THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN. 261 
day we only made about forty miles, and the second day about twenty. The 
third and fourth days we did not make any distance at all and had as much as 
we could do to save the vessel. The ice set us in off the lower mouth of the 
Youkon in five fathoms of water. At this depth about half the ice was aground 
and the floating ice was carried by it by the current at least three knots an hour. 
The crashing and warring of the ice on ail sides as the drift ice struck that 
aground was demoralizing to weak nerves. Of course we were carried along 
with it and several times were caught in the ‘‘nip’” 
Our engines had no more effect on the vessel than a toy engine would have 
had. We came near losing our rudder, and at times our boats were in danger, 
the ice was so high. The screw steering gear was carried away and the wheel 
chains parted. After realizing the effect of a ‘‘ nip” I saw the necessity of hav- 
ing the rudder so it could be unshipped at short notice. So I went to work, 
fitted a piece of oak plank over the rudder head so that it could not unship itself, 
but can be removed readily if necessary, cut a piece out of the apron the size of 
the rudder casing and cleared the rudder head of the patent steering gear and 
everything that would not go down through the cashing, made a band and put in 
to keep it from cracking, rigged a pair of shears over the stern and made a pur- 
chase, then put all hands at work and carried coal in sacks forward until her stern 
was raised out of water sufficiently to get at the woodlock and split it out. We 
can now unship the rudder and land it on deck in three minutes, and after a little 
practice can do it in two. I think I have no fears of losing it now. 
This is tough business on revenue cutters, I can assure you. If we had not 
forced her through the ice we would not have been able to get far along for three 
weeks yet. I thought it was all up with her on the morning of the 18th. We 
had been at anchor close in under the Cape Romanzoff during a northeast gale 
and snow storm nearly all day of the 17th, and on the 18th it backed to northwest 
right on shore and blew harder yet. The ice had been broken and started off 
shore by the northwest wind, and, of course, as soon as the wind changed it came 
back. We got under way and tried to work out into the pack to keep from going 
ashore, but for a while it showed such a solid front that we could not penetrate 
it The ice kept driving us in shore until we had only two and three-quarter 
fathoms of water, when an opening showed itself and we shot into it and suc- 
ceeded in getting fast to a piece that was aground in five and a half fathoms and 
rode comfortably until the gale broke and the ice started off shore again. ‘The 
plece we made fast to probably covered a surface of four acres, drew thirty-three 
feet of water and was about twenty-five feet high above the water, so you can 
form an idea of what the Behring Sea ice is like. Our pilot says he never saw 
anything like it outside of the Arctic. 
A native has just arrived from the shore with a note from the Alaska Com- 
mercial Company, who reports the winter as having been terrible—very cold, 
with an unusual amount of snow and heavy storms. None of the traders have 
arrived from up the river yet. The wild geese, which usually have their young 
