WONDERFUL ESCAPE OF THE TRAFALGAR. 165 



Poor Captain Deuchars thus lost his breakfast and his ship 

 within ten minutes. 



A wonderful case of deliverance from apparently certain 

 destruction among the ice is recorded of the Trafalgar^ an 

 Arctic whale-ship. The account is given by Mr. Gibson, 

 surgeon of the ship : 



" Blowing a fresh gale, with rain, the floe to which the 

 vessel was made fast set down under the lee ice, so as to 

 render our situation perilous. Towards midnight we became 

 unexpectedly entangled among heavy pieces of ice and floes, 

 when the ship received some severe blows on her beams. 

 Finding it impossible to get out, we lay to, and in half an 

 hour the ship was close beset. Though I retired to bed 

 when the ship was enclosed, I expected every minute to be 

 called to quit it. Soon after, a large piece of ice pressing on 

 the vessel opposite my bed-cabin, broke two or three of the 

 timbers with a dismal noise. Thinking all was over, I sprang 

 out of bed and found to my great consternation that the 

 ship was under an enormous pressure from numerous large 

 masses of ice surrounding her on all sides, without an open- 

 ing of water sufficient for about two miles ; and no other 

 ship was in sight, although the weather was clear. Most of 

 the crew were providing for shipwreck, and many of the peo- 

 ple were supplicating Divine mercy for deliverance. Four 

 days* allowance were cooked with all speed, other provisions 

 were taken on deck, and everything of importance placed in 

 readiness to be thrown on the ice. At noon, the man on the 

 mast-head saw a ship, on which we instantly made signals of 

 distress. At this time a dead silence prevailed throughout 

 the ship, the crew looking on one another in awful suspense. 

 At one time the pressure was so strong that the panels of 

 the captain's state-room were forced out of their framing. 

 About half an hour after this the ship was suddenly thrown 

 upon her larboard side, on which all hands sprang upon 

 deck. I shall never forget the confusion of the poor men, 



