The stores were landed with the greatest rapidity, the activity with which every one worked being still further stimulated by the news from below that the one hand-pump, which was being worked by four men, could not keep the water back, and that already it was almost touching the bars of the furnaces. At one time it looked as though there would be no chance of saving the fires, and had the water once reached them and so prevented steam being got up, the plight of the explorers would have been critical in the extreme. As it was, the Norwegian engineers worked like heroes, and managed to have enough steam to start the steam-pumps just as the water touched the fires in one of the boiler furnaces. The steam-pump, assisting the hand-pump, was sufficient to keep the water from rising further, but not enough to keep it back altogether. Neither the steam nor the hand pump, by itself, could prevent the water from rising. Both had to be kept going, therefore, although the number of men thus taken away from unloading stores and provisions made that work very much slower than was desired. But if the water reached to the fires and put them out, there seemed to be little chance of saving enough to keep the party alive during the winter. So they worked on with a brave persistence, Italian and Norwegian alike, until they had all the stores out on the ice, together with spars, ropes, sails, and all other things needed for the construction of a shelter in which to pass the winter. This was only completed after twenty-four hours of toil, and when it was finished the worn-out party sought a brief respite in sleep. As soon as the pumps ceased working the waters rose in the holds and over the furnace bars, putting out the fires. Contrary to expectations, the ship did not go down, the ice being sufficiently strong to sustain it from sinking, and the water stopped rising when it had covered the furnaces.