OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
89 
♦ 
opportunity of pushing the boats through them. All the hands which now 
remained on board the Hecla were occupied in weighing the anchor, a service 
which we could not possibly have' mustered strength enough to perform, but 
for the cheerfulness and zeal with which the officers volunteered on this, as 
on various other occasions, to man the capstan. Having at length, with much 
difficulty, effected this, we were beginning to haul the ship in towards the 
beach, Avhen the wind shifted to the south-west, which is rather upon this shore, 
it was uncertain what change this might produce in the motion of the floes, 
which seemed to be enclosing us rapidly on every side, and as the bay-ice had 
now nearly disappeared, it was considered advisable to make sail upon the 
ships, so as to be ready to take advantage of any alteration that might occur. 
I sent to Lieutenant Liddon to desire, that, in case of the ice closing upon us, 
and of his being unable to find a proper security for the Griper within the 
grounded ice, he would at once run her bow upon the softest part of the 
beach, so that the floes might, perhaps, force her up without much damage ; 
whereas it would be attended with almost certain destruction to the ships, 
should they be caught between the floes and the heavy masses of ice with which 
this beach was, for the most part, lined. 
By the time that we had made sail, the ice had completely surrounded us 
touching the land to the eastward as well as to the westward, and leaving us 
only a small pool of open water, in which we were at liberty to beat about. 
To the eastward, however, we could perceive from the crow’s nest, that there 
was still a considerable channel of clear water, and our only chance of getting 
into it was by narrowly watching for any opening that might occur in the ice 
which now opposed a formidable barrier to our escape in that direction. At 
half past one P.M. it was observed that a floe, which formed the principal ob- 
struction to our progress eastward, and which the current was rapidly carrying 
along the shore, had at length come violently in contact with a small point of 
land near us, and was now receding from it by its own re-action. We stood 
, towards this opening, in order to observe it more distinctly, and I hailed the 
Griper to desire Lieutenant Liddon to be in readiness to make sail, should it 
appear sufficiently broad for our purpose. On approaching this spot, we found 
the passage about three hundred yards wide between the land and the ice ; 
and as there was no time either for deliberation or for sounding the channel, 
all the studding-sails were instantly set in both ships, and we pushed through' 
the opening at the distance of a hundred yards from the beach, having no less 
than ten fathoms’ water. 
1819 . 
Sept. 
N 
