458 WHALE-FISHEllY. 



CHAPTER VII. 



NARRATIVE OF PROCEEDINGS ON BOARD THE 

 SHIP ESiv, DURING A WHALE-FISHING VOYAGE 

 TO THE COAST OF SPITZBERGEN, PERFORMED 

 IN THE YEAR 1816 ; PARTICULARLY RELAT- 

 ING TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE SHIP UN- 

 DER CIRCUMSTANCES OF PECULIAR DANGER. 



L HE ship Esk, under my command, sailed from 

 Whitby on the 29th of March 1816 ; put into Ler- 

 wick to trim the ship on the 1st of April ; sailed 

 again on the 3d, entered the frigid confines of the 

 icy sea on the 14th, and killed our first whale on 

 the 25th of the same month. 



On the 30th of April we forced into the ice, 

 with a favourable wind ; and, after passing through 

 a large body of it, entered an extensive sea, such as 

 usually lies on the western coast of Spitzbergen at 

 this season of the year, early on the morning of the 

 followir.g day. The wind then blowing hard from 

 the S. S. E., we kept our reach to the eastward un- 

 til three o'clock in the afternoon, when we vmex- 

 pectedly met with a quantity of ice, which inter- 



