136 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



a calm and fog setting in, I left the schooner in charge of my 

 brother Will, to take her back to Nepisat, while I took a 

 dory and four men to row to Holsteinborg, a distance of about 

 eleven miles. We arrived there about ten o'clock at night. 

 On entering the harbor we were greeted by the Eskimos, who 

 informed us that Dr. Cook was at the governor's house, and 

 we were escorted there by the entire settlement of Eskimos. 

 I found Dr. Cook and his party, and he informed me that 

 together with five Eskimos they had made the passage in an 

 open boat from Sukkertoppen to Holsteinborg, a distance of 

 ninety-five miles, or one hundred and forty miles, as they 

 had to row it along the coast. They had arrived at Holstein- 

 borg the day before, after a stormy passage of five days. Dr. 

 Cook said that their steamship, the Miranda, of Liverpool, 

 England, had struck a rock while going out of Sukkertoppen, 

 and that there was a leak in her bottom that let the water 

 into the tank for water-ballast ; the tank had quickly filled 

 with water, and the pumps could not reduce it. The ship 

 would float as long as the tank could bear the strain of the 

 pressure thus brought to bear upon it, but if the tank should 

 burst the ship would sink immediately. Dr. Cook wanted a 

 vessel to convey the passengers to some place of communic a- 

 tion with their homes, and some one to accompany the ship 

 to some place where she could be repaired. He had a letter 

 from Captain W. J. Farrell, of the S.S. Miranda, which ran as 



follows : 



" Sukkertoppen. South Greenland, August 10, 1894. 

 " To Whom it May Concern. 



Dkar Sir : — The steamer Miranda, of Liverpool, England, from 

 New York, with Dr. Frederick A. Cook's Arctic expedition, struck 

 a sunken rock seven miles southwest of this harbor. The ship is 

 making water. Dr. Cook is going to you for immediate assistance, 

 which please send, as we are in distress. 

 " Yours truly, 



" Captain W. J. Farrell, 



" Master of S.S. Miranda.'* 



