“We were now setting fast upon another large piece of a broken floe, grounded in nine fathoms upon the débris formed at the mouth of a large river. Feeling confident that, should we be caught between this and what we were fast to, the ship must inevitably go to pieces, and yet being aware that to cast off would certainly send us on the beach (from which we were never distant eighty yards), upon which the smaller ice was hurled as it came in contact with these grounded masses, I sent John Kerr (gunner’s mate) under very difficult circumstances, to endeavor to reach it and effect its destruction by blasting; he could not, however, find a sufficient space of water to sink the charge, but remarking a large cavity upon the sea face of the floe, he fixed it there, which so far succeeded, that it slightly fractured it in three places, which, at the moment was scarcely observable, from the heavy pressure it was sustaining. By this time, the vessel was within a few feet of it, and every one was on deck in anxious suspense, awaiting what was apparently the crisis of our fate; most fortunately, the stern post took it so fairly, that the pressure was fore and aft, bringing the whole strength of the ship to bear, a heavy grind, which shook every mast, and caused beams and decks to complain, as she trembled to the violence of the shock, plainly indicated that the struggle would be but of short duration. At this moment, the stream-cable was carried away, and several anchors drew; thinking that we had now sufficiently risked the vessel, orders were given to let go the warps, and with that order I had made up my mind that in a few minutes she would be on the beach; but, as it was sloping, conceived she might still prove an asylum for the winter, and possibly be again got afloat; while, should she be crushed between these large grounded pieces, she must inevitably go down in ten fathoms, which would be certain destruction to all; but before the orders could be obeyed, a merciful Providence interposed, causing the ice, which had previously weakened, to separate into three pieces, and it floated onward with the mass, our stern still tightly jammed against, but now protected by it. The vessel, which had been thrown over fifteen degrees, and risen bodily one foot eight inches, now righted and settled in the water; the only damage sustained was several sheets of copper ripped off and rolled up like a sheet of paper, but not a fastening had given way, nor does any leakage indicate the slightest defect. By midnight, the ice was stationary, and everything quiet, which continued until the 10th of September; indeed, from the temperature having fallen to sixteen degrees, with all appearance of the setting in of the winter, I considered our farther progress stopped until next year.”