By sending a lead-line over the ice a few hundred yards
beyond us, we found ten fathoms water. However unfavourable the aspect
of our affairs seemed before, this new change could not fail to alter it
for the worse. The situation of the ship now, indeed, required my whole
attention; for the ice occasionally opened and shut within twenty or
twenty-five yards of us on the in-shore side, the ship herself was still
very firmly imbedded by the turned up masses which pressed upon her on
the 19th, and which, on the other side, as well as ahead and astern,
were of considerable extent. Thus she formed, as it were, part of a
floe, which went drifting about in the manner above described. This was
of little importance while she was in sixty fathoms of water, as she was
for the first fourteen days of our besetment, and a distance of five or
six miles from the land; but now that she had shoaled the water so
considerably, and approached the low point within two or three miles, it
became a matter of importance to try whether any labour we could bestow
upon it would liberate the ship from her present imbedded state, so as
to be at least ready to take advantage of slack water, should any occur,
to keep her off the shore. All hands were therefore set to work with
handspikes, capstan-bars, and axes, it being necessary to detach every
separate mass, however small, before the larger ones could be moved.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317