178 THE SEA. 



His mercy. God was merciful to us; and the tide almost miraculously fell no lower/' 

 They were spared, and on the weather clearing discovered that they were about the centre 

 of the Welcome. The spot where they had been in such imminent danger was named 

 appropriately the Bay of God's Mercy. 



In the middle of September, when off the mouth of the Wager River, a gale arose, and. 

 the sluggish Griper made no progress, but " remained actually pitching forecastle under, with 

 scarcely steerage way." The ship was brought up, and the anchors fortunately held. Thick- 

 falling sleet covered the decks to some inches in depth, and withal the spray froze as it fell. The 

 night was pitchy dark; several streams of drift ice came driving down upon the ship. Lyon 

 says that it was not possible to stand below decks, while on deck ropes had to be stretched from 

 side to side for the men to hold by. Great seas washed over them every minute, and the tem- 

 porary warmth this gave them was most painfully checked by the water immediately freezing 

 on their clothes. At dawn on the 13th their best bower anchor parted, and later all the cables 

 gave way. The ship was lying on her broadside. Nevertheless, each man stood to his station, 

 and in the end seamanship triumphed ; the crippled ship was brought safely to England. 

 The cool, unflinching courage of the men and the undisturbed conduct of the officers were 

 matters for highest praise. The royal navy could not be proud of the Griper, but could, most 

 assuredly, of the Griper's crew. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



PARRY'S BOAT AND SLEDGE EXPEDITICXNT. 



Parry's Attempt at the Pole Hecla Cove Boat and Sledge Expedition Mode of Travelling Their Camps Laborious 

 Efforts Broken Ice Midnight Dinners and Afternoon Breakfasts Labours of Sisyphus Drifting Ice Highest 

 Latitude Reached Return Trip to the Ship Parry's Subsequent Career Wrangell's Ice Journeys. 



UNDAUNTED by the comparative failure of his last voyage, we find Parry in 1820 proposing an 

 attempt to reach the North Pole with sledge-boats over the ice. The reports of several navi- 

 gators who had visited Spitsbergen agreed in one point that the ice to the northward was of a 

 nature favourable to such a project. In the two narratives descriptive of Captain Phipps's 

 expedition in 1773 the ice was mentioned as "flat and unbroken," " one continued plain," and 

 so forth. Scoresby the younger, speaking of the ice in the same region, stated that he once 

 saw a field so free from fissure or hummock that he imagined, "had it been free from snow, a 

 coach might have been driven many leagues over it in a direct line without obstruction or 

 danger." Franklin had previously mooted a very similar proposition to that now made by 

 Parry, and his plans were followed in many essential particulars when the sanction of the 

 Admiralty had been given to the attempt. Two twenty-feet boats were specially constructed, 

 nearly resembling what were called " troop-boats," having great flatness of floor, with an even 

 width almost to bows and stern. They were provided with strong " runners," shod with steel 

 in the manner of a sledge, and their construction generally was such as to combine lightness 

 with strength. A bamboo mast, a large sail answering also for an awning fourteen paddles, 

 a steer-oar, and a boat-hook, formed an essential part of the equipment of each. 



The Hecla left the Nore April 4th, 1827, on this her fourth Arctic voyage; and the 



