For two days we were in the ice pretty nearly all the time. This was the Labrador Pack, Cap’n Bob said. One morning I woke up from a jolt when we hit a piece of ice. The bow of the boat goes out of the water and [[24]]comes down with all its force and breaks up the ice; or else we sort of ride along on it a ways until it breaks loose. Anyway, it is nice to know that the Morrissey is built of good solid oak, and that there is that extra coating of greenheart sheathing around the outside to protect her somewhat from the ice.
There was ice as far as we could see all day long, and some fog. Our course had been zigzagging in and out and around the ice, and it seems strange to come upon so much of it so suddenly when just the other day there wasn’t a bit. It is smooth water where there is a lot of ice, so we made pretty good time even with all our twisting about.
One night we had quite a party, to make the time go well. With our little Pathex machine we had movies, and there was candy and our “foggy dew” orchestra played between the reels, and Art Young played solos on his funny cut-down violin which he has [[25]]taken to Africa and all over on his hunting trips. “Nanook of the North” was the picture, and Bob Flaherty, who made it, is a great friend of ours and has told me lots about the life of the Eskimos up in the Hudson Bay country. By the way, Dad says that perhaps we will go up there next summer.
It was quite sunny at times during the day and Dad and Mr. Kellerman took a great many pictures, both movies and stills. Mr. Kellerman would go out on the bowsprit and get down on the stays, taking movies of the prow cutting through the ice.
It is very exciting to see how the crew take the boat through the ice. One man is in the crow’s nest, on the foremast. He calls out where to go and then the man at the wheel repeats his words so as not to make a mistake.
You hear the man aloft yell, “Starbo-ard!”
And then at the wheel the helmsman repeats, “Starbo-ard!”
Then the boat swings over to port, because [[26]]when the tiller is drawn by the wheel in one way the boat goes in the other.
Altogether for me a pretty interesting and exciting First of July. The temperature was about 34, just a few degrees above freezing. And usually at this time of year I am swimming at home!
