Entry Index: 208
Position: No position
Date by Position: 19 January 1880
Logbook Volume: 2 of 4
Logbook Metadata: Volume 2
Water expended during the preceding 24 hours: 30 gallons Water distilled during the preceding 24 hours: 30 gallons Coal consumed during the preceding 24 hours: 394 lbs Coal remaining on hand at noon: 97 tons 868 lbs At 1.30am there was a loud noise as of the cracking of the ship's frame by great ice pressure. The noise was very loud in two places, abreast the mizzen mast on the starboard side and forward of the foremast. Examination of the ice surrounding the ship showed no movement to have occasioned it, and it was supposed by the Commanding Officer that the noise might have been caused by the drawing of some of the ship's fastenings on account of the intense cold. At 7.45am the wind having shifted from N.N.W. to west, the pack commenced to move with its usual grinding noise. The greatest pressure was on the line of an old break running across the ship's bows from W. to E. The floe on the port side of the ship (to the E'd) was bulged up and broken in many places and the floe on the edge of the old break was piled up against the ship's stem, causing a great longitudinal pressure. At 10.30am water was discovered in the fire room flowing from forward. An immediate examination showed two streams of water about 1 inch in diameter entering the fore peak through the solid filling placed in the bows at the Mare Island Navy Yard. The forward deck pumps were immediately rigged and manned, and steam raised in the port boiler to work the steam pump. There was a depth of 18 inches of water in the fore peak, 24 inches of water in the store rooms next abaft it, and 36 inches in the fore hold. While one watch worked the bilge pump, the other watch broke out the fore peak, the flour room, and the fore hold; being able to hold their own with the water by steady pumping. Difficulty was found in filling the boiler, the sea cocks being frozen fast; but it was done by pouring water from the bilge (then 15 inches deep) through the man hole plates in the top of the boiler. The temperature of the engine room being -25° F. a long time was required to get the pump in condition to take water. At 3pm the pump being ready, the flood gates in the forward water tight bulkhead were opened and a flow of water permitted. The limbers under the coal bunkers seemed to be frozen, or choked in some other way for but little water would pass through. Such as did came through was pumped out through the fire hose on the spar deck to the outside floe. As the steam pump suction was on the port side, and the ship had a heel of 2 1/2° to starboard. The steam pump would take water only when it flowed over the main Kelson; and sufficient water to do this came aft only once or twice in the course of an hour. Kept all hands on deck working the pump until midnight when one watch was permitted to go below. Oakum was driven in at every space in the solid 1.27 bow filling through which water came, but as the lower part would be filled, water would come through above, and when finally the after side of the filling was stuffed so full of oakum and tallow that but a little water dripped through, the water was forced out through the ceiling, seeming to come up from the space between the planking and ceiling. Men were engaged in digging away the ice under the bow to get at the injury if possible, but upon removing the piled up floe pieces, water flowed and froze over the main floe to such a depth as prevented continuance of the work. Until the injury can be seen and determined, nothing more than an opinion can be expressed as to its nature. But from the steady flow of water, its locality, and in view of the great pressure experienced, it may be taken for granted that the fore foot is broken and bent aside springing off the garboard strakes with it. Sufficient pressures have been exerted under and against the stem to lift the ship 2 inches forward. Early daylight at 6.50am. No soundings taken at noon. Considerable ice movement from time to time during the day, and an almost continuous heavy pressure against the ship on all sides. Depth of water in ship at midnight Fore peak Flour room Fore hold Engine room Moon 20° N. First quarter
See full digitized page provided by the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Excerpt:
At 7.45 the wind suddenly shifted from N. to W.N.W., the ice began to move, and, amid the groaning and grinding of the floes, the ship was felt to receive tremendous pressure. The line of ice movement appeared to be at the break across the bows which occurred December 11th and closed up the same day. But the ice, while moving along slightly to the eastward, came down toward the stem, broke off large pieces of floe at the old fracture, and, piling up these masses under the stem, brought a tremendous longitudinal pressure on the ship. The ship being firmly imbedded in the floe, and held firmly on all sides, could not, of course, go astern, nor could she rise, although her curving bow was in her favor, and in consequence it became a question of her fore and aft strength. As she had stood an equally severe pressure on her sides (much weaker places, of course), I had no particular fear; and when I saw the floe on her port side buckle up and break in long thwartship cracks, and then the movement and pressure both seem to cease, I believed that we had weathered one more nip. ... Considerable ice movement during day, and continuous heavy pressure.
See digitized manuscript page provided by NOAA PMEL.
Hour |
Wind |
Pressure |
Att'd |
Dry |
Wet |
Sea |
Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | nwxw | 30.27 | -42.0 | — | -49.0 | -50.0 | bcz |
| 2 | nwxw | 30.27 | -42.0 | — | -48.5 | -50.0 | bcz |
| 3 | nwxw | 30.29 | -42.0 | — | -48.5 | -50.0 | bcz |
| 4 | nwxw | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -48.5 | -50.0 | bcz |
| 5 | nnw | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -49.0 | -50.3 | bc |
| 6 | nnw | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -49.0 | -50.3 | bc |
| 7 | nnw | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -48.5 | -49.5 | bc |
| 8 | w | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -48.5 | -49.5 | bc |
| 9 | w | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -48.0 | -49.0 | bc |
| 10 | w | 30.31 | -42.0 | — | -47.0 | -48.0 | bc |
| 11 | w | 30.34 | -42.0 | — | -47.0 | -48.5 | bcz |
| 12 | nnw | 30.32 | -42.0 | — | -46.0 | -48.0 | bz |
| 13 | wnw | 30.3 | -42.0 | — | -46.0 | -47.5 | bz |
| 14 | wnw | 30.29 | -42.0 | — | -45.5 | -46.5 | bz |
| 15 | wxn | 30.26 | -42.0 | — | -45.3 | -46.7 | bz |
| 16 | wnw | 30.25 | -42.0 | — | -44.7 | -46.3 | bz |
| 17 | wxn | 30.25 | -42.0 | — | -43.5 | -45.0 | bz |
| 18 | wxn | 30.26 | -42.0 | — | -44.0 | -45.5 | bz |
| 19 | wnw | 30.27 | -42.0 | — | -43.7 | -45.3 | bz |
| 20 | w | 30.28 | -42.0 | — | -44.0 | -45.0 | bz |
| 21 | w | 30.27 | -42.0 | — | -43.0 | -45.0 | bz |
| 22 | w | 30.27 | -42.0 | — | -43.0 | -44.0 | b |
| 23 | wxs | 30.26 | -42.0 | — | -42.5 | -43.5 | b |
| 24 | wnw | 30.22 | -42.0 | — | -43.0 | -44.0 | b |
