at we might select the best lead through
the dispersing pack; but at nine P.M. the wind suddenly freshened to a
violent gale from the northward, compelling us to reduce our sails to a
close-reefed main-topsail and storm-staysails: the sea quickly rising
to a fearful height, breaking over the loftiest bergs, we were unable
any longer to hold our ground, but were driven into the heavy pack under
our lee. Soon after midnight, our ships were involved in an ocean of
rolling fragments of ice, hard as floating rocks of granite, which were
dashed against them by the waves with so much violence, that their masts
quivered as if they would fall, at every successive blow; and the
destruction of the ships seemed inevitable from the tremendous shocks
they received. By backing and filling the sails, we endeavored to avoid
collision with the larger masses; but this was not always possible: in
the early part of the storm, the rudder of the Erebus was so much
damaged as to be no longer of any use; and about the same time, I was
informed by signal that the Terror's was completely destroyed, and
nearly torn away from the stern-post. We had hoped that, as we drifted
deeper into the pack, we should get beyond the reach of the tempest; but
in this we were mistaken. Hour passed away after hour without the least
mitigation of the awful circumstances in which we were placed. Indeed,
there seemed to be but little probability of our ships holding together
much longer, so frequent and violent were the shocks they sustained. The
loud, crashing noise of the straining and working of the timbers and
decks, as she was driven against some of the heavier pieces, which all
the activity and exertions of our people could not prevent, was
sufficient to fill the stoutest heart, that was not supported by trust
in Him, who controls all events, with dismay.

At two P.M. the storm gained its height, when the barometer stood at
28.40 inches, and, after that time, began to rise. Although we had been
forced many miles deeper into the pack, we could not perceive that the
swell had at all subsided, our ships still rolling and groaning amid the
heavy fragments of crushing bergs, over which the ocean rolled its
mountainous waves, throwing huge masses one upon another, and then again
burying them deep beneath its foaming waters, dashing and grinding them
together with fearful violence. The awful grandeur of such a scene can
neither be imagined nor described, for less can t