276 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



in the neighborhood of 72° 30', that floe, with its wood 

 and foot-prints, must have come a long distance. 



March ^th, Thursday. — Being able to begin to see 

 the condition of things in the coal bunkers, Melville 

 made an unpleasant discovery to-day which he reported 

 to me. I immediately repaired to the ]3ort coal 

 bunker, and there, to my unpleasant surprise, saw that 

 the heavy six inch Oregon pine strengthening planks 

 were crushed in the wake of the heavy thwart-ship 

 thrust beam to the depth of half an inch, while the 

 metal bolts forward and abaft of this beam were here 

 and there three eighths of an inch from the planks. In 

 some one of our heavy nips this heavy transverse beam 

 has been literally driven into the side. As in this part 

 of the ship there were new frames and new planking, 

 as well as the extra interior strengthening and the out- 

 side doubling, she was as strong as wood and metal could 

 make her. Had I any doubt of it before I should be 

 convinced of it now, that nothing of wood and metal 

 could be constructed to withstand the tremendous pres- 

 sure caused by moving ice-floes. "What the condition 

 of our starboard side may be I do not know, for it can- 

 not be seen by reason of intervening coal. It would 

 be idle to hazard a guess as to what this will cause when 

 the ship is again water borne, so we can only wait and 

 see. Clear and pleasant weather. 



March Mi, Saturdai/. — Pumps going as usual. The 

 water seems to be coming into the ship at about the 

 same rate, no change apparently having taken place for 

 some time in the condition of the ice under the ship. 

 Looked at on the starboard side the ship seems to be 

 completely iced up, or in ; her rail and the surface of 

 the ice being on the same level. This is caused by 

 her heel of 3° to starboard, and the fact that we have 



