1902] A DIFFICULT ANCHORAGE 159 



would fling her back on her securing ropes, uprooting the ice- 

 anchors and uhimately sending her adrift. Whilst such possi- 

 bilities remained, in spite of the most earnest wish to save 

 coal it was necessary to retain facilities for getting up steam at 

 short notice, and the constant work of securing and re-securing 

 the ship was a most harassing addition to the men's work. 



At other times the tide and swell would carry the ship into 

 awkward positions with regard to the ice-foot or the shallow 

 bank which lay immediately off it. On February 10 I wrote : 

 ' . . . Later, owing to current, the ship forged ahead and 

 forced herself into the fast ice ; this brought the bow into 

 deeper water, but the stern swung into the ice-foot and bumped 

 a good deal ; in this position she has made a bed for herself, 

 and we cannot haul her out' 



'■February 11. — . . . The ship bumped heavily during the 

 night and worked herself into a very uncomfortable position, 

 her stern obliquely against the ice-foot, and her bow jammed 

 into the thick fast ice. In the morning we made some attempt 

 to haul her stern out, but only succeeded in carrying away a 

 hawser. In the afternoon all hands were turned on to free 

 her, a boiler was run down, balloon cylinders and other weights 

 transported forward, and a party was set to free the ice at the 

 fore-foot. The kedge anchor was buried fast in the floe, and 

 a large hawser brought from it through the stern to the winch. 

 At seven, when we could get a good strain on the hawser, the 

 ship was gradually freed from her awkward position.' 



By the 12th we had managed to get an anchor on the 

 bottom, but the stern had been hauled in to assist the work on 

 shore. 'This morning it blew fresh from the E.S.E. directly 

 over the hills, and, with an off-setting tide and some swell, we 

 began to drag our ice-anchors, the two kedges. For an hour 

 in heavy snowdrift we were endeavouring to check the drag by 

 backing the anchors, but to no avail ; at last both dragged out, 

 when there was only just sufficient time to get all hands on 

 board before the ship drifted off.' 



In spite of the difficulty of keeping the ship in position, 

 however, steady progress was made with the work on shore. 



