Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-11-27
From DR.. Essne's Arctic Expleration.l
Parting Hawsers among the Ice Bergs,

| 1t blew perfect hurricane We had seer
it coming, and were ready with three good
hawsers out ahead and all things snrg on
board.
Still il came ON heavier and heavier, and the
lee began to drive more wildly than thought
| had ever seen it, had Just turned in to
warm and dry myself through the momentary
lull, and was stretching myself ont in my bunk,
when | heard the sharp twanging snap Of a
cord. Our six-inch hawseF had parted, and we
were swinging by the two others-the gale
roaring like lion to the southwark.
Half minute more, "twang twang y
came a second report. l knew it was the
whale line by the shrillness of the ring Our
noble ten-inch Manila still held on. l was
hurrying my last sock into its sealSkn boot,
when McGary came wadciling down the COM
panon ladders Captain Kane, she won't
hold much longer it's blowing the devil him
self, ana Pm afraid to surge"
The Manila cable was proving its excellence
when | reached the deck ; and the crew, as
! they gathered around me, were loud in its
! praises We could hear its great E0lan chant
/ swelling through all the rattle of the running
gear and moaning of the shrouds. 1t was the
death song. The strands gave way with the
noise of shotted gun and, IN the smoke
that followed their recoil, we were dragged out
! by the wild ice, at its mercy.
| We steadied and done some pretty warping,
and got the brig good bed in the rushing
drift but it all came to nothing We then
| tried to beat back through the narrow ice
clogged water way, that was driving, a quarter
| of mile wide, between the shore and the pack
! 1t cost us two hours of hard labor, | thought
| SkillfuiIy bestowed but at the end of that
! time Ne were at least four miles off, opposite
the great valley in tile centre Of Bedevlled
Reach Ahead of us, farther to tue north,
we could see the strait growing still narrower
and the heavy ice tables grinding up, and clog
ging it between the shore cliffs on one side and
the ledge on the other. There was but one
thing left for us-to keep in some sort the
command of the helm by going freely where
we must otherwise be driven. We allowed her
to scud under reefed foretopsail all hands
watching the enemy as We closed in silence.
Al seven in the morning we were close upon
the piling masses. We dropped our heaviest
anchor, with the desperate hope of winding
the brig, but there was notwithstanding the
ice torrent that followed us. We had only
time to fasten spar as buoy to the chain, and
let her slip. So went our best bower
Down we went upon the gale again, hope
lessly scrapng along lee of ice seldom less
than thirty feet thick one foe measured by
line, as We tried to fasten to it, more than for
ty. had seen such ice only one before, and
never in such rapid motion. One upturned
mass rose above our gunwale, smashing in our
bulwarkS, and depositing half a ton of ice in
lump upon our decks Our stauach little
brig bore herself through all this wild adyen-
ture as if she had charmed life.
But a new enemy came in sight ahead
Directly in our way, just behind the line of
hoc-ice. against which we were alternately slid
ing and humping, was group of bergs. We
had no power to avoid them and the only
question was, whether we were to be dashed
to pieces against them, or whether they might
not offer us some providential nook of refuge
from the storm. But as we neared them, we
perceived that they were at some distance from
the floe-edge, and separated from it by an in
terval of open water
Our hopes rose rs the gale drove us toward
the passage and into it, and we were ready to
exult when from some unexplained cause, pro-
badly an eddy of the wind against the lofty
ice-wallS, We lost our headway Almost at the
same moment We saw that the bergs were not
at rest that with momentum of their own
they were bearing down upon the Other ice
and that it must be our fate to be crushed be-
tween the two.
Just then broad sconce-piece of low wa
terwashed berg came driving from the south
ward The thought flashed up me Of one of
our escapes in Melville Bay, and as the sconce
moved rapidly close alongside us, McGary
managed TO plant an anchor on its slope, and
to hold on to it by whale-line. 1t was an
anxious moment Our noble tow horse, whittier
than the pale horse that seemed to be pursu-
ing us, hauled US brayely on ; the spray dash
ing over his wndward danks, and his forehead
ploughing up the lesser ice as if in Scorn. The
bergs encroached upon US as we advanced i:
our channel narrowed to width of about for
ty feet we braced the yards to keep clear of
the impending ice-walls
We passed clear but it was close shave,
so close that our port quarter boat would have
been crushed if We had not taken it from the
davits, and found ourselves under the Ice of q
berg in comparatively open lead Never
did heart-tricd men acknowledge, with more
gratitude. their merciful deliverance from a
wretched death.
ANECporE OF FRAHKIIN-Whcn quite a
youth, Franklin went to London, entered a
printing office, and enqured he could get en-
! ployment as printer