“‘Port! starboard! So—O—steady!’ was every now and then bawled out with stentorian lungs from aloft, and as energetically and promptly repeated, by the captain below, to the man at the wheel. Presently she came close to—she was almost upon it—a mistaken hail from aloft would have put her helm a-port, and sent her crushing upon the heavy floe. I heard the order ‘a-port,’ and, before it had been repeated, shouted loudly, with the men around me, who also saw the mistake, ‘starboard! starboard! hard a-starboard!’ and in the next instant, with a tremendous blow, that for the moment made her rebound and tremble, she struck the ice in the exact point, and caused it to rend apart in several fragments. Ice poles and boat hooks were immediately in request; and myself and half a dozen men sprang instantly over the bows, working with hands and feet and with all our might in removing the broken pieces by pushing them ahead of the vessel; in which labour, she, herself, materially aided us by her own power pressing upon them. In a moment or two it was effected, and throwing ourselves aboard again like so many wild cats, we prepared for the next encounter.
“This, however, proved nothing like the other. The first blow sent the whole of it flying in all directions, and the little Prince, as if in haughty disdain, passed through without once stopping, pushing aside the pieces, as they came against her. In another moment or two we were in a larger sheet of water, though to our disappointment blocked up at the extreme end by small bergs and huge hummocks, which latter had, apparently, been thus thrown up in consequence of some late severe squeeze there. We were, therefore, again obliged to make fast.”
Thursday, August 15, Mr. Snow makes the entry, “We were, now, fairly in what is called by Arctic seamen, the ‘North Water,’ and all seemed clear before us.”
By the 21st the little Prince Albert found herself off Port Leopold. Here a party made a difficult landing in a gutta-percha boat and found the house constructed by Sir James C. Ross, somewhat rent by the winter storms, but the provisions were in excellent condition and the little steam-launch ready to carry any shipwrecked crew to safety.
The Prince Albert now made for Prince Regent Inlet, and soon after stood off Fury Beach. From this point the outlook was discouraging, as an expanse of hummocky ice without the slightest sign of an opening extended as far as the eye could reach.
It was now found necessary to abandon the main object of the expedition; that is, the examination of the shores of Boothia, and the ship turned with the purpose of closely scanning the shores and headlands at the throat of Barrow Strait and a short distance up Wellington Channel. In Barrow Strait, they spoke the American brig Advance; by the 24th they neared Cape Hind. On this day they saw the Lady Franklin and Sophia, and later observed three more ships in Wellington Channel.
The next day, while off Cape Spencer, the officers of the Prince Albert saw that to push further into the ice-pack through the few lanes still open might mean, in case of a sudden nip, being shut up for the winter, so it was reluctantly decided to make for home.
CAPTAIN OMMANEY
Leaving behind them that noble fleet of searching vessels, including the Assistance, the Lady Franklin, the Sophia, the Rescue, and, though not visible, the Advance and Intrepid, the Prince Albert turned her bow homeward. At Cape Riley the officers noticed a signal-post and immediately sent a boat ashore to discover what it meant.