270 INTENSE SUSPENSE. [CHAP.V. 



succession, and then again stopped suddenly, 

 leaving all so still that not even a breath was 

 heard. In an instant the ship was felt to rise 

 under our feet, and the roaring and rushing 

 recommenced with a deafening din alongside, 

 abeam, and astern, at one and the same instant. 

 Alongside, the grinding masses held the ship 

 tight as in a vice ; while the overwhelming pres- 

 sure of the entire body, advancing from the west, 

 so wedged the stern and starboard quarter, that 

 the greatest apprehensions were entertained for 

 the sternpost and frame-work abaft. Some idea 

 of the power exerted on this occasion may be 

 gathered from this : — At the moment which I am 

 now describing, the forepart of the ship was lite- 

 rally buried as high as the flukes of the anchors 

 in a dock of perpendicular walls of ice, so that 

 in that part she might well have been thought 

 immovable. Still, such was the force applied to 

 her abaft, that after much cracking and per- 

 ceptible yielding of the beams, which seemed to 

 curve upwards, she actually rose by sheer pressure 

 above the dock forward, and then with sudden 

 jerks did the same abaft. During these convul- 

 sions many of the carpenters, and others stationed 

 below, were violently thrown down on the deck 

 as people are in an earthquake. It was a mo- 

 ment of intense suspense ; and to avoid con- 

 fusion, the hands were called, and the officers 



