Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2Parry, William Edward, Sir
History
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
From this trial of the efficacy of our means of security, it was plain
that the Fury could not possibly be hove down under circumstances of
such frequent and imminent risk: I therefore directed a fourth anchor,
with two additional cables, to be carried out, with the hope of breaking
some of the force of the ice by its offering a more oblique resistance
than the other, and thus, by degrees, turning the direction of the
pressure from the ships. We had scarcely completed this new defence,
when the largest floe we had seen since leaving Port Bowen came sweeping
along the shore, having a motion to the southward of not less than a
mile and a half an hour; and a projecting point of it, just grazing our
outer berg, threatened to overturn it, and would certainly have
dislodged it from its situation but for the cable recently attached to
it.
The Fury being completely cleared at an early hour on the 16th, we were
all busily employed in "winding" the ship, and in preparing the
outriggers, shores, purchases, and additional rigging. Though we
purposely selected the time of high water for turning the ship round, we
had scarcely a foot of space to spare for doing it; and indeed, as it
was, her forefoot touched the ground, and loosened the broken part of
the wood so much as to enable us to pull it up with ropes, when we found
the fragments to consist of the whole of the "gripe" and most of the
"cutwater." In the evening we received the Fury's crew on board the
Hecla, every arrangement and regulation having been previously made for
their personal comfort, and for the preservation of cleanliness,
ventilation, and dry warmth throughout the ship. The officers of the
Fury, by their own choice, pitched a tent on shore for messing and
sleeping in, as our accommodation for two sets of officers was
necessarily confined. Every preparation being made, at three A.M. on the
18th we began to heave her down on the larboard side; but when the
purchases were nearly ablock, we found that the strops under the Hecla's
bottom, as well as some of the Fury's shore-fasts, had stretched or
yielded so much that they could not bring the keel out of water within
three or four feet. We immediately eased her up again, and readjusted
everything as requisite, hauling her farther in-shore than before by
keeping a considerable heel upon her, so as to make less depth of water
necessary; and we were then in the act of once more heaving her down,
when a snowstorm came on and blew with such violence off the land as to
raise a considerable sea. The ships had now so much motion as to strain
the gear very much, and even to make the lower masts of the Fury bend in
spite of the shores; we were, therefore, most unwillingly compelled to
desist until the sea should go down, keeping everything ready to
recommence the instant we could possibly do so with safety. The officers
and men were now literally so harassed and fatigued as to be scarcely
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