OLD WHALING DAYS. in 



the bluff of the port bow, which stove her so that she 

 foundered in four hours. All hands were saved by the 

 ships they had so recently ignored. But what a serious loss 

 to the enterprising owners. Several iron steamers belonging 

 to Hull, called the Emeline, Gertrude, Corkscrew, Labuan, 

 and the Wildfire, a wooden sailing vessel, were fortified and 

 proceeded to the seal fishery. Most of them came back 

 empty and damaged. One called the Labuan captured 

 between eight and ten thousand seals. This year proved that 

 iron steamers, however strongly built, were not suitable 

 vessels to contend with the Greenland pack. The winds 

 prevailed from the eastward, and blew heavy at times, 

 which caused the sailing vessels to be wary, and keep 

 off the heavy tight-packed ice. After one easterly 

 gale had subsided, and the wind changed to the 

 westward, we worked the ship towards the edge of 

 the ice to the northward of Jan Mayen's Island. We 

 had an idea that the body of seals were in that 

 direction inside of the ice, which proved to be the 

 case. On arriving at the pack edge at the bottom of the 

 bight, the ice was still tight. We dodged about, waiting 

 for it to slack, but it was otherwise ordained, for suddenly 

 the wind veered to the eastward and commenced to blow. 

 We carried all possible sail to beat off the lee ice, but 

 could not do so. The gale increased, so we had no other 

 alternative than to take the pack, which is a last resource. 

 All hands were called to attend the ship. The master was 

 at the mast head looking for the best place for this purpose. 

 In taking the pack in a gale of wind the scene is most 

 terrible, and makes many a stout heart quail for what 

 may be their fate in a short time. The roaring of the gale, 

 the dreaded white breakers on the heavy ice, and the 

 anxious looks of all on board as they hear the ice crashing, 

 make all aware that the first piece they strike might knock 

 the ship's bows in, when there would be little chance 



