92 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819* learned from Lieutenant Liddon, that when the field of ice closed upon us, 
a point of it had caught the Griper’s chain-cable, by which the anchor 
was immediately started, and the vessel carried towards the shore. The 
cable was dragged out so swiftly, that it could not be slipped, and, in a few 
minutes, the space between the two hawse-holes was completely cut through. 
The cable parted soon after, and the other anchor being let go, brought 
the ship up in time to prevent her going on shore. The Griper also lost 
one of her boats on this occasion, but was fortunate in sustaining no ma- 
terial injury. 
At nine P.M., the ice moved a few hundred yards off the land, and the 
opportunity was taken to heave the Hecla into a little nook, formed by the 
grounded ice, where we lay without disturbance during the night. The 
officers and men were much fatigued by this day’s exertions, and I directed 
the main brace to be spliced, and an extra-allowance of preserved meat to 
be served. 
Sun. 19. At day-light, on the 19th, the field-ice had drifted about a mile from the 
land, the intermediate space being almost entirely occupied by innumerable 
loose fragments cemented together by bay-ice, so as to form one connected 
and impenetrable body. The weather was nearly calm with continued snow, 
and the ice remained tolerably quiet during the day. 
Mon. 20. Early on the morning of the 20th, the breeze freshened up from the 
N.N.E., and soon after four A.M., the ice began to open out from the 
shore. It did not, however, take a direction immediately off the land, 
though the wind was nearly so, for there was still a current which carried the 
floes to the westward; and some of the projecting points came very near the 
land. Some of these missed the Hecla by about a hundred yards ; but at 
half-past eight, one of them was observed to be moving directly into the bight 
where the Griper was lying. In a few minutes after this, we perceived her to 
heel so much, that no doubt could be entertained of her having been forced on 
shore by the ice. Having sent Mr. Palmer round by land to inquire what 
was her situation, I was informed that she was aground on the beach, having 
only seven feet water on the inside, and the ice still continuing to press 
upon her from without. I therefore consulted my officers as to the measures 
it would, under these circumstances, be most prudent to adopt, and des- 
patched Lieutenant Beechey round to the Griper, to explain my intentions to 
Lieutenant Liddon. I proposed, if the Griper required lightening con- 
siderably before she could be hove off, an operation which, in her present 
