708 APPENDIX 



the ship began to go down by the head until she was almost perpendicu- 

 lar. Then she suddenly straightened out on a level keel and slowly 

 sank with the Union Jack flying. The depth of water was thirty 

 fathoms. 



For several days after this all hands were engaged getting ready for 

 the trip ashore, fixing up boots and socks and sleeping gear, making 

 these the best they could out of deerskins. There were three sleeping- 

 bags for the Doctor, Murray and Beuchat. The rest of us had drilling 

 bags with one small faMrn skin to wrap around our feet. I found this 

 fairly warm. About the middle of January the Captain sent three 

 sled-loads of provisions and all the dogs (over twenty) with the first 

 and second officers and two sailors with orders to go to Wrangel Island 

 and form a base and build a house to be ready for the ship's company 

 whenever they should arrive. [The party consisted of First Mate 

 Anderson, Second Mate Barker and the Sailors King and Brady.] 

 Mamen and the two Eskimos were to return to "Shipwreck Camp" with 

 the teams after the Mate's party reached the land. When the sleds 

 started the crew went with them for a mile to help them over some 

 rough ice and then we returned. 



During that day poor Malloch froze his legs. He was wearing a 

 pair of bearskin breeches which came just to his knees and were as 

 stiff as a board. There were about three inches bare between the top 

 of his boots and the bottom of his trousers. I told him before we 

 started, "You are going to freeze your legs, Malloch, if you don't wrap 

 them up." But Malloch said that that was the way the Captain had 

 told them they dressed in Greenland, so I said, "Go to it, old man." 

 When he returned he was so badly frozen that he was laid up for sev- 

 eral days. 



I think it was sixteen or seventeen days before the teams returned. 

 During that interval the Captain had a line of depots made at dis- 

 tances of one, two, three and four days' travel from Shipwreck Camp. 

 These contained food and oil. He asked me what I thought of his doing 

 this and I told him we would never find them, or at least the chances 

 were we wouldn't, as the ice was on the move all the time. He had 

 the teams make the trips just as far as they could travel in one day 

 and return the next. 



I forget who went on the first trip but on the second one were 

 Malloch and Munro and they had a mishap. It was before they had 

 cached their loads. They started across a patch of young ice and got 

 about ten feet from the strong ice when their sled broke through and 

 what they didn't lose they got wet, with themselves in the bargain. 

 So they dumped their load and started back to Shipwreck Camp, but 

 night overtook them before they reached it, as they were about thirty 

 or forty miles away when they broke through. When they camped, they 

 had a very pleasant night of it by their own account. I forget whether 

 they lost their primus stove or not, but if they didn't it would not 



