THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 753 



could tell. Thus passed the fall of 1879, the whole of 1880, 

 and the spring of 1881, with dull monotony and hopeless long- 

 ings. At last, on June 10th, 1881, the ice suddenly opened 

 alongside the vessel, and she righted to an even keel. There was 

 now a rift through the great field of ice in which the Jeannette 

 lay, but her injuries were such that constant pumping was neces- 

 sary ; the gravest danger, however, was to be apprehended from 

 the parted floes, which were liable to come together at any 

 moment, in which event DeLong knew that the vessel would be 

 crushed like an egg-shell. Every man, therefore, trembled with 

 anxiety at the threatened calamity, which appeared impending, 

 and they worked with almost superhuman energy, driving up the 

 detached ice between the floes so as to fill the breach near the 

 ship and relieve her from the pressure should the floes again drift 

 together. DeLong's journal of June 12th reads as follows : 



"At 7 :30 A. M. the ice commenced to move toward the port 

 side, but after advancing a foot or two came to rest. Employed 

 one watcn in hauling heavy floe into a small canal on the port 

 bow, to close it up and receive the greater part of the thrust. 



" At 4 P. M. the ice came down in great force all along the port 

 side, jamming the ship hard against the ice on the starboard side, 

 causing her to keel 16 to starboard. From the snapping and 

 cracking of the bunker sides and starting in of the starboard 

 ceilin"-, as well as the opening of the seams in the ceiling to the 

 width of one and one-fourth inches, it was feared that the ship 

 was about to be seriously endangered, and orders were accord- 

 ingly given to lower the starboard boats and haul them away 

 from the ship to a safe position on the ice-floe. This was done 

 quietly and without confusion. The ice, in coming in on the port 

 side, also had a movement toward the stern, and this last move- 

 ment not only raised her port bow, but buried the starboard 

 quarter, and jamming it and the stern against the heavy ice, effec- 

 tually prevented the ship rising to pressure. Mr. Melville (chief 

 engineer), while below in the engine-room, saw a break across 

 the ship in the wake of the boilers and engines, showing that so 

 solidly were the stern and starboard quarters held by the ice that 

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