186 
THE RESCUE NIPPED. 
this step, even if the question were one of policy alone. 
But it was one of instructions. The Navy Depart- 
ment, imitating in this the English Board of Admiral- 
ty, had, in its orders to our commander, marked out to 
him the course of the expedition, and had enjoined 
that, unless under special circumstances, he should 
" endeavor not to be caught in the ice during the win- 
ter, but that he should, after completing his examina- 
tions for the season, make his escape, and return to 
New York in the fall." In the judgment of Commo- 
dore De Haven, these special circumstances did not 
exist ; and he felt himself, therefore, controlled by the 
general terms of the injunction. I believe that there 
was but one feeling among the officers of our little 
squadron, that of unmitigated regret that we were no 
longer to co-operate with our gallant associates under 
the sister flag. Our intercourse with them had been 
most cordial from the very first. We had interchanged 
many courtesies, and I should be sorry to think that 
there had not been formed on both sides some endur- 
ing friendships. 
In a little while we had the Hescue in tow, and 
were headinaf to the east. She had had a fearful night 
of it after leaving us. She beat about, short-handed, 
clogged with ice, and with the thermometer at 8°. 
The snow fell heavily, and the rigging was a solid, al- 
most unmanageable lump. Steering, or rather beat- 
ing, she made, on the evening of the 12th, the southern 
edge of Griffith's Island, and by good luck and excel- 
lent management succeeded in holding to the land 
hummocks. She had split her rudder-post so as to 
make her unworhahle, and now we have her in tow. 
An anchor with its fluke snapped — her best bower ; 
and her little boat, stove in by the ice, was cut adrift. 
