It was now, of course, obvious that the crew would have to spend the winter where they were, and they instantly set about building a house of coal bricks, of which they had an ample supply on board. These formed an excellent building material, since they absorbed the damp and kept the warmth in the room, while water and snow made a perfect substitute for mortar. “We only needed,” says Hegemann, “to strew finely-powdered snow between the grooves and cracks, pour water upon it, and in ten minutes all was frozen into a strong compact mass.” So well did the men work that the house was finished and provisioned for two months in little more than a week. They were not much too soon, for before the month was over the fate of the unfortunate _Hansa_ was sealed. On October 8 a gale arose which blew violently for several days. On the 18th, the ice began to make itself conspicuous by “thrusting and pressing against the ship. This unpleasant noise lasted until the afternoon. At regular intervals underneath, the ice, like a succession of waves, groaned and cracked, squashed and puffed; now sounding like the banging of doors, now like many human voices raised against one another; and lastly, like a drag on the wheel of a railway engine. The evident immediate cause of this crushing was that our field had turned in drifting, and was now pressed closer to the coast ice.... For a time the _Hansa_ was spared, though trembling violently. The masts often swayed so much that it seemed as though someone was climbing them.” Worse, however, was to follow, for on the next day the pressure of the ice became so terrible that the deck seams sprang and the bow of the ship was forced upwards seventeen feet. “The rising of the ship,” says Hegemann, “was an extraordinary and awful, yet splendid spectacle, of which the whole crew were witnesses from the ice. In all haste the clothing, nautical instruments, journals, and cards were taken over to the landing bridge. The after part of the ship, unfortunately, would not rise, and therefore the stern post had to bear the most frightful pressure, and the conviction that the ship must soon break up forced itself upon our minds.... The first thing to be done was to bring all necessary and useful things from the tween decks on to the ice—bedding, clothing, more provisions and coal. Silently were all the heavy chests and barrels pushed over the hatchway. First comes the weighty iron galley, then the two stoves are happily hoisted over; their possession ensures us the enjoyment of warm food, the heating of our coal house, and other matters indispensable for a wintering on the floe. At three o’clock the water in the cabin had reached the table, and all movable articles were floating. The fear that we should not have enough fuel made us grasp at every loose piece of wood and throw it on the ice. The sinking of the ship was now almost imperceptible, it must have found support on a tongue of ice or some promontory of our field.