DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE SHIP. 309 
prudence, we began to slack astern, using two 
hawsers on an end for greater despatch; these 
carried us past the nearest points, at the moment 
when they had closed within two or three feet of 
the breadth of the ship. In five minutes they 
were in contact, and some hundreds of tons of ice 
gave way, and squeezed up under the pressure. 
Before another rope, that had been employed in 
aid of the hawsers, could be disengaged from its an¬ 
chor, and replaced near the ship for continuing our 
movement to leeward, other two points of the floes 
appeared astern in rapid approximation. Remain¬ 
ing where we were, though but for five minutes, was 
inevitable shipwreck ; and to trust to the strength 
of a warp of five inches circumference, the only 
mooring rope we had now at command, afforded 
but small hope of a better fate; for, in the event 
of the ship breaking adrift, as there was not 
breadth between the floes to swing, she must fall 
astern with such a shock against the ice, as could 
scarcely fail to be destructive. Possible safety, 
however, was preferred to certain destruction. We 
now slacked astern by the warp fastened to the 
second hawser, which, to our astonishment and 
delight, sustained the prodigious strain ; and al¬ 
though it was not capable of bringing the ship up, 
yet it so far resisted her velocity, that at the mo¬ 
ment when it came to an end, a hawser, that was 
