aptain Rendall having given his permission, plenty of volunteers were
found ready for the somewhat hazardous expedition. I was one of them.
The risk was, that during our absence the ice might begin to take off;
and that we should be separated from the ship, and be left among the
heaving and tumbling masses of ice. Of this probably the captain had
not much fear, or he would not have allowed us to go.

To assist our return, and also to enable us to rescue any of the crew of
the wreck who might be injured, the stern boat was lowered that we might
track her up to them. Mr Todd, three other men, and I, formed the
party. Away we went towards the ship, dragging our boat with no little
difficulty among the hummocks and masses, with some risk of the blocks
toppling down on our heads and crushing us.

As we drew nearer the _Arctic Swan_, an exclamation from the mate made
us look up at her. "There they go," he cried; "I feared so--she'll
never see old England again."

One mast fell while he was speaking, and the others followed directly
after; and one fancied one could hear the crushing in of the ship's
sides even at that distance. That, however, was not the case, for the
ice had taken but a short time to perform its work of destruction.

When at length we got up to the ship, a scene of ruin presented itself,
which, before I saw what ice was, I could scarcely have believed could
have been wrought so speedily. Stout as were her timbers, the ice had
crushed them at the bows and stern completely in, and grinding them to
powder, the floes had actually met through her. Part of her keel and
lower works had sunk, but the rest had been forced upwards, and lay a
mass of wreck on the summit of the hummocks which had been formed under
it.

The stern, by the concussion, incredible as it may seem, had been
carried full fifty yards from the rest of the wreck. Two boats only had
been saved, the rest had been crushed by the ice before they could be
lowered and carried free. A few casks of provisions had been got up on
deck beforehand, in case of such an accident happening, and they, with
the two boats, were upon the ice.

The crew had escaped with the greatest difficulty--some having gone
below to get their bags being nearly caught in the nip and crushed to
death. At first their faculties were paralysed with the disaster; for
the thick weather prevented them from seeing that any help was near, and
they feared that they should hav