306 



ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 



sive repairs before being employed in surveying operations; and feeling 

 that the season was rapidly coming round when our services would be 

 required in that duty, I held a council of the ward-room officers, and 

 required their opinions as to making any further attempts to cruise in 

 these latitudes. 



" There was but one opinion as to the necessity of the ship's return- 

 ing north, with the exception of Mr. Emmons and Mr. Baldwin, who 

 thought the rudder might stand, provided we did not get near the ice 

 or fall in with icebergs. This of course would be to effect little or 

 nothing, and result only in a loss of time. I accordingly put the ship's 

 head north, determined to proceed at once to Sydney, to effect the 

 necessary repairs, so as to be ready at the earliest possible day to join 

 the squadron." 



Such were the dangers and difficulties from which the Peacock, by 

 the admirable conduct of her officers and crew, directed by the con- 

 summate seamanship of her commander, was enabled at this time to 

 escape. There still, however, remained thousands of miles of a stormy 

 ocean to be encountered, with a ship so crippled as to be hardly capa- 

 ble of working, and injured to such an extent in her hull as to be kept 

 afloat with difficulty. The narrative of the events of this perilous 

 navigation must, however, be postponed, until I shall have given the 

 proceedings of the other vessels of the squadron, while tracing out the 

 position of the icy barrier, and following along the newly-discovered 

 continent. 



