Three great fireplaces of rock were constructed on the decks. Then, every scrap of clothing in the cargoes was distributed to the crews. Used to the damp temperate climate of Denmark, the men were simply paralyzed by the hard, dry, tense cold of America and had no idea how to protect themselves against it. Later navigators compelled to winter in Churchill, have boarded up their decks completely, tar-papered the sealed boarding and outside of this packed three feet of solid snow. Had Munck’s men used furs instead of happing themselves up with clothing, that only impeded circulation, they might have wintered safely with their miserable make-shifts of outdoor fireplaces, but they had no furs, and as the cold increased could do nothing but huddle helpless and benumbed around the fires, plying more wood and heating shot red-hot to put in warming pans for their berths. Beer bottles were splintered to shivers by the frost. Most of the phials in the surgeon’s medicine chests went to pieces in nightly pistol-shot explosions. Kegs of light wines were frozen solid and burst their hoops. The crews went to their beds for warmth and night after night lay listening to the whooping and crackling of the frost, the shrieking of the wind, the pounding of the ice—as if giants had been gamboling in the dark of the wild Northern storms. The rest of Munck’s adventures may be told in his own words: October 15—Last night, ice drift lifted the ship out of the dock. At next low water I had the space filled with clay and sand. October 30—Ice everywhere covers the river. There is such a heavy fall of snow, it is impossible for the men to go into the open country without snowshoes. November 14—Last night a large black dog came to the ship across the ice but the man on the watch shot him by mistake for a black fox. I should have been glad to have caught him alive and sent him home with a present of goods for his owner. November 27—All the glass bottles broken to pieces by the frost. December 10—The moon appeared in an eclipse. It was surrounded by a large circle and a cross appeared therein. December 12—One of my surgeons died and his corpse had to remain unburied for two days because the frost was so terrible no one dared go on shore. December 24, 25—Christmas Eve, I gave the men wine and beer, which they had to boil, for it was frozen to the bottom. All very jolly but no one offended with as much as a word. Holy Christmas Day we all celebrated as a Christian’s duty is. We had a sermon, and after the sermon we gave the priest an offertory according to ancient custom. There was not much money among the men, but they gave what they had, some white fox skins for the priest to line his coat. January 1, New Year’s Day—Tremendous frost. I ordered a couple of pints of wine to the bowl of every man to keep up spirits. January 10—The priest and the other surgeon took to their beds. A violent sickness rages among the men. My head cook died.