THE SINKING OF THE KARLUK 
89 
box-house to start the fire in the stove and keep 
the place warm. The steward was kept in the 
galley so that the men could have coffee and hot 
food. 
By 10.45 p. m. there was eleven feet of water in 
the engine-room. At this stage the pressure of the 
ice on both sides kept the ship from going down. 
We were less than an hour getting the supplies off 
the ship on to the ice; we could have saved every¬ 
thing on board but no attempt was made to save 
luxuries or souvenirs or personal belongings above 
the essentials, for it did not seem advisable to bur¬ 
den the sledges on our prospective journey over the 
ice with loads of material that would have to 
occupy space needed for indispensables. 
When I was satisfied with the amount of sup¬ 
plies on the ice I started the men sledging the stuff 
over to the big floe. Here, as I have said, in addi¬ 
tion to the box-house, we had a large snow igloo 
which had been completed some time before. It 
had been smashed in by the wind, but the men now 
repaired it and made it ready for occupancy. 
They did a good job with their evening’s work and I 
told them so, and said that they could turn in at the 
box-house and igloo and go to sleep whenever they 
got their sledging done. At half-past two in the 
morning they were ready and turned in; to the box- 
house were assigned McKinlay, Mamen, Beuchat, 
