166 APPALLING CALAMITIES TO WHALING VESSELS. 



nor their wild looks when they gained the deck — for half of 

 them were below at the time of the shock, and from the 

 smallness of the hatch only one could get up at a time. Some 

 leaped upon the ship's side and were going upon the ice, 

 when the captain cried out to them to behave like men, and 

 to stick to the ship so long as she remained above the water. 

 We all stood on that part of the vessel nearest the ice, with 

 our bags of clothing on our shoulders. For about fifteen 

 minutes we had patiently waited our doom, w^hen, by the in- 

 terposition of Divine Providence, the wind changed, the ice 

 began to set off from the ship, and in fifteen minutes more 

 she recovered her upright position. The water now rapidly 

 spread among the surrounding ice, and finally the vessel was 

 warped out and floated safely on the waves." 



A feaful series of calamities befell a small squadron of six 

 very fine whaling vessels in 1830, during a storm in Baffin's 

 Bay. Masses of ice were driven upon them, by which they 

 were completely beset. The ships were ranged under the 

 shelter of a large floe,*liaving water barely sufficient to float 

 them. Here they formed a line, one behind the other, stand- 

 ing close, stern to stem, and being at the same time so pressed 

 against the ice, that in some places a boat-hook could with 

 difficulty be inserted in the space. The sky darkened, the 

 gale increased, the floes began to overlap each other, and 

 closed upon the ships in an alarming manner. The sailors 

 then attempted to saw out a sort of dock, where they hoped 

 to be relieved from this severe pressure ; but soon a huge 

 flow was driven upon them with irresistible violence. The 

 Eliza Sivan, of Montrose, received the first shock, and was 

 saved only by the ice raising her up. It next ^struck the 

 St, Andrew, of Aberdeen, amidship, breaking about twenty 

 of her timbers, and staving a number of casks; but it then, 

 fortunately, moved along her side, and went off by the stem. 

 It now reached successively the Baffin^ of Leith ; the Achilles, 

 of Dundee; the Ville de Dieppe, a French ship; and the 



