This fault was, however, soon
remedied, and the rudders again hung in readiness for sea.
On the 14th a boat passed, for the first time, between the ships
and the shore, in consequence of the junction of a number of the
pools and holes in the ice; and on the following day the same kind
of communication was practicable between the ships. It now became
necessary, therefore, to provide against the possibility of the
ships being forced on shore by the total disruption of the ice
between them and the beach, and the pressure of that without, by
letting go a bower-anchor underfoot, which was accordingly done as
soon as there was a hole in the ice under the bows of each
sufficiently large to allow the anchors to pass through. We had
now been quite ready for sea for some days; and a regular and
anxious look-out was kept from the crow's-nest for any alteration
in the state of the ice which might favour our departure from
Winter Harbour, in which it now became more than probable that we
were destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each
month in the whole year, as we had readied it in the latter part
of September, and were likely to be prevented leaving it till
after the commencement of August.
From six A.
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