124 THE TRENT DASHES INTO THE ICE. " 



moment of concussion. It soon arrived, — the 

 brig, cutting her way through the light ice, came 

 in violent contact with the main body. In an 

 instant we all lost our footing, the masts bent 

 with the impetus, and the cracking timbers from 

 below bespoke a pressure which was calculated to 

 awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel 

 staggered under the shock, and for a moment 

 seemed to recoil ; but the next wave, curling up 

 under her counter, drove her about her own length 

 within the margin of the ice, where she gave one 

 roll, and was immediately thrown broadside to the 

 wind by the succeeding wave, which beat furi- 

 ously against her stern, and brought her lee-side 

 in contact with the main body, leaving her wea- 

 ther-side exposed at the same time to a piece of 

 ice about twice her own dimensions. This unfor- 

 tunate occurrence prevented the vessel penetrat- 

 ing sufficiently far into the ice to escape the 

 effect of the gale, and placed her in a situation 

 where she was assailed on all sides by battering- 

 rams, if I may use the expression, every one of 

 which contested the small space which she occu- 

 pied, and dealt such unrelenting blows that there 

 appeared to be scarcely any possibility of saving 

 her from foundering. Literally tossed from piece 

 to piece, we had nothing left but patiently to 

 abide the issue, for we could scarcely keep our 



