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:

A day of wearing anxiety. The gale continued, varying between E. by S. and S.E. At seven 
a.m. the ice commenced to move, and seemingly to windward, as if the pressure were forced back 
on itself. As we lay broadside to the movement we had the full force of it on our frame. The ice on 
our port side (the weather side) seemed tougher and more unyielding than heretofore, and the 
whole mass made our ship snap and creak with the squeezing worse than ever before. Several 
times the pressure became so great that the ship ceased to creak, and the deck seemed ready to 
burst open. To leeward of us one large sheet of ice would ride over another large sheet, and the 
two come down against us; the port floe would decline to yield; the two sheets to leeward would 
break edges and pile up blocks against our starboard side, and then begin pressing against these; 
the ship would groan and squirm and then seem dead, while the deck trembled. This might last half 
an hour, and when it seemed as if wood and iron must give, the port floe would hump up and split, 
and we would be pushed on for another nip. This sort of thing lasted until three p.m., and then the 
nip seemed to be hardest of all, and remained so. We could not tell whether it let up or not, for we 
were jammed tight, heeling 2 1/2° to starboard. The ship could not rise, for the ice was only a foot 
thick, and took the ship's side above the bends only; it was simply a question of its going through 
her, or of her being strong enough to stand it. She was strong enough, and that is all we can say. If 
she had not been strong enough she would have been cut in two. Eight hours of this mental tension 
is enough for one day.

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Jeannette Ship's Journal

See digitized manuscript page provided by NOAA PMEL.