for
suitable garments. Also, since they would never use them again, I
ransacked the sea chests of my shipmates. Working quickly but
collectedly, I took nothing but the warmest and stoutest of clothes. I
put on the four best woollen shirts the forecastle boasted, three pairs
of pants, and three pairs of thick woollen socks. So large were my feet
thus incased that I could not put on my own good boots. Instead, I
thrust on Nicholas Wilton's new boots, which were larger and even stouter
than mine. Also, I put on Jeremy Nalor's pea jacket over my own, and,
outside of both, put on Seth Richard's thick canvas coat which I
remembered he had fresh-oiled only a short while previous.

Two pairs of heavy mittens, John Robert's muffler which his mother had
knitted for him, and Joseph Dawes' beaver cap atop my own, both bearing
ear-and neck-flaps, completed my outfitting. The shouts that the brig
was sinking redoubled, but I took a minute longer to fill my pockets with
all the plug tobacco I could lay hands on. Then I climbed out on deck,
and not a moment too soon.

The moon, bursting through a crack of cloud, showed a bleak and savage
picture. Everywhere was wrecked gear, and everywhere was ice. The
sails, ropes, and spars of the mainmast, which was still standing, were
fringed with icicles; and there came over me a feeling almost of relief
in that never again should I have to pull and haul on the stiff tackles
and hammer ice so that the frozen ropes could run through the frozen
shivs. The wind, blowing half a gale, cut with the sharpness that is a
sign of the proximity of icebergs; and the big seas were bitter cold to
look upon in the moonlight.

The longboat was lowering away to larboard, and I saw men, struggling on
the ice-sheeted deck with barrels of provisions, abandon the food in
their haste to get away. In vain Captain Nicholl strove with them. A
sea, breaching across from windward, settled the matter and sent them
leaping over the rail in heaps. I gained the captain's shoulder, and,
holding on to him, I shouted in his ear that if he would board the boat
and prevent the men from casting off, I would attend to the provisioning.

Little time was given me, however. Scarcely had I managed, helped by the
second mate, Aaron Northrup, to lower away half-a-dozen barrels and kegs,
when all cried from the boat that they were casting off. Good reason
they had. Down upon us from windward was drifting a towering
ice