164 TROUBLES OF EXPLORER 



critical situation. I then rushed to my cabin, and called to those in their beds 

 to save their lives. On reaching the deck, those on the ice called out to me 

 to jump over the side — that the ship was going over. I jumped on the loose 

 ice, and, with difficulty, and the assistance of those on the ice, succeeded in 

 getting on the unbroken part. After being on the ice about five minutes, the 

 timbers in the ship cracking up as matches would in the hand, the nip eased 

 for a short time, and I, with some others, returned to the ship, with the view 

 of saving some of our effects. Captain Inglefield now came running toward 

 the ship. He ordered me to see if the ice was through the ship ; and, on look- 

 ing down in the hold, I found all the beams, &c., falling about in a manner 

 that would have been certain death to me had I ventured down there. It was 

 too evident that the ship could not last many minutes. I then sounded the 

 well, and found five feet in the hold; and whilst in the act of sounding, a 

 heavier nip than before pressed out the starboard-bow, and the ice was forced 

 right into the forecastle. Every one then abandoned the ship, with what few 

 clothes he could save — some with only what they had on. The ship now began 

 to sink fast, and from the time her bowsprit touched the ice until her mast- 

 heads were out of sight it was not above one minute and a half. From the 

 time the first nip took her until her disappearance, it was not more than 

 fifteen minutes." 



