Then Bjarni Grimolfson was carried into the sea of Greenland,[51] and came into a sea infested by the teredo, and the first thing they noticed was that the ship beneath them was worm-eaten. So they discussed what plan should be adopted. They had a boat which was coated with seal-tar. It is said that the teredo does not eat wood which is coated with seal-tar. The majority declared in favour of the proposal to man the boat with such men as she would accommodate. But when this was tested the boat would not accommodate more than half the crew. Bjarni then said that the manning of the boat should be by lot, and not by rank. But every man who was there wished to go in the boat, and she could not take them all. For this reason[52] they agreed to the course of drawing lots for the manning of the boat from the ship. So the result of the drawing was that Bjarni drew a seat in the boat, and about half the crew with him. So those who had been chosen by the lots went from the ship into the boat. When they had got into the boat, a young Icelander, who had been one of Bjarni’s companions, said, ‘Do you mean, Bjarni, to desert me here?’ Bjarni replied, ‘So it has turned out.’ ‘This is not what you promised me’, said he, ‘when I left my father’s house in Iceland to go with you.’ ‘But still’, said Bjarni, ‘I do not see any other course in this predicament: but answer me, what course do you advise?’ ‘The course I see’, said he, ‘is that we change places, and you come here while I go there.’ Bjarni answered, ‘Be it so. For I see that you cling greedily to life, and think it a hard thing to die.’ Thereupon they changed places. This man went down into the boat, while Bjarni got on board the ship, and men say that Bjarni was lost there in the teredo sea, with those men who were on board with him. But the boat and those on board of her went their ways, till they came to land, _at Dublin in Ireland_, where they afterwards told this story.