878 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
fenders. Attempts were again made to plant the ice-anchors, for which 
purpose the boats were lowered; but the confined space, and the force 
with which the pieces of ice ground against each other was so great, 
that the boats proved nearly as unmanageable as the ship. After much 
exertion, however, the ice-anchors were planted and the hawser hauled 
taut. Here they for a time enjoyed comparative security, as the vessel 
hung by the anchors, which were planted in a large floe; the ice con- 
tinued to close in rapidly upon them, grinding, crushing, and carrying 
away the fenders; and the wind, that had changed to seaward, rose with 
appearances that foreboded bad weather. 
At 10.30 this security was at an end, for the anchors, in spite of the 
exertions of the officers and men who were near them, broke loose, and 
the ship was again at the mercy of huge floating masses. A rapid stern- 
board was the consequence; and a contact with the ice-island, vast, 
perpendicular, and as high as the mastheads, appeared inevitable. 
Every possible preparation was made to meet the expected shock. 
There was no noise or confusion, and the self-possession and admirable 
conduct of the Commander inspired courage and confidence in all. 
Preparations were made to cock-bill the yards, and spars were got 
out. , 
While these preparations were going forward the imminence of the 
danger lessened for a while; the anchors again held, and there was a 
hope that they might bring the vessel up before she struck. This hope, 
however, endured but for a moment; for the anchors, with the whole 
body of ice to which they were attached, came in, and the ship going 
astern, struck quartering upon a piece of ice which lay between her and 
the great ice-island. This afforded the last hope of preventing her from 
coming into contact with it; and this hope failed also; for, grinding 
along the ice, she went nearly stern foremost, and struck with her 
larboard quarter upon the ice-island with a tremendous crash. 
The first effect of this blow was to carry away the spanker-boom, the 
larboard stern-davit, and to crush the stern-boat. The starboard stern- 
davit was the next to receive the shock, and as this is connected with 
the spar-deck bulwarks the whole of them were started ; the knee, a 
rotten one, which bound the davit to the taffrail, was broken off, and 
with it all the stanchions to the plank-sheer as far as the gangway. 
Severe as was this shock, it happened fortunately that it was followed 
by as great a rebound. This gave the vessel a cant to starboard, and by 
the timely aid of the jib and other sails, carried her clear of the ice- 
island, and forced her into a small opening. While doing this, and 
before the vessel had moved half her length, an impending mass of ice 
and snow fell in her wake. Had this fallen only a few seconds earlier it 
must have crushed the vessel to atoms. 
It was also fortunate that the place where she struck the ice-island 
was near its southern end, so that there was but a short distance to be 
