This entry contains remarks related to the following subject: Sea Ice

Published Journals of George W. DeLong

See full digitized page provided by the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Excerpt:

During the night the opening closed under seeming great pressure, for at day-break, say eight 
a.m., the ice was piled up in great heaps on the edge of our floe, which was of sufficient strength 
evidently to bear the brunt. The pressure came from S.S.E., the line of the crack being N.N.E. and 
S.S.W. true, and since our floe was the stronger, the pressing floe rode up on top of it, breaking off, and 
leaving its own edges in a muddled pile. The thickness of these edges was by actual measurement 7 
feet 10 inches, 6 inches being snow on the surface. Some of the pieces were pea green, or sea green 
rather, and some light blue, and in several places showed a muddy and dirty side as if they had been in 
the mud or had stranded on a beach. 
Not knowing very well what was going to happen, I watched this ridge with considerable interest. 
We had had since midnight a decreasing S.W. wind, but at ten a.m. it became perfectly calm. 
About eleven a.m., to our surprise, the pressing floe receded, leaving a space about ten yards in 
width from floe to floe, and through this the ice began to set to W. and N. as through a gorge, with a 
velocity of about half a mile an hour. The pressure became very great. The smaller pieces passed 
on readily enough, but the large hummocks or broken floe pieces would occasionally jam against 
our floe, and being pressed from behind by the confused mass would exert an influence on our floe 
that made it groan and crack and move under our feet. This mass was flowing not over fifty yards 
from the ship, then heading east northeast, and as it crushed and groaned along, and our floe 
throbbed and shook with the strain brought upon it, I almost momentarily expected to see the ice 
split in all directions around the ship, and the ship herself be carried along with the tumbling heap. 
Nothing of the kind happened, however, thank God, and about four p.m. the motion ceased. The 
ship had not moved an inch. Five sledges stood packed on the poop, with forty days provisions for 
men and dogs, but these might have availed but little. In fact, I doubt if they would have stood the 
racket of being dragged over rough ice with their weights. Suspending, therefore, other work, we 
commenced the construction of two strong sleds to carry our dingys. 
Our floe must have moved; for to-day we are in twenty-three fathoms. The openings in the ice exposed 
so much water to the action of the cold air that we have had all day a thick fog, highest temperature plus 
3°, lowest minus 10°.

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Jeannette Ship's Journal

See digitized manuscript page provided by NOAA PMEL.