POWER OF STEAM AMONG ICE. 519 



much greater thickness. After charging an ice-barrier ineffectually, they 

 reversed the engines, drew back a short distance, and then, putting on full 

 steam, rushed forward again to deUver a second blow— often with the desired 

 effect. The whalers were all delighted with the performance of the steam 

 vessels in the ice ; and it was acknowledged that the employment of the 

 screw propeller marked the commencement of a new era in Arctic naviga- 

 tion. Captain Penny candidly confessed that he never thought the screw 

 steamers would have answered so well, and regretted that he had not had 

 a steam vessel. "Our seamen," says Osborn, on the 11th July, "fully 

 appreciated the good service the screw had done them; they had now been 

 eleven days in the ice, during every day of which period they had witnessed 

 it working effectually under every circumstance. They had seen the crews 

 of the whalers labouring at the track-line, at the oar, and in making and 

 shortening sail, both by day and by night, whilst our crews had nothing to 

 do beyond taking the ships in tow and casting them off again." But the 

 ships referred to, the " Eesolute " and " Assistance," were wretched sailers. 

 They had been filled up with dead wood — ^by way of strengthening them 

 against the ice — until they lay like logs on the water, and, even under fairly 

 favourable conditions, could not be dragged by the steamers at a rate 

 much quicker than three knots an hour. Being thus heavily handicapped, 

 Osborn and Cator found that they worked under great disadvantages, and 

 that the whalers, which were handled with the utmost skill and daring by 

 Penny and his fellow captains, made as rapid progress as the captains of the 

 naval squadron. But for being hampered with the " Eesolute " and " Assist- 

 ance," the steam vessels might have made a comparatively early passage 

 northward, between the sea and land ice of Melville Bay. As it was, they 

 were continually delayed and exposed to the danger of being nipped in the 

 enclosing ice. Between the 20th and 31st July, only seven miles had been 

 made in the right direction. Little or no progress was made during the 

 first week in August. At length, on the 9th, Penny's squadron having gone 

 on in advance, in a lake of water toward Cape York, the wedge-bow of the 

 " Pioneer," with full steam on, was brought to bear upon the ice. " In one 

 hour," writes Osborn, "we were past a barrier which had checked our 

 advance "for three long weary days. All was joy and excitement ; the 

 steamers themselves seemed to feel and know their work, and exceeded 

 even our sanguine expectations ; and to every one's delight, we were this 

 evening allowed to carry on a system of ice-breaking, which will doubtless, 

 in future Arctic voyages, be carried out with great success. For instance, 

 a piece of a floe, two or three hundred yards broad, and three feet thick, pre- 

 vented our progress ; the weakest and narrowest part of it being ascertained, 

 the (sailing) ships were secured as close as possible, without obstructing the 

 steam vessels, the major part of the crews being despatched to the Une 



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