455 
Al’P. N° VI. 1 OF THE SHIP TRAFALGAR. 
curing some of die warmest of my Greenland apparel. On 
going upon deck, to my great consternation, I found the 
ship under an enormous pressure, from numerous huge 
masses of ice surrounding her on all sides, without an open- 
ino- of water sufficient for a boat within two miles; and 
O 
what greatly augmented my concern was, that no ship was 
in sight, though the weather was now tolerably clear. Most 
of the crew were now engaged in providing for shipwreck, 
by filling their bags (which they carry for this purpose) 
with clothes, and some of them tying up their hammocks, 
to be ready for another ship. Many of the people, conscious 
of their great danger, were employed in supplications to 
Divine Mercy for deliverance; and I likewise sought re¬ 
fuge from the painful apprehensions of threatening death, 
in a similar occupation. At 8 a. m. sounded in 142 fiu 
thorns. At 9 a. M. the captain gave up all hopes of saving 
the ship; and faint were mine of saving ourselves. With 
the confident expectation of shipwreck, we made such pre¬ 
parations for this calamity as circumstances would admit. 
Four days allowance of provisions were cooked with all 
speed; other provisions were taken upon deck ; and every 
thing of importance placed in readiness for being thrown up¬ 
on the ice. At 11 a. m., however, our drooping spirits were 
greatly revived, by observing a slight relaxation of pressure; 
but in half an hour we were again thrown into despair by 
the return of the pressure. At noon, a man at the mast¬ 
head saw a ship (the Baffin), on which w'c instantly made sig¬ 
nals of distress. At this time a dead silence prevailed through¬ 
out the ship; the crew looking on one another in awful sus¬ 
pense. At 1 r. Jt. the pressure was so strong, that the 
pannels of the captain’s state-room door were forced out of 
the framing. About half an hour after this, the ship was 
suddenly thrown upon her larboard side, on which all 
