"REPORTED MISSING" 53 



duty'^ to give the men exercise, but exercise they must have, 

 to keep scurvy away; so they were sent aloft to bend and un- 

 bend sails that hung ''as idle as a painted ship upon a painted 

 ocean." Between the other whalers the ice was so strong that 

 the men could cross from one vessel to another, but all about the 

 Dee, the swell made bad breaks in it, and in spite of the hard 

 frost, the ice itself remained loose and daily threatened to crush 

 the ship to kindlings. 



On the 10th they had first noticed that they were slowly drift- 

 ing south, all five of them; by the 16th they were in latitude 

 72° 50'. If this continued it would mean their release from the 

 ice at last — provided their vessels were not completely crushed 

 before that time; but at best it was a matter of months. And 

 how many men among them all would live until such a release? 

 On that very night the ice began to press so hard upon the Dee 

 that she hung by the quarter with the ice high against her bul- 

 warks. At daylight all hands were called up to get the pro- 

 visions out of her. By night the wind had fallen, but the Dee 

 still hung by the quarter; the next day the ice had so opened 

 up that a warp had to be got out to secure her. Meanwhile the 

 other four vessels were comparatively undisturbed. 



On the 20th the ice closed again and pressed hard upon the 

 Dee) her crew so placed casks as to strengthen her from within 

 and put ten strong beams in aft. They were none too soon in 

 their precautions: shortly after came two terrific crushes only 

 half an hour apart, and the crew fled for their lives, with bags, 

 chests — everything that could be lifted. Their sufferings on 

 the ice can best be imagined; they had no shelter of any kind, 

 and no fire, as for two days they watched their vessel reel and 

 groan and waited to see her a total wreck. On the 22d the 

 ice ''fell quiet" and they returned to the ship with their provi- 

 sions, but on the day following, many lanes of water appeared 

 and another bad crush alarmed them. So it went. 



Captain Gamblin determined to cut a dock for his vessel. 

 Some of the crew of the Grenville Bay helped the Dee's men and 

 with ice-saws, driven like piles through the ice and worked 

 up and down by the men, the dock was finally accomplished. 



