DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE SHIP. 311 
hawser was subjected, broke one of its strands, 
and called for the instant renewal of the chain. 
This was a most narrow escape ; but there was 
another that succeeded which was equally stri¬ 
king. When slacking astern by the hawser, the 
ship swung alongside the eastern floe into a little 
bight, and the rudder unfortunately caught be¬ 
hind a point which projected some feet to wind¬ 
ward. The floes were so nearly close, that we had 
not time to heave ahead, had this measure been 
practicable under such a storm. We were in a 
state of extreme jeopardy. One of the after-sails 
was instantly loosed, and hauled over to the star¬ 
board quarter; the action of this, happily coinci¬ 
ding with a momentary diminution of the wind, 
when the tension of the ropes drew the ship ahead, 
turned her stern clear of the point. We instant¬ 
ly slacked astern and dropped beyond this danger. 
It might be tedious to describe all the subse¬ 
quent exertions made for our deliverance, under 
the repeated difficulties we encountered. These 
difficulties will be readily appreciated by persons 
acquainted with the management of a ship, when 
they are informed, that our movements, to a con¬ 
siderable distance, were effected by means of a 
stranded (or partly broken) rope, and a doubtful 
chain, at a time when the wind blew with such vio¬ 
lence, that I could scarcely make myself heard with 
