10 <> Admirable conduct of Captain Hudson . .,,, , T>r<rriTri 

 loo and crew A!N J. AxvOJ.lO 



Prov 

 Capta 



'idential escape of the Peacock. 

 ;ain Hudson resolves to return. 



and on one occasion three of the chronometers 

 were thrown out of their beds of sawdust upon 

 their sides. They continued to make but little 

 headway, and the grinding and thumping on the 

 ship was most painful. The hope of extricating her 

 lessened every moment ; for the quantity of ice 

 between them and the sea was increasing, and the 

 ship evidently moved with it to leeward. Few 

 situations could be more trying, but the emergency 

 was met by Captain Hudson with a coolness, perse- 

 verance, and presence of mind, which secured the 

 admiration of all who were present, and inspired 

 full confidence and a firm reliance in his ability to 

 overcome every difficulty that lay within the power 

 of human means. 



In the afternoon of the 25th, the sea continued 

 to increase, and the ship frequently struck against 

 the masses of ice, while every foot they forged 

 ahead carried them seemingly into a more precari- 

 ous situation. At about 3 P.M., they found that 

 the gripe had been beaten off, and they were now 

 bruising up the stem and grinding away the bows. 

 There appeared no other course but to drive her 

 out, which was deemed the only chance of saving 

 the ship and crew. All the canvass that would 

 draw was therefore set to force her through ; and 

 the wind favouring them, they had by four o'clock 

 succeeded in passing the thick and solid ice, and 

 shortly afterwards found themselves in clear water, 

 without a rudder, the gripe gone, and, as was after- 

 wards found, the stem ground down to within an 

 inch and a half of the wood-ends. 



The carpenters were still employed on the rud- 

 der, and had succeeded in removing the broken 

 pieces of the pintles from the second and third 

 braces on the stern-post ; the upper and lower 

 pintles were broken, leaving only two to hang the 

 rudder by. The weather seemed now to favour 

 them, and about ten o'clock they had finished the 

 rudder, which had been repaired in the best possi- 

 ble manner. Great credit is due to Mr. Dibble, 

 the carpenter, (who left his sick bed on the occa- 

 sion,) for his exertions, attention, and perseverance. 

 He and the carpenter's crew worked twenty-four 

 hours without intermission. The ship was now 

 hove-to, for it was apprehended that her rolling 

 would render the task of shipping the rudder 

 troublesome. By meridian they were again in a 

 situation to make sail to extricate themselves from 

 a bay some thirty miles in extent, which, with the 

 exception of the small opening by which they had 

 entered, was apparently closed by the barrier. 



Shortly afterwards, the wind becoming fair, they 

 made all sail for the outlet. The weather proved 

 fine, and the winds moderate. At midnight they 



found the only opening left, which was not more 

 than a quarter of a mile wide ; they succeeded in 

 passing through this, by 2 A.M., in a snow-storm, 

 and felt grateful to God for their providential 

 escape. 



Captain Hudson now came to the conclusion of 

 returning north. " After," as he says, " thoroughly 

 turning over in my own mind the state of the ship, 

 with the head of the rudder gone, hanging by two 

 braces, and in such a state that we could hardly 

 hope to make it answer its purposes again, in en- 

 countering the boisterous weather we should have 

 to pass through before reaching the first port, the 

 ship considerably strained ; her starboard spar- 

 deck bulwarks gone as far forward as the gangway; 

 the gripe off, and the stern mutilated ; fully satis- 

 fied from this state of things that she was perfectly 

 useless for cruising among icebergs, and the accom- 

 panying dangers, in thick foggy weather, to which, 

 in these latitudes, we should be more or less sub- 

 ject, and where rapid evolutions were often neces- 

 sary, in which the rudder must perform its part ; 

 and that the ship would require extensive repairs 

 before being employed in surveying operations ; 

 and feeling that the season was rapidly coming 

 round when our services would be required in that 

 duty, I held a council of the ward-room officers, 

 and required their opinions as to making any fur- 

 ther attempts to cruise in these latitudes. 



" There was but one opinion as to the necessity 

 of the ship's returning north, with the exception of 

 Mr. Emmons and Mr. Baldwin, who thought the 

 rudder might stand, provided we did not get near 

 the ice, or fall in with icebergs. This of course 

 would be to effect little or nothing, and result only 

 in a loss of time. I accordingly put the ship's 

 head north, determined to proceed at once to Syd- 

 ney, to effect the necessary repairs, so as to be 

 ready at the earliest possible day to join the 

 squadron." 



Such were the dangers and difficulties from 

 which the Peacock, by the admirable conduct of 

 her officers and crew, directed by the consummate 

 seamanship of her commander, was enabled at this 

 time to escape. There still, however, remained 

 thousands of miles of a stormy ocean to be encoun- 

 tered, with a ship so crippled as to be hardly capa- 

 ble of working, and injured to such an extent in 

 her hull as to be kept afloat with difficulty. The 

 narrative of the events of this perilous navigation 

 must, however, be postponed, until I shall have 

 given the proceedings of the other vessels of the 

 squadron, while tracing out the position of the icy 

 barrier, and following along the newly-discovered 

 continent. 



