APPENDIX. 495 



Towards midnight the sea was increasing, accompanied with snow, 

 with every indication of a gale from seaward ; and the ice, with which 

 we were continually in contact, or actually jammed, more formidable 

 in character, rapidly accumulating outside of us, and forming a 

 compact mass. I found, as we were nearing the open sea, that we 

 had been carried so far to leeward by the ice, as to be in great danger 

 of taking up our last residence in the barrier, amongst bergs and 

 islands of ice. There was, therefore, no choice left but to force her 

 out, or grind and thump the ship to pieces in the attempt. 



Aided by a kind Providence, we reached an open space on the 

 morning of the 25th, after having beat off the gripe of the ship, &c, 

 and at meridian the carpenters had so far secured our rudder that it 

 was again shipped, in the two remaining braces left on the stern-post. 



We were yet surrounded by ice and icebergs, in a bay some thirty 

 miles in extent, from which no outlet could be seen from the mast- 

 head. At midnight, however, we found a passage, about half a mile 

 in width, between some bergs and field-ice. 



On the morning of the 26th, having reached a partially clear sea, and 

 thoroughly turned over in my mind the state of the ship, with the head 

 of the rudder gone, hanging by two braces only, and in such a state 

 we could hardly hope to have it answer its purpose, through the bois- 

 terous weather with which we should have to contend before reaching 

 the nearest port, and its utter unfitness for further cruising amongst 

 icebergs and near ice, through the foggy, thick weather, and frequent 

 snows to which those latitudes are subject, and when rapid evolutions 

 are often necessary, in which the rudder must perform its part, — with 

 the ship considerably strained, her starboard spar-deck bulwarks 

 gone, as far as the gangway, the gripe off and stern mutilated, and 

 the further fact before me, that the other vessels of the squadron 

 were ranging over the same longitude, with directions to leave on 

 the 1st of March for surveying operations in the north ; that the ship's 

 bottom would have to be examined, and repairs made before leaving 

 another port, (which would occupy, with all the facilities this quarter 

 of the world affords, at least four weeks,) during which time the 

 services of this ship would be lost in surveying the Feejee, &c, I 

 determined to proceed at once to Sydney, expedite as much as 

 possible the repairs of the ship, and be ready at the earliest moment 

 to co-operate with the rest of the squadron. 



The Vincennes was seen by us in the distance on the 19th, and 

 the brig Porpoise on the 23d of January. 



