32 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



with falling water, and had to leave her on the wreck until the 

 next flood. During the hours between the grounding and the 

 next high water (at 5 P.M.) the crew were trying to locate the 

 anchor and chain, but with scant success, as it had fallen 

 among a lot of old iron and was well hidden. 



The after-crowd went ashore to say " How do you do " to the 

 inhabitants of the place, and were very well treated. Mr. 

 Schroder, the manager of the North-West trading post, kindly 

 offered us his grapples and anything we might want in order 

 to find the anchor, but he thought it very unlikely that we 

 should see it again. After walking round the little cluster of 

 houses all exactly alike, built of wood, and painted grey, with 

 red roofs we made up our minds that there would be no 

 excitement anywhere, and returned to the ship. 



At 5 P.M. the Duchess of Bedford was refloated without any 

 trouble whatever, and anchored in ten fathoms of water. The 

 lost anchor and chain we had not yet been able to locate, 

 although we thought that we had got hold of the chain a couple 

 of times, but, as it was too heavy to lift, we had to let it go 

 again. Once we were sure we had caught it, and got another 

 boat to help, but after an hour's work we only brought to light 

 an old grass rope which had originally belonged to our old 

 friend the steamer. 



From Saturday, June 23, to Tuesday, June 26, we stayed in 

 Dutch Harbour. The first day or two were spent in looking 

 for our lost anchor and chain, and for the rest of the time we 

 sat on board listening to the howling of a blizzard from the 

 south-west. It was our best chain that had gone, and we were 

 much afraid that our remaining one would not be strong enough 

 to stand the strain. We spent some very unpleasant hours 

 anticipating all kinds of disasters from the snapping of our 

 chain. That the ship would drift ashore was certain, that it 

 would break up was almost certain, but, what was worse than 

 both of these things, the expedition would then end, and with 

 it our high hopes of doing good work. 



But the gale at last spent itself, and the chain held. The 

 United States lighthouse tender, S.S. Heather, had come in port 

 for coal, and I went on board and saw the chief of the light- 

 house service in the Northern Pacific, Commander Werlish, 

 U.S.N. As soon as he heard about our trouble he kindly 



