The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-03-25
Parting Hawsers among the Ice
borCS,


It blow perfect hurricane We had
seen it coming, and were ready with three
good hawsers. out ahead, and all things
snug on board.
Still it came on heavier and heavier,
and the iccbergs to drive more wildly
than | thought | had ever seen them. [
had just turned in to warm and dry myself
during the momentary lull, and was stretch
ing myself out in my bunk, when | heard
the sharp twangng snap Of cord. Our
six-nch hawser had parted, and we were
swinging by the two others; the gale roar
ing like lion to the southwark.
iialf a minute more and twang
twang! came second report l knew it
was the whale line by the shrillness Of
the ring. Our noble ten-inch MANILA
still held on. ] was hurrying my last
sock into its sea-skin boot, when Nc
Geary came waddling down the compan-
ion ladders
"Capt. Kane, she won't hold much
longer; it's blowing exceedingly hard, and
am afraid to surge"
The MANILA cable was proving its ex-
cellcnce when ! reached the deck and
the crew, as they gathered round me,
were loud in its praises. We could hear
its deep Eolian chant, swelling through
all the rattle of the running gear, and
moaning of the shrouds. 10 ,oas tie death.
so"g' The strands gave way with the
noise of shottod gum and, in the smoke
that followed their recoil we were dragged
out by the wild ice, at its mercy.
We steadied and did some pretty warp
ing, and got the brig good bed in tho
rushing drift; but it all came to nothing.
We then tried to beat back through the
narrow ice-clogged water way, that was
driving, quarter Of a mile wide, between
the shore and the pack 1t cost us two
hours of hard labor, l thought skilllully
bestowed but at the end Of that time,
we were at least four miles off, opposite
the great valley in the centre of Bedevil-
led Reach. Ahead of US farther to the
north, we could see the strait growing still
narrower, and the heavy ice tables grind
ing up, and dogging it between the shore
cliffs on one side and the ledge on the 9TH
er. 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; ell hands
watching the enemy, as we closed, in ST.
lence.
At 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 no
withstanding 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,
hopelessly scraping along lee of leo sci.
dom less than thirty feet thick; one foe,
measured by line as we tried to fas-
ten to it, more than fcr'v. 7 h"1 gu
such ice only ou.e bo.Ol,, eu4 never i'll
such rapid motion. One upturned mass
rose above our gunwale, smashing in our
bulwarks, and depositing half ton of ice
in a lump upon our decks. Our staunch
little brig bore herself through all this
wild adventure, as if she had charmed
life.
But a new enemy came in sight ahead.
Directly in our way, just beyond the line
of floe-ice, against which we were alarm
ingly sliding and humping, was group
of bergs. We had no power to avoid
them and the only question was, wheth.
er we were to be dashed in pieces against
them. or whether they might not offer us
some providential nook of refuge from the
storm. But as we neared them, we per-
ceived that they were at some distance
from the foe edge, and separated from
it by an interval of fopen water. Our hopes
rose, as the gale drove us toward the pass
age, and into it and we were ready to
exult, when from some unexplained cause,
probably an eddy of the wind against
the lofty ice-walls, we lost our Roadway.
Almost at the same moment, we saw that
the bergs were not at rest; that with
momentum of their own, they we're bear.