70 OLD WHALING DAYS. 



near to Goodhavn, in the island of Disco. Captain 

 Parker not being able to get into Cumberland Gulf on 

 account of the vast amount of ice which laid off that place, 

 as the preceding chapter relates. The crew of the Emma 

 had killed two whales in the month of February, and seen 

 great numbers, but owing to the young ice forming it was 

 difficult to get near them. They stated that the month of 

 February was much milder than the beginning of May. 

 All the ships now began to make the best of their way 

 north, with the usual routine of tracking and towing when it 

 was calm weather, until the north water was sighted off Cape 

 York. A strong wind sprang up from the S.W., which 

 quickly closed the ice. All sail was carried on by the 

 ships to reach the water before the ice came upon us. 

 Several succeeded in getting into it, and were closely 

 followed by the Heroine and Princess Charlotte, both 

 belonging to Dundee. A large sconce lay between the two 

 floes, leaving a ship's breadth clear on either side. The 

 Heroine took the weather side, and the Princess Charlotte 

 the lee side, which could not be avoided. The ice was 

 closing so rapidly that it squeezed the former into clear 

 water and jammed the latter between the floes. In less 

 than ten minutes the ice went through her, and the masts 

 were laid on it. The crew had scarcely time to save their 

 clothes, and the master only time enough to get down from 

 the crow's nest. She had all sail set when her masts fell, 

 and her cargo consisted of five whales, seventy-five tons of 

 oil, and four and a half tons of whalebone. 



The other vessels, which were close astern, were soon 

 fast, then came the heavy pressures upon them, and a scene 

 of the greatest confusion, what with the roaring of the gale 

 and the crashing of the ice, the crews of the ships launching 

 their boats away into safety, getting their clothes and 

 provisions on the ice in case their vessels should share the 

 same fate as the Princess Charlotte. Imagine the com- 



