670 APPENDIX 



the ice threatened to rush in over the vessel. We found that 

 a tremendous ice-floe had been pressed up over the edge of 

 the ice astern, and came gh'ding along unchecked until it ran 

 right against our stern. But the Fram had borne shocks like 

 this before, and now again she held her own well. The ice was 

 split against the strong stern, and lay shattered on both sides 

 of the ship on a level with the edge of the half-deck all the 

 way forward to the mizzen-shrouds. The ship now lay almost 

 loose in her berth, and the ice round about was broken up into 

 a mass of smaller floes. As these were passed down by the 

 heavy drifts, it was hard work to get round the ship, as one ran 

 the risk of plumping down into the slush at any moment. 



Late in the afternoon of May 13th the lane between the 

 forge and the ship began to widen very much, so that in a 

 couple of hours' time it was about 90 yards wide. From the 

 crow's-nest I saw on the southeast a large channel extending 

 southward as far as I could see, and the channel abaft us ex- 

 tended to the northeast as far as my sight could reach. I 

 therefore went out in the " pram " to try to find a passage 

 through to the channel on the southeast, but without result. 

 After supper I was off again southward, but I could not find 

 any thoroughfare. At 10 o'clock in the evening I again went up 

 in the crow's-nest, and now saw that the channel had widened 

 considerably and reached away southward as far as the eye could 

 reach, with dark air over it. 



Scott-Hansen and I deliberated as to what was to be done. 

 Although I did not believe it would do much good under the 

 circumstances, we decided upon an attempt to blast the vessel 

 free. We agreed to try some mines right aft, and all hands were 

 at once put to this work. First we fired six powder-mines at 

 about the same spot, but without much result. Then we made 

 an unsuccessful trial with gun-cotton. At 3 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing we concluded operations for the time being, as the ice was 

 so thick that the drill did not reach through, and the slush so 

 bad that it was impossible to get the ice-floes shoved away. At 

 8 o'clock the next morning we laid two new mines, which Scott- 

 Hansen and Nordahl had made ready during the night, but 



