428 THE VOYACxE OF THE JEAXXETTE. 



All reports seem to agree in pronouncing the ice in a 

 wasted and disintegrated condition, needing only a fresh 

 blow to send it into blocks and pieces. But by our ill 

 luck we are having only light airs from the northward 

 and a normal barometer. 



August 2t>th, Wednesday. — A day of considerable 

 interest, from the occupation in which we were en- 

 gaged, and of great satisfaction from the results ob- 

 tained. I have long been anxious to have a sight of 

 our propeller, to know what injury it sustained during 

 our numerous ice-squeezes and jams. Although I some- 

 times regretted not having triced it up last fall, upon 

 becoming fixed in our icy surroundings, I could not 

 help feeling during the crises of the winter, particu- 

 larly on the memorable 19th of January, that its being 

 down added greatly to the support of the rudder-post, 

 and perhaps prevented its (the rudder-post's) destruc- 

 tion, and incidentally a crippling of the ship. An in- 

 jury to the screw-blades we could endure, because we 

 had spare ones to take their places, although if the 

 blades were much bent or twisted, we should perhaps 

 be unable to get them up to replace them by others. 

 The ice surrounding the ship's stern had a thickness of 

 nine feet in some places, and its surface was about two 

 feet under water. Sawing it, therefore, seemed a her- 

 culean job, while blasting it with torpedoes might in- 

 jure the ship. However, I determined to try sawing, 

 and Chipp, with the tripod on the starboard side, and 

 standing in the water to his knees, directed operations, 

 while Nindemann, on the port side, similarly immersed, 

 attended to that portion of it. 



Suspending an anchor weighing about eighty pounds 

 to the bottom of the saw, a rope was attached to the 

 upper end, led through a block at the tripod head, and 



