On the 11th of August, 1872, the ice of the straits was observed to be in motion, drifting to the south. With the hope of releasing the ship and returning home, Captain Buddington, after an examination of the ice, decided it would be safe to force the vessel through. At 4:30 P.M. the engines were started, and the _Polaris_ left Thank God Harbor; with great care the vessel was piloted between the heavy floes, changing her course frequently, but always gaining ground. By the 18th, she stood 79° 44´ 30´´ N. On the 27th, every preparation was made for a possible abandonment of the vessel. A house was built on the floe, as a retreat in case the ship should be destroyed. For nearly two months the _Polaris_ drifted southward at the mercy of the ice-pack, and was nipped near Little Island by October 13. “At 5 A.M. of the 15th (October),” writes Admiral Davis in his “Narrative of the North Polar Expedition,” “a very heavy snow began to fall, and continued until 8 A.M., when the wind blew so hard that it was impossible to distinguish between the falling and drifting snow. The gale increased all day, driving the vessel with its surrounding ice with great rapidity. It commenced to blow from the S. E., but shifted to the S., and finally to the S. W. During its prevalence, the air was so completely filled with the flying snow that one could not see more than 20 or 30 feet. The ship had remained fast to the floe so long, and drifted with it so far, that no particular anxiety was felt as to the result. “The captain had, however, always said that if the vessel passed through Smith Strait, he would not feel easy until the ice in which she lay, had joined the regular Baffin’s Bay pack. “The ‘north-water,’ as it is called by whalemen, is always found in the northern part of Baffin Bay, and he knew that, were this safely crossed, the ship would float quietly down with the pack all winter, and be released in the spring far to the south. “The direction in which the vessel was moving was a matter of speculation; the fact of her moving was admitted. The daily work being done, after dinner the men settled themselves down as usual for the enjoyments of the evening. At 6 P.M., it was reported that the starboard side of the vessel was free from ice. The captain turned out the crew, and secured the ship by an additional hawser to the floe. This extra hawser was over the stern and led from a large ice-anchor, sunk in the floe to the main-mast. Two hawsers had served during the whole of the drift to hold the _Polaris_ to the floe, one over the bows and one over the stern. Final preparations were made to abandon the vessel, nearly everything had been got ready on deck; the seamen still had their clothes and personal effects to look after.