A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

many whales, penguins, some white birds, pintadoes, &c.[4] "We had already had several false alarms from the fallacious conformation of fog-banks, or thatof islands of ice half hid in snow storms, and our consort the Adventure had repeatedly made thesignals for seeing land, deceived by such appearances: but now, the imagination warmed with theidea of M. Bouvet's discovery, one of our lieutenants, after having repeatedly been up to the masthead,(about six o'clock in the morning on the 14th,) acquainted the captain that he plainly saw theland. This news brought us all upon deck: We saw an immense field of flat ice before us, broken intomany small pieces on the edges, a vast number of islands of ice of all shapes and sizes rose beyond itas far as the eye could reach, and some of the most distant considerably raised by the hazy vapourswhich lay on the horizon, had indeed some appearance of mountains. Several of our officerspersisted in the opinion that they had seen land here, till Captain Cook, about two years and twomonths afterwards, (in February 1775,) on his course from Cape Horn towards the Cape of GoodHope, sailed over the same spot, where they had supposed it to lie, and found neither land nor evenice there at that time."--G.F.At eight o'clock we brought-to under a point of the ice, where we had smooth water: and I sent on boardfor Captain Furneaux. After we had fixed on rendezvouses in case of separation, and some other mattersfor the better keeping company, he returned on board, and we made sail again along the ice. Some pieceswe took up along-side, which yielded fresh water. At noon we had a good observation, and found ourselvesin latitude 54° 55' S.We continued a south-east course along the edge of the ice, till one o'clock, when we came to a point roundwhich we hauled S.S.W., the sea appearing to be clear of ice in that direction. But after running fourleagues upon this course, with the ice on our starboard side, we found ourselves quite imbayed; the iceextending from N.N.E. round by the west and south, to east, in one compact body. The weather wasindifferently clear; and yet we could see no end to it. At five o'clock we hauled up east, wind at north, agentle gale, in order to clear the ice. The extreme east point of it, at eight o'clock, bore E. by S., over whichappeared a clear sea. We however spent the night in making short boards, under an easy sail. Thermometer,these 24 hours, from 32 to 30.Next day, the 15th, we had the wind at N.W., a small gale, thick foggy weather, with much snow;thermometer from 32 to 27; so that our sails and rigging were all hung with icicles. The fog was so thick attimes, that we could not see the length of the ship; and we had much difficulty to avoid the many islands ofice that surrounded us. About noon, having but little wind, we hoisted out a boat to try the current, whichwe found set S.E. near 3/4 of a mile an hour. At the same time, a thermometer, which in the open air was at32°, in the surface of the sea was at 30°; and, after being immerged 100 fathoms deep for about fifteen ortwenty minutes, came up at 34°, which is only 2° above freezing.[5] Our latitude at this time was 55° 8'.[5] "While we were doing this, so thick a fog came on, that it was with the utmost difficulty, andafter some considerable time, that we found the ships again."--W."Their situation in a small four-oared boat, on an immense ocean, far from any habitable shore,surrounded with ice, and utterly destitute of provisions, was truly terrifying and horrible in itsconsequences. They rowed about for some time, making vain efforts to be heard, but all was silentabout them, and they could not see the length of their boat. They were the more unfortunate, as theyhad neither mast nor sail, and only two oars. In this dreadful suspence they determined to lie still,hoping that, provided they preserved their place, the sloops would not drive out of sight, as it wascalm. At last they heard the jingling of a bell at a distance; this sound was heavenly music to their