642 APPENDIX 



deck half an hour later the Frai/i was already drifting down 

 through the channel. All hands were called up immediately, 

 and with our united strength we succeeded in hauling the vessel 

 up to the floe again and mooring her securely. 



As we were desirous of getting the Frani quite clear of the 

 ice-bed in which she had been lying so long, I determined to try 

 blasting her loose. The next day, therefore, August 9th, at 

 7.30 P.M., we fired a mine of about 7 pounds of gunpowder, 

 placed under the floe 6 feet from the stern of the vessel. 

 There was a violent shock in the vessel when the mine exploded, 

 but the ice was apparently unbroken. A lively discussion arose 

 touching the question of blasting. The majority believed that 

 the mine was not powerful enough; one even maintained that 

 the quantity of gunpowder used should have been 40 or 50 

 pounds. But just as we were in the heat of the debate the floe 

 suddenly burst. Big lumps of ice from below the ship came 

 driving up through the openings : the Fravi gave a great heave 

 with her stern, started forward and began to roll heavily, as if to 

 shake ofT the fetters of ice, and then plunged with a great splash 

 out into the water. The way on her was so strong that one of 

 the bow hawsers parted, but otherwise the launch went so 

 smoothly that no ship-builder could have wished it better. We 

 moored the stern to the solid edge of ice by means of ice- 

 anchors, which we had recently forged for this purpose. 



Scott-Hansen and Pettersen, however, were very near getting 

 a cold bath. Having laid the mine under the floe, they placed 

 themselves abaft with the " pram," * in order to haul in the 

 string of the fuse. When the floe burst, and the Frani plunged, 

 and the remainder of the floe capsized as soon as it became free 

 of its 600 tons' burden, the two men in the boat were in no 

 pleasant predicament right in the midst of the dangerous mael- 

 strom of waves and pieces of ice ; their faces, especially Petter- 

 sen's, were worth seeing while the boat was dancing about with 

 them in the caldron. 



The vessel now had a slight list to starboard (0.75°), and 



* A small keelless boat. 



