HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 21 
ing by the* help of poles and perches from one frag- 
ment of ice to another, contrived to reach the main 
field. The captain with seven men remained on 
board, and endeavored to open a passage; but soon 
after the ship again struck, when they were obliged 
to go into a boat, and commit themselves to chance, 
the snow falling so thick that they could scarcely see 
each other. As the weather cleared, they discovered 
their companions on the ice, who threw a whale-line, 
and dragged them to the same spot. There, the par- 
ty having waited twelve hours in hopes of relief, at 
leno-th trusted themselves to the boats, and in a few 
hours were taken up by a Dutch vessel. 
Captain Bille, in 1675, lost a ship richly laden, 
which went down suddenly ; after which the crew 
wandered in boats over the sea for fourteen days, be- 
fore they were taken up. Thirteen other vessels 
perished that year in the Spitzbergen seas. Three 
seasons afterward, Captain Bille lost a second ship by 
the violent concussion of the ice, the crew having 
just time to save themselves on a frozen field. 
In 1826, the ship Dundee, of London, had ventured 
so far to the north that she become completely beset 
and inclosed within impenetrable barriers, and the 
crew could obtain no assistance from the other ships. 
To add to their distress, a Dutch vessel near them 
was completely wrecked, and the crew, to the num- 
ber of forty-six, came on board entirely destitute. 
They were supported from August 23 to October 6, 
when they set out in their boats to reach the nearest 
Danish settlement ; but as this was 350 miles distant, 
2 * 
