To prevent the ships separating during the fog, it was necessary to keep
fast to the heavy piece of ice which we had between them as a fender,
and with a reduced amount of sail on them, we made some way through the
pack: as we advanced in this novel mode to the south-west, we found the
ice became more open, and the westerly swell increasing as the wind
veered to the northwest, at midnight, we found it impossible any longer
to hold on by the floe piece. All our hawsers breaking in succession, we
made sail on the ships, and kept company, during the thick fog, by
firing guns, and by means of the usual signals: under the shelter of a
berg of nearly a mile in diameter, we dodged about during the whole day,
waiting for clear weather, that 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,