ZOOLOGY.— SEAL-FISHERY. 515 



of their crews, were brought to the stern of the ship. 

 Beyond this point, the increase of the sea and the 

 rapid drift of the ship, prevented them advancing ; 

 while their comrades on board were unable to assist 

 them, from the attention requisite for their own pre- 

 servation, the ship being almost laid " on her beam 

 ends." In this critical situation they had not re- 

 mained many minutes, before a sea struck the boats, 

 filled, and overwhelmed them, on which the whole 

 of their crews, nineteen men in number, perished. 



But this catastrophe, melancholy as it was, formed 

 a small proportion of the disasters of the storm. 



While the different ships were endeavouring to 

 make their way clear of the ice, the Pennant was 

 struck by such a dreadful surge that she foundered, 

 and all hands were lost. The same sea struck the 

 Perseverance and the Rockingham, by which one of 

 the quarter boats of the latter was thrown upon 

 deck, and her bulwark, fore and aft, was washed 

 away ; and five boats and five men were washed from 

 the sides and deck of the former, while, at the same 

 time, such damage was occasioned in the hull of the 

 vessel, that she was under the necessity of return- 

 ing home to refit. 



A Dutch snow, on board of which six boats' crews 

 of English sailors, who were unable to reach their 

 own vessel, had taken refuge, fell to leeward against a 

 point of ice, was wrecked, and all hands on board 

 perished. The Rockingham, the ship in which Rich- 



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