BLIZZARD IN McMURDO SOUND 



at once into hard ice, and the sides of the vessel were thick 

 with the frozen sea water. " The masts were grey with 

 the frozen spray, and the bows were a coat of mail." 

 Very soon the cases and sledges lying on deck were hard 

 and fast in a sheet of solid ice, and the temperature had 

 dropped below zero. Harboard, who was the officer on 

 watch, on whistling to call the crew aft, found that the 

 metal whistle stuck to his hps, a painful intimation of the 

 low temperature. I spent most of the night on the 

 bridge, and hoped that the violence of the gale would 

 be of but short duration. This hope was not realised, 

 for next morning, February 19, at 8 a.m., it was blow- 

 ing harder than ever. During the early hours of the 

 day the temperature was — 16° Fahr., and consistently 

 kept below — 12° Fahr. The motion of the ship was 

 sharp and jerky, yet, considering the nature of the sea 

 and the trim of the vessel, she was remarkably steady. 

 To a certain extent this was due to the fact that the main 

 topmast had been lowered. We had constantly to have 

 two men at the wheel, for the rudder, being so far out of 

 the water, received the blows of the sea as they struck 

 the quarter and stern; and the steersman having 

 once been flung right over the steering-chains against the 

 side of the ship, it was necessary to have two always 

 holding on to the kicking wheel. At times there would 

 be a slight lull, the seas striking less frequently against 

 the rudder, and the result would be that the rudder- well 

 soon got filled with ice, and it was found impossible to 

 move the wheel at all. To overcome this dangerous 

 state of things the steersman had to keep moving the 

 wheel alternately to port and starboard, after the ice 

 had been broken away from the well. In spite of this 

 precaution, the rudder-well occasionally became choked, 

 and one of the crew, armed with a long iron bar, had to 

 stand by continually to break the frozen sea water off 



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