The saw, being
then entered in the hole under the stern, was worked in the usual
manner, being suspended by a triangle made of three spars: one cut
being made on the outer part of the trench, and a second within an
inch or two of the bends, in order to avoid injuring the planks. A
small portion of ice being broken off now and then by bars,
handspikes, and ice-chisels, floated, to the surface, and was
hooked out by piecemeal. This operation was a cold and tedious one
and required nine days to complete it. When the workmen had this
morning completed the trench within ten or twelve feet of the
stern, the ship suddenly disengaged herself from the ice, to which
she had before been firmly adhering on the larboard side, and rose
in the water about ten inches abaft, and nearly eighteen inches
forward, with a considerable surge. This circumstance it was not
difficult to explain. In the course of the winter, the strong
eddy-winds about the ships had formed round them a drift of snow
seven or eight feet deep in some parts, and perhaps weighing a
hundred tons; by which the ice, and the ships with it, were
carried down much below the natural level at which they would
otherwise have floated. In the mean time the ships had become
considerably lighter, from expenditure of several months'
provisions: so that, on both these accounts, they had naturally a
tendency to rise in the water as soon as they were set at liberty.
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