ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 305 



There appeared no other course but to drive her out, which was 

 deemed the only chance of saving the ship and crew. All the canvass 

 that would draw was therefore set to force her through ; and the 

 wind favouring them, they had by four o'clock succeeded in passing 

 the thick and solid ice, and shortly afterwards found themselves in 

 clear water, without a rudder, the gripe gone, and, as was afterwards 

 found, the stem ground down to within an inch and a half of the wood- 

 ends. 



The carpenters were still employed on the rudder, and had suc- 

 ceeded in removing the broken pieces of the pintles from the second 

 and third braces on the stern-post ; the upper and lower pintles were 

 broken, leaving only two to hang the rudder by. The weather seemed 

 now to favour them, and about ten o'clock they had finished the rudder, 

 which had been repaired in the best possible manner. Great credit is 

 due to Mr. Dibble, the carpenter, (who left his sick bed on the occa- 

 sion,) for his exertions, attention, and perseverance. He and the 

 carpenter's crew worked twenty-four hours without intermission. 

 The ship was now hove-to, for it was apprehended that her rolling 

 would render the task of shipping the rudder troublesome. By meri- 

 dian they were again in a situation to make sail to extricate them- 

 selves from a bay some thirty miles in extent, which, with the 

 exception of the small opening by which they had entered, was 

 apparently closed by the barrier. 



Shortly afterwards, the wind becoming fair, they made all sail for 

 the outlet. The weather proved fine, and the winds moderate. At 

 midnight they found the only opening left, which was not more than 

 a quarter of a mile wide ; they succeeded in passing through this, by 

 2 a. m., in a snow-storm, and felt grateful to God for their providential 

 escape. 



Captain Hudson now came to the conclusion of returning north. 

 " After," as he says, " thoroughly turning over in my own mind the 

 state of the ship, — with the head of the rudder gone, hanging by two 

 braces, and in such a state that we could hardly hope to make it 

 answer its purposes again, in encountering the boisterous weather we 

 should have to pass through before reaching the first port, — the ship 

 considerably strained ; her starboard spar-deck bulwarks gone as far 

 forward as the gangway; the gripe off, and the stern mutilated; — fully 

 satisfied from this state of things that she was perfectly useless for 

 cruising among icebergs, and the accompanying dangers, in thick 

 foggy weather, to which, in these latitudes, we should be more or less 

 subject, and where rapid evolutions were often necessary, in which the 

 rudder must perform its part; and that the ship would require exten 



vol. ii. 2A2 39 



