ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 319 



between her and the great ice-island. This afforded the last hope of 

 preventing her from coming in 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 tremen- 

 dous 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 star- 

 board, 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 passed before she was entirely clear of it. This gave more room 

 for the drifting ice, and permitted the vessel to be worked by her 

 sails. 



The relief from this pressing danger, however gratifying, gave no 

 assurance of ultimate safety ; the weather had an unusually stormy 

 appearance; and the destruction of the vessel seemed almost in- 

 evitable, with the loss of every life on board. They had the melan- 

 choly alternative in prospect of being frozen to death one after the 

 other, or perishing in a body by the dissolving of the iceberg on 

 which they should take refuge, should the vessel sink. 



When the dinner hour arrived the vessel was again fast in the ice, 

 and nothing could for a time be done : it was therefore piped as usual. 

 This served to divert the minds of the men from the dangers around 

 them. 



When the meal was over, the former manoeuvring was resorted to, 

 the yards being kept swinging to and fro, in order to keep the ship's 

 head in the required direction. She was labouring in the swell, with 

 ice grinding and thumping against her on all sides ; every moment 

 something either fore or aft was carried away — chains, bolts, bob- 



