CHAP. VI.] FREAK OF THE SHIP. 415 



shore, if, as was not impossible, the breeze 

 should veer to the north and drive all the wind- 

 ward ice upon us ; yet I had, in fact, no alter- 

 native. At 8 h 50 m p. m. the surrounding masses 

 began to drift to the south-east ; and, coasting 

 off from the floe, we threaded an in-shore lead 

 under easy sail until ll h p. m., when farther 

 progress being interrupted by the closing of the 

 ice, the ship was kept beating to windward of 

 the pack until the morning of July 23d, with 

 the view of taking the first favourable opening 

 that presented itself. The ship, however, de- 

 cided the point herself rather more quickly than 

 was anticipated ; for, refusing to answer the 

 helm, which had been put a-lee for tacking, she 

 drove bodily to leeward into the pack, to the 

 great risk of carrying away the rudder and the 

 remainder of the stern-post. This freak cost us 

 some severe shocks in forcing a passage to a 

 floe, round whose point we contrived to get by 

 means of warping; and, as the prospect was rather 

 more promising, sail was kept on the ship, and she 

 bored her way with many sharp concussions and 

 infinite windings till about l h p. m., when, having 

 run between twenty and thirty miles, she was 

 stopped by the usual impediment. Trifling as 

 this distance may appear, it seemed considerable 

 to us who had been so long driven wherever 

 wind and tide chose to carry us. The line of 



