With each "send" of the swell the ship would
bang her bows on the floe ahead, then bounce back and smash into
another floe across her stern-post. This floe, about six feet thick
and 100 ft. across, was eventually split and smashed by the impacts.
The pack was jammed close on the 23rd, when the noon latitude was 64°
36?? S. The next change was for the worse. The pack loosened on the
night of the 25th, and a heavy north-west swell caused the ship to bump
heavily. This state of affairs recurred at intervals in succeeding
days. "The battering and ramming of the floes increased in the early
hours [of February 29] until it seemed as if some sharp floe or jagged
underfoot must go through the ship's hull. At 6 a.m. we converted a
large coir-spring into a fender, and slipped it under the port quarter,
where a pressured floe with twenty to thirty feet underfoot was
threatening try knock the propeller and stern-post off altogether. At 9
a.m., after pumping ship, the engineer reported a leak in the way of
the propeller-shaft aft near the stern-post on the port side. The
carpenter cut part of the lining and filled the space between the
timbers with Stockholm tar, cement, and oakum. He could not get at the
actual leak, but his makeshift made a little difference. I am anxious
about the propeller.
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