NINE MONTHS IN THE ARCTIC. 53 



CHAPTER III. 



Northern Lights. — High Winds. — Spoke with Captain Clough. — 

 Ships seen in the Distance. — Storm increasing. — No Observations. 

 — Blowing heavily. — Scene awfully sublime. — Ship struck by a 

 Sea. — Shoal Water. — Hocks and Breakers. — Ship unmanageable. 

 1 — Fore and mizzen Topsails carried away. —Ship striking astern, 

 bow, and midships. — Foremast cut away. — Narrow Escape of 

 Captain Norton. — Mizzenmast gone by the Board. — Sad Condition 

 of the Seamen. — Land in Sight. — Ship drifting towards the Shore. 

 ■ — Undertow. — The Lantern Keg. — Mainmast cut away, and fall- 

 ing towards the Shore. — Men escaping on the Mast. — Trying 

 Scene. — > Captain washed ashore. — Affecting Deaths. —Wreck 

 piled up on Shore. — Fire made. — Men perishing with Cold — 

 Five missing. — Prospects dark. — Destitution. — Tent erected. — 

 Merciful Circumstances connected with the Wreck. 



On the 21st of September, we finished cutting 

 in a whale, about twelve o'clock, midnight, wind 

 high from the north-east. The northern lights 

 were uncommonly brilliant, which prognosticated 

 a storm ; and the broken water and flying spray 

 round the vessel seemed as if composed of an 

 infinite number of diamonds glistening in the 

 rays of the sun. 



The season of the year had now arrived in 

 which, in those high latitudes, sudden changes 

 and violent storms were expected. At three 

 o'clock on the morning of the 22d, the ship was 



