HEAVY GALE. 
69 
went away at the first squall, and the masts seem¬ 
ed to be in danger. Having cleared the wreck, 
and close-reefed the topsails, we attempted to find 
a corner in which the ship could be worked ; but 
we were driven from one refuge to another, by the 
accumulation of ice setting in, until we scarcely 
had room to wear. The violence of the gale pre¬ 
vented the practicability of mooring the ship in 
the ordinary way ; and it was now no longer pos¬ 
sible to keep under-way in safety : fortunately at 
this juncture, I discovered a small sheet of bay-ice 
lying on the weather-side of a heavy patch. 
Against this we succeeded in drifting the ship, 
though there was little more than her length be¬ 
tween two large and dangerous pieces of heavy ice 
that bounded its extremities. The bay-ice crush¬ 
ing under the pressure, prevented a violent shock. 
Instantly taking in the sails, we grappled to one 
of the large masses of ice, just at the moment 
when the last resistance of the bay-ice had given 
way, and the ship had begun to move astern. 
Ropes were now fastened, by ice-anchors to two 
or three of the heaviest pieces of ice, which preser¬ 
ved the ship during the gale in safety. 
* The ice-anchor is a large iron hook, nearly of the shape 
of the letter S. One extremity of it is inserted in a hole 
drilled into the ice, and to the other the rope for mooring it 
attached. 
