HOMEWARD FROM BERING ISLAND 185 



but which was now hindering the progress of our vessel, the island 

 was lost entirely from view. The wind and weather being very 

 favorable, we now continued on the course towards Avacha west 

 by south. However, towards midnight we were suddenly fright- 

 ened in the extreme, because the ship began filling with water 

 from an unknown leak. Owing to the cramped space and full- 

 loaded condition of the vessel it was very difficult to locate the 

 leak quickly. The pumps, since it had been forgotten to place 

 kettles [strainers?] under them, were soon clogged up with chips 

 which had been left in the hold, and with each minute the danger 

 became greater, as the wind was high and our craft was not too 

 strongly built. Under these circumstances the sails were short- 

 ened at once; some moved baggage out of the way in order to 

 look for the leak, others bailed out the water with kettles without 

 stopping, and still others threw into the sea the cannon balls and 

 grapeshot which we had taken with us from shore. To our great 

 good fortune the carpenter, after the ship had been lightened, 

 succeeded in locating the leak, by conjecture, below ^^^ ^^g water 

 line and plugged it up, so that we were saved this time also from 

 the danger of foundering. Warned by this accident steps were 

 taken to correct the defect and to set kettles [strainers?] under the 

 pumps in the bilge. The leak, however, was really due to the 

 straining of the frame by the action of the jacks while lifting the 

 ship at the launching.*^^ 



On August 16 we continued on the same course. Early on 

 Tuesday, the ijth,''^'' we suddenly caught sight of the mainland 



«2 The MS has "above." This diametrically opposite statement pos- 

 sibly implies that through the lightening of the ship the leak had changed 

 in position from below to above the water line. 



^'"^ This sentence is fuller in the MS and reads as follows: "It was also 

 observed that the leak had developed at the time when the vessel had 

 been raised from the sagging ways by means of jacks whose upper parts 

 were placed below the water line, and the planks were displaced the more 

 easily since they were fastened only with iron nails without any wooden 

 pins, in order to hasten the construction." 



*5* Here Steller's reckoning coincides with that of the log book (Vol. i, 

 p. 247, footnote 134), in which the sighting of Cape Kronotski is recorded 

 at 9.30 A. M., August 17 (both astronomical and civil date). 



