6*2 GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
already slacked in various directions around us. 
I instantly arose, and, conceiving there was a pos¬ 
sibility of making a little progress towards our 
extrication, summoned “ all hands to ship the 
rudder,” which had been taken in for safety at the 
time the ice collapsed. This being performed, 
we took advantage of a favourable breeze, the in¬ 
fluence of which, aided by warping, towing, and 
breaking the interposed bay-ice with boats, enabled 
us to advance, though very slowly, among the 
crowded aud ponderous sheets of ice that opposed 
our escape. Some of these sheets of ice were 150 to 
200 yards in medial breadth, and 20 to 50 feet in 
thickness. These being in many places in close 
contact, we had to separate them by the powers 
of our capstern and windlass, and other resources ; 
but among others of equal magnitude, there was 
sometimes a channel, of a ship’s breadth, that af¬ 
forded us a readier, but more hazardous passage. 
It would be tedious to give the details of this 
day’s operations; it may be sufficient to say, that 
after the most energetic labour, and careful ma¬ 
nagement, had been continued for sixteen hours, 
almost without intermission, in which period the 
ship performed some of the most extraordinary 
evolutions I ever saw, and sailed through chan¬ 
nels as intricate and contracted as it was possible 
for any vessel of equal size with the Baffin to 
