CAPTAIN ]M*CLURE's DESPATCHES. 31 



one of its overhanging ledges, raised it perpendicular 30 feet, pre- 

 senting to all on board a most frightful aspect. As it ascended above 

 the foreyard, much af)prehension was felt that it might be thrown com- 

 pletely over, when the ship must have been crushed beneath it. This 

 suspense was but for a few minutes, as the floe rent, carrying away 

 witii it a large piece from the foundation of our asylum, when it gave 

 several fearful rolls and resumed its former position ; but, no longer 

 capable of resisting the pressure, it was hurried onw^ird with the drift- 

 ing mass. Our proximity to the shore compelled, as our only hopes of 

 safety, the absolute necessity of holding to it ; we consequently secured 

 with a chain stream and hemp cable three six and two five-inch hawsers, 

 three of which were passed round it. In this state we were forced 

 along, sinking large pieces beneath the bottom, and sustaining a heavy 

 strain ao-ainst the stern and rudder ; the latter was much damaged, but 

 to unship it at present was impossible. At I p.m. the pressure eased, 

 from the ice becoming stationary, when it was unhung and laid upon a 

 large floe piece, where, by 8 p.m., owing to the activity of Mr. Ford, 

 the carpenter, who is always ready to meet any emergency, it was 

 repaired, just as the ice began again to be in motion ; but as the tackles 

 were hooked, it was run up to the davits without further damage. We 

 were now setting fast upon another large piece of a broken floe, 

 grounded in nine fathoms upon the debris formed at the mouth of a 

 large river. Feeling confident that should we be caught between this 

 and what we were fast to, the ship must inevitably go to pieces, and 

 yet being aware that to cast off would certainly send us on the beach, 

 from which we were never distant 80 yards, upon which the smaller 

 ice was hurled as it came in contact with these grounded masses, 1 sent 

 John Kerr (gunner's mate), under very difficult circumstances, to 

 endeavour to reach it and effect its destruction by blasting. He could 

 not, however, find a sufficient space of water to sink the charge, but 

 remarking a large cavity upon the sea face of the floe, he fixed it there, 

 which so far succeeded that it slightly fractured it in three places, 

 which at the moment was scarcely observable from the heavy pressure 

 it was sustaining. By this time the vessel was within a few feet of it, 

 and everyone w^as on deck in anxious suspense, awaiting what was 

 apparently the crisis of our fate. Most fortunately, the sternpost took 

 it so fairly that the pressure was fore and aft, bringing the whole 

 strength of the ship to bear ; a heavy grind which shook every mast, 

 and caused beams and decks to complain as she trembled to the 

 violence of the shock, plainly indicated that the struggle would be but 

 of short duration. At this moment the stream cable was carried away, 

 and several anchors drew. Thinking that we had now sufficientlv 

 risked the vessel, orders were given to let go all the warps, and with 

 this order I had made up my mind that in a few minutes she would be 

 on the beach ; but, as it was sloping, conceived she might still prove 

 an asylum for the winter, and possibly be again got afloat, while, should 

 she be crushed between these large grounded pieces, she must inevi- 

 tablv ffo down in ten fathoms, which would be certain destruction to 

 all ; but before the orders could be obeyed, a merciful Providence mter- 

 posed, causing the ice, which had been previously weakened, to separate 

 into three pieces, and it floated onward with the mass, our stern still 

 tightly jammed against, but now protected by it. The vessel, which had 

 been thrown over 15 degrees, and risen 1 foot 8 inches, now righted and 



