The Ships beset with Ice.

the master of the Racehorse in the four-oared boat to try to find an opening by which the ships might proceed; and with directions, if he could reach the shore, to ascend one of the mountains, in order to explore the state of the ice to the eastward and northward. Captain Lutwidge, having also employed a boat conducted by his young coxswain, for the same purpose, joined the master of the Racehorse on shore, where they ascended a high mountain, from which they had a prospect extending ten or twelve leagues to the east and north-east, over one continued plain of smooth ice, bounded only by the horizon. They saw land stretching to the south-east, laid down in the Dutch charts as islands, and plainly perceived that the main body of ice which the ships had coasted from west to east joined these islands, and stretched away from them to what is called the north-east land. In returning about seven in the morning to their ships, which had meanwhile been so completely surrounded with ice that, with their ice-anchors out, they had moored alongside a field of it, the crews were frequently obliged to haul the boats over ice, which had closed during their absence, into other openings.

On the same morning, about nine o'clock, having a light breeze to the eastward, they cast off, and again endeavoured to force their way; but, at noon, finding the ice too close packed to proceed, they again moored to a field. In the afternoon, they filled their casks with fresh water from the ice, which they found to be very pure and soft. The ice-field, to which both vessels were moored, was from twenty-two to twenty-five feet thick. The ice closed fast around the ships, leaving merely a hole, or lake, about a mile and a half in circumference, in which both ships lay fast to the ice with ice-anchors. The weather was unusually fine, mild, and clear, without a breath of air, and the water perfectly smooth. The crews of

Dangerous Situation.

the ships were playing all day upon the ice; but the pilots, finding themselves much further north than they had ever been before, and considering the advanced state of the season, began to entertain serious apprehensions of being completely beset.

On the 1st of August, the ice came on them so fast that not the smallest opening was to be seen. The two ships, though separated by ice, were within two lengths of each other, and neither had room to swing. The ice, which on the preceding day had been quite flat and almost level with the water, was now in many places forced higher than the mainyard by the outer pieces pressing upon those inside. A wet, foggy day succeeded, the wind blowing fresh from the westward; but, though the ice immediately about the ships seemed looser than before, it set in again so fast that there appeared no probability of extricating them without a strong east or north-east wind.

On the 3d, the weather was fine, clear, and calm. It was perceived that the ships had been driven far to the eastward; but the ice was closer than ever; the passage by which they had come from the westward was quite closed up, and no open water any where in sight. At the suggestion of the pilots, the crews were set to work to cut away the ice, in order to warp the vessels through the small openings to the westward. This was a most laborious undertaking, the ice being so deep that they were often obliged to cut through pieces twelve feet thick; and, after toiling the whole day, they were not able to move the ships more than three hundred yards. They had meanwhile been driven, with the ice-field itself, to the northward and eastward by the current, which had also forced the loose ice from the westward between the islands, where it had become what the Greenlandmen call packed, or piled piece above piece, to a considerable height, and as firm as the main body.

Hunting a Bear.

It was about this time that Nelson earnestly solicited and at length obtained the command of a fouroared boat, ingeniously constructed for the purpose of exploring channels and breaking the ice, and manned by twelve men; and to this period also must be referred the following anecdote.

One night, during the mid-watch, young Nelson stole from the ship with one of his comrades, under cover of a fog, and set out over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were missed; search was made for them, but in vain; and Captain Lutwidge and his officers became extremely alarmed for their safety. Between three and four in the morning, the fog clearing off, the two adventurers were discovered on the ice, at a considerable distance, attacking a huge white bear. Nelson had a musket, but, the lock being injured, the piece would not go off. A signal was immediately made for their return. His comrade called upon him to obey it; but he replied, "Never mind; let me but get a blow at this devil with the but-end of my musket, and then we shall have him." A chasm in the ice, which separated him from the bear, probably saved his life. Captain Lutwidge, perceiving his danger, ordered a gun to be fired, and this had the effect of frightening the beast away. His assailant immediately returned to the ship, where the Captain severely reprimanded him for conduct so unbecoming the office which he held, and sternly asked what could be his motive for hunting a bear. I wished, sir," said he, pouting his lip, as was his custom when agitated, to get the skin for my father."

On the 5th of August, Captain Phipps sent Mr. Walden, one of his midshipmen, and two pilots, to an island about twelve miles off, since named Walden's Island, to ascertain if any open water was to be seen. They brought back information on the 6th that

B

Preparations for leaving the Ships.

the ice was open to the westward, round the point by which they had got in; and also that on the island the wind had blown very fresh from the eastward, though it had been almost calm the whole time where the ships lay. This circumstance greatly lessened the hopes previously entertained of the immediate effect of an easterly wind in clearing the bay. They had now no other alternative than patiently to wait for a change of wind, or to betake themselves to the boats. The ships had at this time driven into shoal water, having only fourteen fathom; and should either they or the ice, to which they were fast, take the ground, they must inevitably be lost. After a due consideration of the various difficulties which presented themselves in this perilous state, Captain Phipps sent for the officers of both ships, and communicated to them his intention of preparing the boats for going away. They were accordingly hoisted out, and every precaution taken to render them secure and comfortable. Canvas bread-bags were made, in case it should be necessary to desert the ships. In the mean time, as the water shoaled and the vessels were driving fast towards some rocks on the northeast, men were sent with lead and line to the northward and eastward, to sound wherever they found cracks in the ice, that they might have notice before either the ships or the ice to which they were moored took the ground, as in the event of their striking they must have been instantly crushed or upset.

On the 7th, in the morning, Captain Phipps set out in the launch, which was dragged much more easily than was expected. After getting it about two miles, he returned with the men to their dinner; and, finding the ice rather more open near the ships, he was induced to attempt to move them. The wind, though little, being easterly, they made sail, and got the ships about a mile to the westward; still they were

They clear the Ice.

not now by a great deal so far to the westward as when they were first beset. All sail was kept on them, that they might force through whenever the ice should yield in the smallest degree. The people behaved like true British seamen, laboured assiduously at hauling the launches, and seemed reconciled to the idea of quitting the ships, having the greatest confidence in their officers. Still, with all their exertions, it would not be possible to get the boats to the outside of the ice in less than a week. It was therefore resolved to keep moving the boats forward, and at the same time to seize every opportunity of getting the ships through.

On the two following days, they were agreeably surprised to find that the ships had been driven much more to the westward than they could have expected, and that the ice itself had drifted still farther in that direction. On the 9th, the ships passed the launches, which were then hoisted on board. Next morning, the wind springing up from north-north-east, all sail was set, and the ships forced through a great deal of very heavy ice. They were frequently struck, and with such violence, that one stroke broke the shank of the Racehorse's best bower anchor; but by noon they had the good fortune to clear all the ice, and were safely out at sea. On the 11th, they came to an anchor in Smeerenberg Harbour, Amsterdam Island, the westernmost point of which is called Hakluyt's Headland. Here they remained a few days, to recruit the men after their severe fatigues.

The summer had proved unusually favourable for the object of this voyage, and the season was now so far advanced that nothing more could with prudence be attempted. They had traversed 17 degrees of longitude, between the latitudes of 79° and 81° 36', carefully exploring that barrier of ice which baffled their further progress; and, having thoroughly satisfied