They went down another thousand feet. The plane seemed to be much heavier on the controls. Still no halt in the gathering of the ice.
The situation was becoming desperate, and the Skipper told Jack to try and get into communication with some ship. If the ice kept on forming it would mean that they would have to land on the water in another fifteen or twenty minutes. In order to fly level it was necessary to run their engine almost at its maximum.
They brought the plane lower down, and still they could see nothing but swirling clouds.
Jack was sending out their call letter with the S O S to show that they were in trouble. He got a feeble answer, and worked with his instruments trying to bring it nearer and clearer.
Still the hateful ice piled onto them. Extending back from the leading edge of the wing it was now fully an inch thick. It was freezing in the narrow slots of their ailerons. The Skipper was finding it increasingly difficult to balance the plane sideways.
He came down to a thousand feet, straining his eyes for a glimpse of the ocean underneath. All was gray and murky.
Jack was working feverishly with his sending key and listening for an answer to his calls. Two ships in their eagerness to help were interfering with the reception of either message.
The engine was now wide open, and they were staggering along under the load of ice. They could not see the tail of the plane, but knew from the way the elevator operated that it, too, was covered with ice. Slowly they were losing altitude.
Jack was getting one of the calls a little better. The ship was sending her position and asking for theirs. The Skipper, now thoroughly alarmed and feeling that they were to be forced into the water, called to Kiwi to get their collapsible boat and put it where it could be reached in an instant. It was stored in the rear.
Kiwi made his way back, unlashed it from where it hung, and started forward. As he crept to the front he saw Jack, every nerve tense, trying to make out the code, and Dad straining his eyes to catch the first glimpse of the heaving water.