The equipment of the Hecla and Fury, and the loading of the William
Harris transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from
Deptford on the 8th of May, 1824, and on the 10th, by the assistance of
the steamboat, the three ships had reached Northfleet, where they
received their powder and their ordnance stores.
Early on the morning of the 3d of July, the whole of our stores being
removed, and Lieutenant Pritchard having received his orders, together
with our despatches and letters for England, the William Harris weighed
with a light wind from the northward, and was towed out to sea by our
boats.
Light northerly winds, together with the dull sailing of our now
deeply-laden ships, prevented our making much progress for several days,
and kept us in the neighbourhood of numerous icebergs, which it is
dangerous to approach when there is any swell. We counted from the deck,
at one time, no less than one hundred and three of these immense bodies,
some of them from one to two hundred feet in height above the sea; and
it was necessary, in one or two instances, to tow the ships clear of
them with the boats.
From this time, indeed, the obstructions from the quantity, magnitude,
and closeness of the ice were such as to keep our people almost
constantly employed in heaving, warping, or sawing through it; and yet
with so little success, that, at the close of the month of July, we had
only penetrated seventy miles to the westward, or the longitude of about
62 deg.
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