The brig was steered bow on to the ice. Every man instinctively gripped his hold, and with his eyes fixed on the masts awaited the moment of concussion. In an instant they all lost their footing, the masts bent with the shock, and the timbers cracked below; the vessel staggered and seemed to recoil, when the next wave, curling up under her counter, drove her about her own length within the edge of the ice, where she gave a roll and was thrown broadside to the wind by the succeeding wave which beat furiously against her stern, bringing her lee in touch with the main mass and leaving her weather side exposed to a floe about twice her size. Battered on all sides, tossed from fragment to fragment, nothing could be done but await the issue, for the men could hardly keep their feet, the motion being so great that the ship's bell, which in the heaviest gale had never struck of itself, now tolled so continuously that it had to be muffled. After a time an effort was made to put the vessel before the wind and drive her further into the pack. Some of the men gained the fore-topsail-yard and let a reef out of the sail, and the jib was dragged half up the stay by the windlass. The brig swung into position, and, aided by a mass under her stern, split the block, fourteen feet thick, which had barred her way, and made a passage for herself into comparative safety; and after some four hours the gale moderated. Strained and leaking the _Trent_ had suffered much, but the _Dorothea_ had been damaged more; and both returned to Fair Haven, where it was found hopeless to continue the voyage, and thence, when the ships had been temporarily repaired, they sailed for England. The expedition had not done much, but it had given their Arctic schooling to Franklin, Beechey, and Back. In May, 1827, Parry, in the _Hecla_, was forced to run into the ice, but not quite in the same way as Buchan did. He was beset for three weeks, and then, getting clear, proceeded to the Seven Islands to the north of Spitsbergen, on one of which, Walden, he placed a reserve of provisions; the ship, after reaching 81° 5´, going to Treurenberg Bay, in Hinlopen Strait, to await his return. [Illustration: PARRY CAMPED ON THE ICE]