THE DEEDS OF HEROES 199 



hands in agony of heart ; and those strong men, 

 with nerves of iron, wept like children. 



The storm raged all Saturday night, and from many 

 a little home the men were still missing. During 

 the long hours hope and despair alternated in many 

 anxious hearts, for all knew they had drifted across 

 the bay, and none knew what their fate might be. 



At noon on Sunday a woman, at Heart's Content, 

 on the southern side, happened to notice, far out in 

 the bay, a small boat drifting helplessly about. But 

 for this all must have perished. Rescue parties were 

 at once formed, and soon five boats, with seventeen 

 men, some in the last stage of exhaustion from the 

 exposure of that awful night, were brought ashore. 

 These men had spent the night on the ice ; they had 

 broken up and burnt two boats, which, with the fat 

 of two seals they had killed, had kept off the worst 

 of the cold, while some of the fresh meat, roasted in 

 the flames, had helped to assuage the pangs of hunger 

 and maintain the bodily heat. All these were more 

 or less severely frost-bitten, but, with the loss of 

 fingers, toes, or heels, all recovered. Later in the 

 day the rest of the boats were seen, and twenty- 

 seven more men rescued. One of these men, Patrick 

 Hanlan, thus described his experiences : 



" The spray was continually going over us, and 

 freezing, and we soon saw it was impossible to reach 

 land on the north side of the bay without running 

 the risk of freezing to death. After a time we gave 

 her a little sheet, and ran her for a pan of ice. Got 



