Entry Index: 153
Position: No position
Date by Position: 25 November 1879
Logbook Volume: 1 of 4
Logbook Metadata: Volume 1
Latitude by observation at noon: no observation Longitude by chronometer from forenoon observations: no observation Snow used for water Coal consumed during the preceding 24 hours: 310 lbs Coal remaining on hand at noon: 104 tons 1053 lbs AM Weather cloudy and stormy. Moderate gale from W.S.W'd. Slight pressure on port-bow at 6. At 9.15 heavy pressure on port side and ship was listed 3° to port. About 10 the ice slacked up and the ship righted. Drifted clear of floe on starboard side and into the lead. Ship water borne. Heeling 2 1/2° to starboard. At 12 sounded in 18 1/2 fathoms. Muddy bottom. Drifting to the N'd and E'd. Weather clearing and wind decreasing. PM Weather clear and cold. Moderate breeze from W.S.W. Between 5 and 6 ship was subjected to tremendous pressures. The first pressure was from right astern and was exerted in a fore and aft direction. The others were athwart-ships and were heavy. Ship stood them very well and drifted to the E.N.E. (true) as soon as ice slacked. Large sheets of open water in sight. Bright moonlight. Ship swung all the way around the compass and about 7 brought up in a large sheet of open water with her bows in the young ice on the south side of the open place. Young ice forming over open water. Auroral arch between 10 and 12. Brilliant reflections under the moon. Moon 19° N. First quarter
See full digitized page provided by the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Excerpt:
To-day has been one of the most anxious and exciting days we have yet had. At 6.15 a slight pressure on the port bow commenced hostilities. At 9.15 a very heavy squeezing on port side started our bulwark planking, and pinching down under us heeled the ship 3° to port. At ten a.m. the pressure ceased, and we were left floating upright in a small lead of open water, and adrift as far as any floe ice was concerned. For a time I was undecided what to do. There was no floe near us large enough to anchor to securely, and the chance of another pressure coming while the ship was tied up and unable to give to it was too unsatisfactory. If the ship were free when the ice moved she would go along with it; if she were tied up she might have to stand the brunt in a very unfavorable position. As it was, she lay in a kind of canal a little wider than her own length, and ready for action ahead or astern. I concluded to let her remain so, and watch for results. At five p.m. I noticed that she commenced floating stern first through the canal. About a mile astern (E.) was a large patch of open water, and from ahead (W.) the broken floe pieces were gathering away and coming down upon us. At a little bend in the canal her stern took the floe and held fast, while her bow payed around as prettily as if we were casting under jibs. No sooner had she got stern to the wind than the advancing ice was upon us, and we were pushed, forced, squeezed, driven through this mile of a canal amid a grinding and groaning of timbers and a crashing and tumbling of ice that was fearful to look at. Still we sailed on, and in a half hour or so were sent out into the opening beyond where our speed decreased, and drifting over toward a thin floe we ran our bows into the young ice and held fast heading S. Though we moved at no time with greater speed than say two knots an hour, our passage through that sluiceway of running ice was enough to make one's hair stand on end, and each of us heaved a sigh of relief when it was over. If we had in the morning planted an ice-anchor to a small floe, I am convinced this pressure would have torn us away from it, and the stream of flowing ice might have jammed us across this canal and given us some injury, even if it had not climbed on board.
See digitized manuscript page provided by NOAA PMEL.
Hour |
Wind |
Pressure |
Att'd |
Dry |
Wet |
Sea |
Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ssw | 29.64 | — | -3.5 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 2 | ssw | 29.68 | — | -3.8 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 3 | ssw | 29.7 | — | -4.5 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 4 | ssw | 29.72 | — | -4.0 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 5 | swxw | 29.76 | — | -4.0 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 6 | swxw | 29.79 | — | -4.0 | — | 32.0 | ocz |
| 7 | swxw | 29.83 | — | -4.0 | — | 32.0 | oc |
| 8 | swxw | 29.85 | — | -5.0 | — | 32.0 | oc |
| 9 | swxw | 29.89 | — | -6.0 | — | 32.0 | oc |
| 10 | swxw | 29.91 | — | -8.0 | — | 32.0 | oc |
| 11 | wsw | 29.93 | — | -9.8 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 12 | wsw | 29.96 | — | -11.2 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 13 | wsw | 30.01 | — | -11.5 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 14 | wsw | 30.04 | — | -10.8 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 15 | wsw | 30.06 | — | -12.0 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 16 | wsw | 30.1 | — | -11.0 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 17 | wsw | 30.16 | — | -10.5 | — | 32.0 | bz |
| 18 | wsw | 30.19 | — | -11.0 | — | 32.0 | bz |
| 19 | wsw | 30.21 | — | -10.5 | — | 32.0 | b |
| 20 | wsw | 30.23 | — | -9.0 | — | 32.0 | b |
| 21 | wsw | 30.26 | — | -12.0 | — | 32.0 | b |
| 22 | wsw | 30.3 | — | -12.0 | — | 32.0 | b |
| 23 | wsw | 30.32 | — | -12.0 | — | 32.0 | bc |
| 24 | wsw | 30.32 | — | -10.5 | — | 32.0 | bc |
