Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/210

158 at this time I observed the ice to generate very fast upon the surface of the water.

Soon after my return, I regretted to hear that Captain Scoresby had been grossly insulted by one of the men, on his reproving him for leaving his watch and being below. This I found to be a serious evil, to which the commanders of vessels in the merchant service are not only liable, but to which they repeatedly subject themselves, for the want of regulations to ensure good order, there being now no remedy beyond setting the offender to some duty. It is an injury of the highest importance to those concerned in the maritime commerce of the country; and that class of persons, who contribute so importantly to the public exigencies, would derive essential benefit if some laws were provided sufficient to ensure a proper state of discipline and subordination.

A thick fog having set in, on the evening of the 25th, and continued until this morning with a calm, and the ice being in great motion, we were kept in a continued state of anxiety and very great alarm for the safety of the ship, as it was impossible to see twice its length around us, and boats were constantly employed to guard us against the continued impediments which were coming in our way, such as fixed fields, floating floes, islands of ice, as well as immense masses which were lying in the most troublesome manner possible to intercept our course. At length, in the morning watch