Report on the expedition. 9 
had only advanced a few hundred metres, when once more we were 
obliged to tie up to a floe. The ship was again exposed to a frightful 
strain and was lifted out of the water, however without suffering any 
injuries, but later on, at 6,30 а. т., the ship was bodily lifted 14% meter 
out of the water and listed so much to port that the keel became visible. 
In this position she remained for about 10 minutes, before she slid back 
into the water with the propeller-shaft bent, the rudder sprained and 
probably the injury which later on made her a wreck. 
Everything had been prepared to leave the ship at short notice, 
and the sledges were standing ready on the ice; our kerosene had been 
deposited on a high hummock, and provisions and clothing were stowed 
on deck, so that we could have left the ship in less than 10 minutes with 
everything to support ourselves through a whole winter in the packice. 
This was the last real danger to which the “Alabama” was exposed, 
but she had to put up with numerous smaller onsets, before she was 
finally relieved on Aug. 24th 11 a.m. when IVERSEN, assisted by UNGER, 
had got the shalt straightened and the motor in working order — а 
truly splendid piece of work. We had been beset in the ice for four 
days in all, and during this period we had drifted down abreast of Bass 
Rock thus covering a distance of 60 miles, with an average of 0,6 mile 
an hour. 
After three hours of hard work we got the ship into open water, 
a broad channel going almost all the way to Shannon Island. However 
we were stopped once more just south of the island and had a last and 
rather exciting case of manoeuvring through the ice, but owing to the 
fact that there was no great force behind the small surrounding ice-floes 
we ventured to put the ship into a nip and allowed the ice to crush about 
us, thus using the usual slackening following immediately upon a crush 
to advance a few metres, and at last, on August 25th at 3 a. m., we reached 
Cape Philip Broke and anchored in a small cove, just north of the 
cape. 
The land surrounding-the cove, in which we anchored, was very 
low, except at the southerly point where a steep basalt coast rose straight 
from the water’s edge. On the low, muddy beach, now frozen but very 
soft during the summer, we saw numerous tracks of musk-ox and 
found the horns of a reindeer. The wading birds had not yet left the 
country in spite of the fact that all water pools were frozen over, and 
the new breed of eiderducks were not even able to fly. 
The waters to the north of Cape Philip Broke are fraught with 
great dangers for ships trying to anchor there, and we found numerous 
outlying rocks, which were only visible from the crow’s nest. Seaweed 
however grows on the rocks and may serve as a warning if noticed in 
time. 
After a short stay we proceeded along the coast to the north, passing 
