18. He, with
Constables Cornelius and Doak, was wrecked 8 miles off Herschell Island,
when their whale boat was crushed to pieces in the ice. They had to jump
on the floating ice. The cakes were small and were churning round and
up-ending. At times the piece on which one would be standing would
up-end and then it was a case of jumping or being crushed to death.
Finally they reached the shore ice. Then they started for Herschell
Island, but found great cracks or leads in the ice too wide to cross.
They changed their course and made for the nearest land. They found the
leads narrower. By joining their belts and suspenders together a line
was made. One of them would swim the lead and then assist the others
over by this life-line. They crossed over more than a score of leads in
this way before reaching the nearest land. We read this over and then
think of men in comfortable armchairs finding fault with police
expenditure.

But the remaining part of the report in this connection is still more
amazing. Let me quote it. "The time spent by us from the wrecking of the
boat on the ice to our reaching the land was ten hours. A gale from the
north-east had been blowing all the time and in our soaking wet
condition we suffered severely from the cold." One would imagine they
would when he reads on. Phillips says, "The only clothing we wore at
this time was our under garments, trousers and muckluks. Our Artiggies
we threw away, as we found they hampered us too much when getting across
the leads. Herschell Island post was still 12 miles away. We started to
walk it. After travelling about a mile I noticed that Constable Doak was
delirious. Constable Cornelius and I helped him to walk, but owing to
cramps in the legs we could not manage. Constable Cornelius at this
stage offered to go to Herschell Island for assistance, food and
matches, and I permitted him to go. After he left I built a windbreak of
driftwood. Constable Doak and I crawled into it. Here we remained till
11 p.m. the following day. Then we were rescued by a whale boat and
taken to Herschell Island. We kept a sharp look out for Constable
Cornelius, but saw nothing of him, and on arrival found he had not
reached the post. I at once started out Constable Brockie and two
natives with a whale boat, and found him on a sand-spit 10 miles away.
He was brought in safely. I am sorry to say that at the present time
(the day after the event) the two constables and myself are laid up w