HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES 299 
which had been falling thickly for several hours, cleared 
away, as the wind suddenly shifted to the westward, and 
the swell began to subside ; and although the shocks our 
ships still sustained were such that must have destroyed 
any ordinary vessel in less than five minutes, yet they 
were feeble compared with those to which we had been 
exposed, and our minds became more at ease for their 
ultimate safety. 
“ During the darkness of the night and the thick 
weather we had been carried through a chain of bergs 
which were seen in the morning considerably to 
windward, and which served to keep off the heavy pres- 
sure of the pack, so that we found the ice much more 
open, and I was enabled to make my way in one of our 
boats to the Terror, about whose condition I was most 
anxious, for I was aware that her damages were of a 
much more serious nature than those of the Erebus, not- 
withstanding the skilful and seamanlike manner in which 
she had been managed and by which she maintained her 
appointed station throughout the gale. 
“ I found that her rudder was completely broken to 
pieces, and the fastenings to the stern-post so much 
strained and twisted, that it would be very difficult to get 
the spare rudder, with which we were fortunately pro- 
vided, fitted so as to be useful, and could only be done, 
if at all, under very favourable circumstances. The other 
damages she had sustained were of less consequence; 
and it was as great a satisfaction as it has ever since 
been a source of astonishment to us to find that, after 
so many hours of constant and violent thumping, both 
the vessels were nearly as tight as they were before the 
gale. We can only ascribe this to the admirable manner 
in which they had been fortified for the service, and to 
