We left Barents parting company with Rijp at Bear Island, Rijp bound northwards. Barents, taking his vessel eastwards, struck Novaya Zemlya at Loms Bay, near Cross Bay, and bearing north-eastwards reached the Orange Islands and rounded Cape Mauritius. Steering south he got down into Ice Haven, where at length, says De Veer, "the ice began to drive with such force that we were enclosed round about therewith, and yet we sought all the means we could to get out, but it was all in vain: and at that time we had like to have lost three men that were upon the ice to make way for the ship, if the ice had held the course it went; but as we drove back again, and the ice also whereon our men stood, they being nimble, as the ship drove by them, one of them caught hold of the beak head, another upon the shrouds, and the third upon the mainbrace that hung out behind, and so by great adventure by the hold they took they got into the ship again, for which they thanked God with all their hearts." The same evening, that of the 26th of August, 1596, they reached the west of Ice Haven—now known as Barents Bay—where they were forced to remain, being the first crew on record to spend a winter in the Arctic regions and survive to tell the story. To begin with, the ice gathered round the ship and lifted her bow four feet out of the water. Endeavouring to right her by clearing the ice away, Barents was on his knees measuring the height she had to fall when the ice broke with "such a noise and so great a crack that they thought verily they were all cast away." As she lay upright again they tried in vain with crowbars and other tools to break off the piled-up ice, and next day in a heavy snow the pressure became such that the whole ship was borne up and so squeezed that "all that was both about and in it began to crack, so that it seemed to burst in a hundred pieces, which was most fearful both to see and hear, and made all the hair of our heads to rise upright with fear." The grip continuing, the vessel was driven up four or five feet and the rudder squeezed off, which was replaced by a new one, when she sank back into the water a few hours afterwards owing to the ice drifting clear for a while. Thus matters went on for a little time, the ship being alternately lifted and released. [Illustration: HOW OUR SHIP STUCK FAST IN THE ICE] On the 11th of September, as there was no hope of escape, it was decided to build a house wherein to spend the winter, and in seeking for a suitable position, a mass of driftwood—"trees, roots and all"—was discovered, "driven ashore from Tartaria, Muscovia, or elsewhere," for there were no trees growing on the land, "wherewith," says De Veer, "we were much comforted, being in good hope that God would show us some further favour; for that wood served us not only to build our house, but also to burn and serve us all the winter long; otherwise without all doubt we had died there miserably with extreme cold."