SHIPWRECKED 



tRerefore retire early to make up for sleep lost 

 during the last few days. The fjord has a nearly 

 uniform width of between two and three miles 

 throughout its entire length of 120 miles, and it is 

 so deep that an ocean liner might navigate it with- 

 out difficulty. The Gertrude Rash, motor-ship of 

 the Greenland Government, sailed up the fjord 

 to its head in 1924. If it is to be safely navigated, 

 however, it is necessary for the man who is at the 

 helm to keep awake and not run the ship into the 

 precipitous rocky walls or on the reefs just off 

 shore. Toward dawn of the fifth our skipper was 

 himself at the helm and, as he frankly confessed 

 to us, he fell asleep, possibly due to the specially 

 prolonged activities in connection with the Hassell 

 search along the coast. 



I was awakened by the shock as the Nakuak 

 struck, and a moment later slid over the reef and 

 again gathered headway. As I rushed up the 

 little ladder to the deck I shouted to Cramer, "I'm 

 afraid we're wrecked". From the deck I could 

 make out the black wall of rock about one hundred 

 feet off towering above us, and dimly also the 

 distant opposite wall. A dark head was poked out 

 of the wheel-house and was silhouetted against the 

 lesser darkness. Almost immediately simultaneous 

 cries came from the cabin and the hold that the ship 



287 



