Leaving Cape York late in the afternoon of the 26th, in a dense snowstorm, which doubled the gloom of the already descending night, we groped our way in almost complete darkness out through the numerous icebergs, and felt that we had really begun the homeward voyage. The darkness during this night was so intense that we slowed down to half-speed. The following afternoon a fresh breeze accompanied by a heavy swell set in from the southeast, and the rolling of the ship washed out some ashes in the fire-room, clogging the suctions of all the pumps, and allowing the water in the fire-room to rise to the stoke-hole plates before it was noticed. During the next two days the _Roosevelt_ was hove-to while the fire-room was cleared of water, the pumps overhauled and got in commission again, and steps taken to prevent a recurrence of the trouble. During this time the weather remained thick and the wind continued from the southeast. When we got under way it was impracticable to make the Greenland coast and we continued down the middle of Baffin’s Bay. At midnight of September 30th we rounded the end of the middle pack and in the afternoon of October 1st, in a fresh southeast breeze and heavy swell, the foretopmast broke off at the springstay, and went overboard carrying with it the topmast rigging, barrel, and flying jib. October 3d we made the west coast just above Cape Dyer and followed it past Walsingham and Mercy, and across the mouth of Cumberland Sound, until 4 A. M. of the 6th, when about seven miles north of Monumental Island, a sea striking under the starboard quarter broke the rudder-stock square off, rendering us helpless. It was very thick at the time and the _Roosevelt_ was hove-to heading eastward to avoid being drifted upon the ragged coast about Cape Haven. A spar was got ready and rigged out as a jury rudder, but we were scarcely under way again when the wind came on from the northeast, and in two or three hours the rising sea had carried away the improvised rudder. After this we hove-to again, the storm increasing to almost hurricane violence for some thirty-six hours and raising a heavy sea. The _Roosevelt_ proved herself a fine sea boat, lying to under double-reefed foresail with the same ease as one of the best of our Banks fishing schooners, and though she repeatedly rolled her rail to the water, she did not ship a bucketful of green sea.