40 SPITSBERGEN 



gale had never struck of itself, now tolled so continu- 

 ously that it had to be muffled. 



After a time an effort was made to put the vessel 

 before the wind and drive her further into the pack. 

 Some of the men gained the fore-topsail-yard and let a 

 reef out of the sail, and the jib was dragged half up 

 the stay by the windlass. The brig swung into posi- 

 tion, and, aided by a mass under her stern, split the 

 block, fourteen feet thick, which had barred her way, 

 and made a passage for herself into comparative safety; 

 and after some four hours the gale moderated. Strained 

 and leaking the Trent had suffered much, but the 

 Dorothea had been damaged more ; and both returned 

 to Fair Haven, where it was found hopeless to con- 

 tinue the voyage, and thence, when the ships had been 

 temporarily repaired, they sailed for England. The 

 expedition had not done much, but it had gi/en their 

 Arctic schooling to Franklin, Beechey, and Back. 



In May, 1827, Parry, in the Hccla, was forced to 

 run into the ice, but not quite in the same way as 

 Buchan did. He was beset for three weeks, and then, 

 getting clear, proceeded to the Seven Islands to the 

 north of Spitsbergen, on one of which, Wilden, he 

 placed a reserve of provisions ; the ship, after reaching 

 81 5', going to Treurenberg Bay, in Hinlopsn Strait, 

 to await his return. 



From here he made his dash for the Pole. He had 

 with him two boats of his own design, seven feet in 

 beam, twenty in length. On each side of the keel was 

 a strong runner, shod with steel, upon which the boat 

 stood upright on the ice. They were so built that they 

 would have floated as bags had they been stove in. On 



