FAILURE OF PARTIES TO RETURN 295 



At the eleventh hour a walrus swam past the ship. At the middle of 

 the twelfth hour lowered the small boat for the purpose of sending it 

 ashore to help the men in the large boat. 



Noon. The place into which the boat was sent bore ENE^E, 9 

 knots. 



No boat, although we sailed close up to the place into which it went. 



July 24, 1 7 41 



The weather was fair enough for a considerable length of time for the 

 boat to come out; since it did not appear we concluded that it must be 

 damaged and could not. All the officers, higher and lower, were of the 

 opinion (which they put in writing) that it was necessary to find out 

 what was the matter with the boat and for that purpose to send, while 

 the sea was quiet, the small boat with a carpenter and a calker with the 

 necessary tools to repair the boat, as well as provisions, since those 

 ashore had only enough for a week. Boatswain Sidor Savelev volun- 

 teered to take the mechanics ashore, and the sailor Sidor Fadiev, who 

 expressed a desire to go along, was detailed to accompany them. The 

 carpenter's name was Nariazhev Polkovnikov and the calker's was 

 Gorin. They left at one o'clock in the afternoon, and we, having a 

 light wind, followed them to shore. The boatswain had orders that as 

 soon as he landed he should build a fire to notify us of his arrival and to 

 signal the condition of the men and the boat. He was ordered to leave 

 ashore the carpenter and the calker to repair the boat, but he himself 

 was to return without delay to the ship with Dementiev and as many 

 others as he could accommodate. We sailed up quite close to the land, 

 on which a heavy sea was running, so that we had difficulty in getting 

 away, for the sails made little headway against the sea. We saw the 

 boatswain near the shore in the sixth hour of the afternoon ; but he made 

 no signals and, although the weather was fair, did not come back. 



In the fifth hour we brought to in order to wait for the two boats; we 

 watched for signals but in vain; we took soundings and got 65 fathoms 

 and a bottom of big rocks. For two or three versts from shore the 

 water was 70, 65, and 60 fathoms, and the bottom bad. Many rocks 

 were seen both under and above water on which the surf was playing. 

 For these reasons we could not anchor. 



At the seventh hour we came about and moved away from shore 

 because we had no signals from the boatswain and the men. 



At the ninth hour we steered for the shore to watch for signals. Half 

 an hour later we were so close to shore that we could see the rocks and 

 the surf playing on them, but no signals. Because it was night we decided 

 to go a little farther from land. The place where the two boats went 

 bore NEJ^E, 3 knots. We fired a gun as a summons to the men ashore; 

 at the time there was hardly any wind, the ship was making almost no 



