14 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



Our prospect was now more alarming than at any preceding period ; 

 and it would be difficult for me to portray the anxiety and dismay 

 depicted on the countenances of the female passengers and children, 

 who were rushing on deck in spite of the endeavours of the officers to 

 keep them below, out of the danger which was apprehended if the 

 masts should be carried away. After the first concussion the ship 

 was driven along the steep and rugged side of this iceberg, with such 

 amazing rapidity, that the destruction of the masts seemed inevi- 

 table, and every one expected we should again be forced on the rocks 

 in the most disabled state ; but we providentially escaped this pe- 

 rilous result, which must have been decisive. 



The dense fog now cleared away for a short time, and we disco- 

 vered the Eddystone close to some rocks, having three boats em- 

 ployed in towing ; but the Wear was not visible. 



Our ship received water very fast ; the pumps were instantly 

 manned and kept in continual use, and signals of distress were made 

 to the Eddystone, whose commander promptly came on board, and 

 then ordered to our assistance his carpenter and all the men he could 

 spare, together with the carpenter and boat's crew of the Wear, who 

 had gone on board the Eddystone in the morning, and were prevented 

 from returning to their own vessel by the fog. As the wind was in- 

 creasing, and the sky appeared very unsettled, it was determined the 

 Eddystone should take the ship in tow, that the undivided attention 

 of the passengers and crew might be directed to pumping, and clear- 

 ing the holds to examine whether there was a possibility of stopping 

 the leak. We soon had reason to suppose the principal injury had 

 been received from a blow near the stern-post, and, after cutting away 

 part of the ceiling, the carpenters endeavoured to stop the rushing in 

 of the water, by forcing oakum between the timbers ; but this had not 

 the desired effect, and the leak, in spite of all our efforts at the pumps, 

 increased so much, that parties of the officers and passengers were sta- 

 tioned to bail out the water in buckets at different parts of the hold. 



