8 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
plainly visible. We were on 75°35’ М. Lat. and 17°05’ W. Long. and had to 
keep away to the east, hoping to reach the open water which was plainly 
indicated on the black sky. But a gale sprang up from N E, the ice 
closed down оп us, and the young ice, which was 6 mm thick, prevented 
our manoeuvring freely. This young ice had been forming for some 
days and had hindered us very much, as the motor-power of the ship 
was too small to force the vessel through newly formed ice even less 
than 1%, cm thick. 
It very soon became impossible to advance against the oncoming 
gale, the young ice and the densely packed floes, so we were compelled 
to make fast to an ice-floe after having failed to retrace our steps towards 
Shannon Island, where open water was visible. The whole night between 
Aug. 20th and 21st was spent in moving about in the continually dimi- 
nishing waterpond, and in the morning, August 215, we were beset 
for good, as two floes crashed together just ahead of us. We were forced 
to make fast in asmall bight forming in one of the ice-floes, where we soon 
became beset by smaller floes drifting down upon us. A gale now was 
blowing from N E, and all day long we drifted to the south with fair 
speed (1% mile an hour), but we were not exposed to serious pressures. 
On August 22nd 6a.m. the floe to which we had made fast broke 
in two, and we were exposed to very severe pressure, which however 
did us no harm. Half an hour later the motion in the ice began afresh, 
and a large piece of ice was forced underneath the vessel, causing her to 
list to starboard. Another piece of ice, about 3—6 metres broad, was 
raised on end and pushed down under our stern, jamming the rudder 
hard to starboard and snapping the tiller. The slightest additional 
motion would have broken off the rudder and damaged our stern besides 
breaking our propeller, but fortunately the pressure stopped at this critical 
moment leaving the ship wedged into the ice. However, it was impos- 
sible to do anything whatsoever to extricate ourselves, as the ship was 
beset fore as well as aft (Fig. 1). 
The belt of ice which separated us from the open water of Shannon 
Island was only a mile broad, and this made our risk all the greater, as 
we were drifting towards the south along the line of grounded icebergs, 
which often set the surrounding ice-floes in motion. А slackening in 
the ice of short duration rightened the vessel, but otherwise it made 
no change at all in our position, as the pieces of ice under our stern 
remained wedged down as hard as ever and could not be moved in 
spite of all our efforts. | 
The ice showed signs of slackening in the early morning of August 23rd, 
and everything was ready to go ahead at the first opportunity. It came, 
and the heavy pressure-ridge astern disappeared in less than five minutes, 
leaving the ship in comparatively open water. The weather had calmed 
down, and we could go ahead, but the ice was still packed close, and we 
