114 THENORTHPOLE 



that anything had happened, I found myself on deck 

 — a deck that inclined to starboard some twelve or 

 fifteen degrees. I ran, or rather climbed the deck, to 

 the port side and saw what had happened. A big 

 floe, rushing past with the current, had picked up 

 the grounded berg to which we were attached by the 

 hawsers, as if that thousand-ton berg had been a toy, 

 and dashed it against the Roosevelt and clear along her 

 port side, smashing a big hole in the bulwarks at 

 Marvin's room. The berg brought up against another 

 one just aft of us, and the Roosevelt slipped from 

 between the two like a greased pig. 



As soon as the pressure was relaxed and the ship 

 regained an even keel, we discovered that the cable 

 which had been attached to the floe-berg at the stern 

 had become entangled with the propeller. It was a 

 time for lightning thought and action; but by attach- 

 ing a heavier cable to the parted one and taking a hitch 

 round the steam capstan, we finally disentangled it. 



This excitement was no sooner over than a great 

 berg that was passing near us split in two of its own ac- 

 cord, a cube some twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter 

 dropping toward the ship, and missing our quarter 

 by only a foot or two. "Bergs to the right of them, 

 bergs to the left of them, bergs on top of them," I 

 heard somebody say, as we caught our breath at this 

 miraculous escape. 



The ship was now quite at the mercy of the drifting 

 ice, and with the pressure from the outer pack the Roose- 

 velt again careened to starboard. I knew that if she 

 were driven any higher upon the shore, we should have 

 to discharge a large part of the coal in order to lighten 



