the bows, and so would
have increased the upward pressure on the wooden deck, and thus have
increased the liability to burst up. For the same reason, when raising
the ship off the rocks, no compressed air was used in the after hold to
lift the ship. The anchors and cables were in both cases transferred
aft, for the same purpose, namely, to diminish the upward pressure
forward. In the case of the wooden deck leaking, 200 of the same casks
were placed between it and the lower deck in the foremost hold to retain
some of the buoyancy of the forepart, which would otherwise be lost. No
decks were built in the compartment before the collision bulkhead, as
very little buoyancy was lost by that space being full of water, and all
that was there was confined to that compartment by the bulkhead and the
iron lower deck.

While all these foregoing arrangements were being made for the exclusion
of water from the inside of the ship, the engineers and firemen were
employed clearing the engine room of some fifty tons of coal which had
been washed from the open bunkers into the machinery by the sea, when
the engine room was full and the ship on the reef. The greatest
difficulty was experienced in digging out and excavating the engines
from the coal and dirt, and still greater was the labor of cleaning all
the mechanism and putting everything once more in an efficient steaming
condition. But all was finished soon after the decks had been completed,
and on October 12 she was ready for sea. On the following day she was
floated off and started on her perilous voyage to Halifax, using her own
engines, and making about five and a half knots an hour. Her steam pumps
were by this time all ready for service to assist the big ones on deck
in an emergency. She anchored once on her way round, at Shelburne, on
the coast of Nova Scotia, arriving at Halifax at 1 p.m. on October 17.
The trip round was a very anxious time for all hands, more especially
when they were overtaken by a fresh gale in the Atlantic, for the
forward deck was very liable to be burst up with the increased pressure
on it caused by the pitching of the ship; also the rudder was entirely
unable to bear any strain on it, because the lower part of the rudder
post was unconnected with the stern post, part of the stern framing
which connects the two having been broken off. Any heavy sea was
therefore likely to carry away the rudder altogether, or the same
accident might happen if the helm