100 DANGEROUS SITUATION 



1824. and the ship rode somewhat more easily at her 

 Sept. anchors. At midnight it was low water, eight 

 fathoms and a half, shewing a rise and fall of 

 thirty feet. The night was piercingly cold, 

 and the sea continued to wash fore and aft the 

 decks, while constant snow fell. As the lower 

 deck was afloat, our people and all their ham- 

 mocks thoroughly soaked, no rest could be 

 obtained. 



Never shall I forget the . dreariness of this 

 most anxious night. Our ship pitched at such 

 a rate, that it was not possible to stand even 

 below, while on deck we were unable to move 

 without holding by ropes which were stretched 

 from side to side. The drift snow flew in 

 such sharp heavy flakes, that Ave could not 

 look to windward, and it froze on deck to 

 above a foot in depth. The sea made inces- 

 sant breaches quite fore and aft the ship, and 

 the temporary warmth it gave while it washed 

 over us, was most painfully checked by its al- 

 most immediately freezing on our clothes. To 

 these discomforts were added the horrible un- 

 certainty as to whether the cables would hold 

 until day-light, and the conviction also that if 

 they failed us, we should instantly be dashed 

 to pieces ; the w^ind blowing directly to the 

 quarter in which we knew the shore must lie. 



