172 WILHELM LAUB. 
were constantly made to bale out the vessel, but with two men, one 
of whom was just recovering from an illness, no result was arrived 
at, and the ship continued to sink day by day. 
On the 25th of May another attempt was made to bale her out 
with both pumps working; four hands took turns at pumping and made 
the water in the ship sink 65 cm. At this time the pumps had been 
worked for three hours. Two men now stayed at the pumps, whilst 
the other two brought seven barrels of flour and some coal — which 
had been under water and were still partially so — out of the hold. 
But it soon appeared that two men could not keep the water in check. 
After an hour and a half it had increased 8 cm and rose still further, 
as soon as the pumping stopped, 25cm in the course of half an hour. 
An hour later we again took soundings, and the water level was then 
the same as when the pumping began. It was, therefore, obvious that. 
two men constantly working the pumps were unable to keep the vessel dry. 
We cannot decide where the leak is, but what we can assert is. 
the following: 
1) The mast had sunk 13 cm and therefore the keel or keelson must 
have been broken, presumably during her passage through the ice. 
2) On her port side about one metre and a quarter abaft the mast 
she has got a dent, so that both her side and the inside iron stringer 
are strained, and the deck planks have parted and gape about 2 cm 
on a length of about 2 metres. 
) Through her heeling over to starboard the bow has become so strained 
that the side planks from two planks under the upper side of the 
ice Sheathing and up to the upper side of the railing has sprung 
from the bow and gapes about 2 cm. 
Moreover she has probably sprung a leak at the stern tube, the result 
of the damage caused to the rudder and propeller shaft during her 
passage through the ice. 
Oo 
— 
> 
The ship is still carried by the ice, but she is down so much by 
the stern and has heeled over so that the deck by the starboard railing 
is under water. The heavy weight aft (the motor) is probably the cause 
of the ice being pressed down and resting on the bottom. Astern at 
low water when she lay in her winter quarters there was about 3'/2m 
of water. As soon as the ice breaks up, it is to be presumed that the 
vessel will sink entirely. As the locality of the winter quarters is not 
favourable for hauling her ashore, and as the expedition does not pos- 
sess suitable tackle for raising and subsequently repairing her, we regard 
it as more practicable, as long as she is kept up by the ice, to take suf- 
ficient timber from her to build a house ashore in case of our being forced 
to pass another winter here, 
Captain MIKKELSEN not being present, I have consulted the other 
