OLD WHALING DAYS. 155 



moderated, and we did not go on board, but followed the 

 usual routine of rock-nosing until night, then pulled to 

 the ship, and were heartily glad to change our clothes and 

 get to bed. After leaving our place of shelter, we found 

 out that if we had pulled to the south part of the island we 

 could have landed on a fine sandy beach and smooth 

 water, where we might have rigged our tents, and spent a 

 more comfortable night on the land, but we thought the 

 wind was more on that side. 



On another occasion, the ice set into the harbour and we 

 could not get the boats within three miles of the ship. 

 There was no place to beach them, on account of the rocky 

 nature of the land, and it was not safe to leave them on the 

 ice, so the only alternative was to launch them to the ship, 

 but the ice was in such a broken condition that it took two 

 crews to launch one boat. By midnight we had three boats 

 on board. Many men had slipped in the water, and all 

 were more or less wet. 



After staying on board a short time we returned for the 

 other three boats, and by six a.m. had them also safely at 

 the ship. The watch was set, and everybody got thoroughly 

 refreshed. During the whole of the day it snowed heavily. 



The following day the wind came from the westward, 

 which cleared the loose ice out of the harbour, so that the 

 boats could go away again. While they were away the wind 

 freshened, and brought down a large piece of floe which had 

 broken from the head of the harbour, and was drifting in the 

 direction of the ship. Those on board pulled to the floe 

 and drilled holes in it before it reached us, and put in 

 several powerful blasts of powder which split it in several 

 pieces. If we had not taken this precaution, probably the 

 chain would have parted, and we should have lost an anchor 

 and seventy-five fathoms of chain cable before steam could 

 be raised. As it was, the strain upon the windlass was very 

 heavy. 



