338 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



Many of these occurrences are common enough in the life of an 

 arctic voyager ; but I mention this one as a passing incident, and 

 to show what was the state of the ice around our ship at the time 

 we were all so desirous of moving her. 



In the evening I got on board again without much difficulty, as 

 a boat came for me to firm ice, which I had gained. 



The following morning, July 27th, all the ice about the vessel 

 had nearly gone, though there were still some heavy pieces inter- 

 vening between us and the outer bay. But what especially 

 causes me to remember this day was the sudden disappearance of 

 the wrecked Rescue. On looking toward Cooper's Island, where 

 her hull had remained for so many months, we were surprised to 

 find it gone. The waters had floated it away, and, for a moment, 

 we fancied nothing more of the famous schooner would again be 

 seen, unless away toward or on the great sea. But shortly after- 

 ward, on visiting Whale Island, close by, we saw that the Rescue 

 had drifted off with the tide, and had got in to the narrow chan- 

 nel of open water that then surrounded the island. " The Res- 

 cue" says my journal, " seems yet to live ; she has navigated her- 

 self completely around Cooper's Island since early this morning. 

 She sweeps around slowly and — I was about to say — prettily." 



The Rescue was doomed to wander about "like a ghost" — as 

 some of the men said — for days. By the alternate ebb and flow 

 of the tide, she was carried seaward, to be brought back to her 

 old place, then to be carried out again. Then back again she 

 came, dancing from place to place, like the ever-changing ice 

 sconces surrounding her. She made the circuit of another island 

 southeast of Cooper's, and again came near to us ; and so in and 

 , out, dancing here and moving there, the poor Rescue played about 

 us, until at length her very presence seemed to cause a supersti- 

 tious dread. This was especially so when another day, and yet 

 another, passed on, and still our vessel could not be moved away. 



As an illustration of this superstitious feeling among the sea- 

 men, it may be mentioned that the want of success attending the 

 George Henry in whaling was attributed to the circumstance of 

 bringing the Rescue with them as a tender. Some said she had 

 never been any thing but a drawback since first built, and that 

 she had nearly caused the loss of numbers of lives ; now she 

 seemed to hang about them as an omen of ill luck — as a ghost! 



At 8 P.M. of the 27th of July the breeze freshened up strongly 

 from W. and W.N.W. Soon the ice yet in the vicinity of the 



