VOYAGE OF THE "TERROR" 203 



The discoveries of Ross led to the renewal of this 

 attempt by Captain Back in the Terror in 18,'3G. He 

 was to go to Wager River or Repulse Bay, and then 

 make his way into Prince Regent Inlet, and so west ; 

 but he became imprisoned in the ice off Cape Comfort 

 during one of the severest winters known. Drifting up 

 Frozen Strait amid most perilous experiences, the ship, 

 lifted high above sea-level by pressure, lay at times 

 almost horizontal. Once " they beheld," he says, " the 

 strange and appalling spectacle of what may be fitly 

 termed a submerged berg, fixed low down, with one 

 end to the ship's side, while the other, with the purchase 

 of a long lever advantageously placed at a right angle 

 with the keel, was slowly rising towards the surface. 

 Meanwhile, those who happened to be below, finding 

 everything falling, rushed or clambered on deck, where 

 they saw the ship on her beam-ends, with the lee boats 

 touching the water, and felt that a few moments only 

 trembled between them and eternity." 



Day after day the Terror defied the persistent effort 

 of the ice to smash her, but suffering much in almost 

 every timber she withstood it sufficiently to keep 

 together. For four months she was entirely out of 

 water, and when at last she was free, Back wrapped 

 her up as best he could, and brought her home with 

 the water pouring into her so that the men were so 

 wearied out that they could hardly have continued at 

 the pumps another day ; and he ran her ashore in 

 Lough S willy only just in time. Upwards of twenty 

 feet of her keel, together with ten feet of the sternpost, 

 were driven over more than three and a half feet on 

 one side, leaving a frightful opening astern for the free 



