The Sun Shone Bright
As Long As It Was Up, Only That A Scud Of Black Clouds Was Ever
And Anon Driving Across It.
At noon we were in lat.
54° 27' S.,
and long. 85° 5' W., having made a good deal of easting, but having
lost in our latitude by the heading of the wind. Between daylight
and dark - that is, between nine o'clock and three - we saw thirty-
four ice islands, of various sizes; some no bigger than the hull
of our vessel, and others apparently nearly as large as the one
that we first saw; though, as we went on, the islands became
smaller and more numerous; and, at sundown of this day, a man at
the mast-head saw large fields of floating ice called "field-ice"
at the south-east. This kind of ice is much more dangerous than
the large islands, for those can be seen at a distance, and kept
away from; but the field-ice, floating in great quantities, and
covering the ocean for miles and miles, in pieces of every size-
-large, flat, and broken cakes, with here and there an island
rising twenty and thirty feet, and as large as the ship's hull; -
this, it is very difficult to sheer clear of. A constant look-out
was necessary; for any of these pieces, coming with the heave
of the sea, were large enough to have knocked a hole in the ship,
and that would have been the end of us; for no boat (even if we
could have got one out) could have lived in such a sea; and no man
could have lived in a boat in such weather. To make our condition
still worse, the wind came out due east, just after sundown, and it
blew a gale dead ahead, with hail and sleet, and a thick fog, so that
we could not see half the length of the ship. Our chief reliance,
the prevailing westerly gales, was thus cut off; and here we were,
nearly seven hundred miles to the westward of the Cape, with a gale
dead from the eastward, and the weather so thick that we could not
see the ice with which we were surrounded, until it was directly
under our bows.
At four, P. M. (it was then quite dark) all hands were called, and sent
aloft in a violent squall of hail and rain, to take in sail. We had
now all got on our "Cape Horn rig" - thick boots, south-westers coming
down over our neck and ears, thick trowsers and jackets, and some with
oil-cloth suits over all. Mittens, too, we wore on deck, but it would
not do to go aloft with them on, for it was impossible to work with
them, and, being wet and stiff, they might let a man slip overboard,
for all the hold he could get upon a rope; so, we were obliged to
work with bare hands, which, as well as our faces, were often cut
with the hail-stones, which fell thick and large.
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