I Went Below And Turned-In, Covering Myself Over With Blankets
And Jackets, And Lay In My Berth Nearly Twenty-Four Hours, Half
Asleep And Half Awake, Stupid, From The Dull Pain.
I heard the
watch called, and the men going up and down, and sometimes a
noise on deck, and a cry of "ice," but I gave little attention
to anything.
At the end of twenty-four hours the pain went down,
and I had a long sleep, which brought me back to my proper state;
yet my face was so swollen and tender, that I was obliged to keep
to my berth for two or three days longer. During the two days I
had been below, the weather was much the same that it had been,
head winds, and snow and rain; or, if the wind came fair, too foggy,
and the ice too thick, to run. At the end of the third day the ice
was very thick; a complete fog-bank covered the ship. It blew a
tremendous gale from the eastward, with sleet and snow, and there
was every promise of a dangerous and fatiguing night. At dark,
the captain called all hands aft, and told them that not a man was
to leave the deck that night; that the ship was in the greatest
danger; any cake of ice might knock a hole in her, or she might
run on an island and go to pieces. No one could tell whether she
would be a ship the next morning.
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