heaviest gale of wind had never struck 

 of itself, now tolled so continually that it was ordered 

 to be muffled for the purpose of escaping the unpleasant 

 association it was calculated to produce." After a few 

 hours the gale ceased, and the pack broke up sufficiently 

 to release the ships, which were so disabled that the 

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