120 . DANGERS IN 



beset. They ranged themselves under the shelter 

 of a large floe, having water barely sufficient to float 

 them. Here they formed a line, one behind another, 

 standing close, stern to stern, 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 in- 

 terval. In the evening of the 24th 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 floe was driven 

 upon them, with a violence completely irresistible. 

 The Eliza Swan of Montrose received the first 

 shock, and was saved only by the ice raising her up. 

 It next struck the St. Andrew of Aberdeen midship, 

 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 stern. Now, 

 however, pursuing its career, it reached successively 

 the Baffin of Leith ; the Achilles of Dundee ; the 

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

 Leith, and dashed against them with such tremen- 

 dous fury, that these four noble vessels, which had 

 braved for years the tempests of the Polar deep, 

 were, in a quarter of an hour, shattered into frag- 

 ments. The scene was awful, the grinding noise 

 of the ice tearing upon their sides, the masts break- 

 ing off and falling in every direction were added 

 to the cries of two hundred sailors leaping upon the 

 frozen surface, with only such portions of their 



