years past.[017]
None of the ships had yet taken a single whale, which, indeed, they
never expect to do to the southward of about 78 deg.

In the afternoon, after waiting for some time for the ice to open, we
again entered it, in company with all the whalers, and by the following
morning had succeeded in pushing about fifty miles farther to the
northward, though not without some heavy blows in "boring" through the
ice.

At five A.M. on the 14th we passed Magdalena Bay, and by ten o'clock had
arrived off Hakluyt's Headland, round which we hauled to the
southeastward, to look, for anchorage in Smerenburg Harbour. In this,
however, we were disappointed, the whole place being occupied by one
unbroken floe of ice, still firmly attached to the land on each side.
Here we made fast, though not without considerable difficulty; the wind,
which was now freshening from the southward, blowing in such violent and
irregular gusts off the high land that the ship was scarcely manageable.
Walruses, dovekies, and eider-ducks were very numerous here, especially
the former; and four reindeer came down upon the ice near the ship.

We now prepared a quantity of provisions and other stores to land at
Hakluyt's Headland, as a supply for my party on our return from the
northward; so that, in case of the ship being obliged to go more to the
southward, or of our not being able at once to reach her, we should be
furnished with a few days' resources of every kind. Our intentions were,
however, frustrated for the present; for we had scarcely secured our
hawsers, when a hard gale came on from the southward, threatening every
moment to snap them in two, and drive us from our anchorage. We held on
for several hours, till, at nine P.M., some swell having set in upon the
margin of the ice, it began to break off and drift away. Every possible
exertion was instantly made to shift our stream cable farther in upon
the floe; but it broke away so quickly as to baffle every endeavour,
and at ten the ship went adrift, the wind blowing still harder than
before. Having hauled in the hawsers and got the boats on board, we set
the close-reefed topsails, to endeavour to hang to windward; but the
wind blew in such tremendous gusts from the high land as almost to lay
the ship on her beam-ends; so that we were obliged to reduce our canvass
to the main topsail and stormsails, and let her drive to leeward.[018]
The situation of the ship now appeared a very precarious one