98 FISHEjRMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



In the meantime, the crews of the other vessels had not been idle, for, 

 taking advantage of any favorable circumstance, they had endeavored, like 

 ourselves, to haul their trawls. Three of the Alfred Walen's crew had a 

 narrow escape from what promised much suffering, if not death. They were 

 Philip Merchant, William Furley and Thomas Olsen. When the area of 

 clear water, that I have before spoken of, came along, they started out to 

 get their trawl, the vessel still remaining at anchor. They were caught in 

 the ice, and although they held on to the trawl, which was the only thing 

 they could do, the floe carried them adrift, and their chances to reach their 

 vessel again were looking slim, when, late in the afternoon, the Lizzie K. 

 Clark spoke the Walen, and the skipper of the latter requested Captain 

 Murphy (as his — Murphy's — vessel was under sail) to go to their assistance. 

 The Clark immediately kept off, but as she had to force her way through 

 the ice, it was just growing dark when she reached the drifting boat, and 

 past nine o'clock when she got back to the Walen. The dory was nearly 

 three miles from the Walen when picked up, and such a timely rescue must 

 have been gratefully appreciated by men fatigued, hungry and chilled to the 

 marrow. 



After the Clark reached the Walen she made fast to the stern of the lat- 

 ter with a long warp for the night, the only instance of one vessel lying fast 

 to another on the Grand Bank I ever knew of, and I think the only one on 

 record.* 



We kept under sail during the night succeeding the day of which I have 

 been writing, and held our position by observing the riding lights of the 

 other vessels. The following morning we anchored. We had foggy weather 

 after this for the three days we stayed there, which made trawling somewhat 

 dangerous ; for, although the main floe had passed by, detached pieces and 

 long narrow streaks of ice kept coming along, and, oftentimes, when the 

 dories were caught to leeward of these, the men had great difficulty in work- 

 ing their way through or over them. Frequently the boats had to be hauled 

 over the ice for a distance of one or two hundred yards. This trouble was 

 increased by the denseness ofthe fog, which shut out from view all but the 

 nearest objects, and the fisherman leaving the side of his vessel felt that 

 the thick mist, which hung like a pall over the face of the sea, rendered his 

 task more perilous and uncertain than ever before, hiding as it might a vast 

 floe of ice which would carry him away with it to drift helplessly until he 

 succumbed to cold and hunger. Fortunately, however, no niDre serious ad- 

 venture occurred than that already mentioned, though the men comprising 

 the crews of the entire fleet did not hesitate to brave the unknown perils 

 incident to the occasion. 



♦The ice made the water as smooth as a mill pond. 



