THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 53 



inside lane, working their way eastward. These reflections corre- 

 sponded to the facts as we learned them later. 



It was on the thirteenth of August that we tied up to the ice to 

 move no more under our own power, and by the middle of Sep- 

 tember we seemed to have stopped moving at all. As we drifted 

 west we had been edging nearer to land, until finally v\^e got inside 

 the line of Cape Halkett into Harrison Bay, and were set fast 

 off the mouth of the Colville River, not far to seaward from 

 where we had gone temporarily aground about a month before. 



After we had been motionless for more than a week both 

 Bartlett and I came to the opinion that we were likely not to 

 move again before the next summer.* If it proved an ordinary 

 winter we expected to remain safely embedded in that part of 

 the sea ice which is frozen to the land — the floe edge, or the meet- 

 ing-place of the landfast ice and the moving sea pack, being to 

 seaward of us. We realized, however, that with a very bad gale 

 a floe line between the ship and the land might possibly be estab- 

 lished. 



I have pointed out before that with east winds the ice on the 

 northeast coast of Alaska, contrary to what might be expected, 

 will move away from land. This is true only with mild winds and 

 is not true with these if they persist a long time. A real gale or 

 a strong breeze of long duration will bring the ice back in, and 

 cause pressure likely to crush any ship that is ice-embedded. 

 But a west wind, although blowing off the land will set the sea 

 pack grinding eastward along the edge of the land floe. 



We thought, therefore, that any of the following things might 

 happen: First, with a mild east wind the ice would break outside 

 the Karluk and move westward offshore, leaving her unmoved and 

 unconcerned. Second, the east wind might persist for a long time 

 or develop into a strong gale; in which case the ice that had tem- 

 porarily gone abroad would come in against the shore ice, crump- 

 ling it up into pressure-ridges, crushing the ship or failing to crush 

 her exactly according to luck. Third, a light west wind might 

 break the ice outside, leaving her again unaffected; or, Fourth, if it 

 were a strong gale it might carry her to the eastward, grinding 

 along in the pack, leaving her afloat or sinking her, again accord- 

 ing to fortune. What seemed clear to both Bartlett and me was 

 that nothing could be done except to make preparations for taking 

 the men safety ashore in case of wreck; and we thought that if 



* See "Last Voyage of the Karluk;' by R. A. Bartlett and Ralph T. Hale, 

 Boston, 1916, p. 35 ff. 



