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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

Sailing Among the Ice

Sailing Among the Ice.

The day after she rounded the Horn, on the homeward passage, the Red Jacket had a most trying experience amongst the ice. A passenger by the ship supplied the following account to a London paper of the risk the ship ran: "On 24th August I was roused out of sleep by the noise of shortening sail. Ice had been seen before, but the solid masses had been supposed in the dark to be land. I found we were in smooth water and large masses of ice were floating about us. As the day broke we found ourselves sailing along a lake of water, not unlike a canal. The ice appeared to extend on every side in solid fields as far as the eye could reach, without any prospect of getting out, so that we had to follow the channel. All sail was clewed up except the topsails, and as there was a good breeze we proceeded along at about four or five knots. Our situation at this time seemed most appalling, as we appeared to be getting further into the ice, so that at 11 o'clock we were almost making up our minds to remain for weeks in this fearful situation. About noon the captain and second mate, who had been on the foretopsail yard all the morning, discovered a clear sea again, to reach which we had to force a passage through dense masses of ice. It was here she sustained the principal damage to her stem and copper.

"We soon got clear and the rest of the day we saw no traces of ice, and were very thankful we had got off so easily. But, to our dismay, at 8 p.m. we again fell in with it. The ship was put about and sail shortened for the night, and we ran back to the clear water in which we had been sailing. At daybreak sail was made and at 7 a.m. we came up with the ice. At first it was only large pans, and much melted, the water having all the appearance of brine and being quite thick round them. Afterwards large masses of icebergs presented themselves.