ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 30) 



security, as the vessel hung by the anchors, which were planted in a 

 large floe. The ice continued 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 h 30 m 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 an 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 admi- 

 rable 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 

 w T hole 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 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 fol- 

 lowed 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 impend- 

 ing 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 



2A 



