A NARROW ESCAPE 
upon us, no anchor to hold the boat, and a 
savage, rocky shore on which we were in 
danger of being wrecked. There was a small 
iive-hundred-pound anchor with a nine-inch 
cable of about one hundred and fifty fathoms 
remaining, which was repeatedly tried, but 
the ship was too much for this feather-weight 
anchor, and dragged it at will. Commander 
Peary, with his usual foresight, had ordered 
steam as soon as the approach of the storm 
was noticed, and now that the steam was up, 
he ordered that the ship be kept head-on, and 
steam up and down the coast until the storm 
abated. The storm lasted until the night of 
August 13, and the best part of the following 
day was spent by two boat-crews of twelve 
men, in grappling for the lost anchor and 
chain, and not until they had secured it and 
restored it once more to its locker were they 
permitted to rest. With the anchor secure, 
walrus-hunting commenced afresh, and on the 
ice-floes between Hakluyt and Northumber- 
land Islands thirty more walrus were secured. 
On August 16, the Roosevelt steamed back 
to Karnah, and the Esquimo people who in- 
tended living there for the following winter 
172 
