Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/158

154 blocks and every portion of the working gear had to be in as perfect condition as possible to avoid any accident. Yet, in spite of every precaution in the course of this arduous work, more than once the lives of men were endangered. I have undertaken arduous sledging and other land work within the Arctic and Antarctic Regions, but I know of no work that is more difficult or more dangerous than trawling in the greatest depths of the ocean in a sea closely packed with ice. The great increase of strain on the cable when it is caught by the ice, which is unavoidable, and the sudden release of strain, it may be to the extent of even 3 or 4 tons, tells to the utmost on all the gear, and it is not unlikely that something may give way with disastrous results. Such accidents are most likely to happen in the early part of a voyage, before everybody is thoroughly familiar with the operation. On one occasion the trawling-cable drum on the Scotia, containing 6,000 fathoms of cable weighing over six tons, "took charge," and the bo'sun had a miraculous escape, and on other occasions other members of the expedition had their lives and limbs endangered. These incidents are only mentioned here to let the reader understand that Polar explorers carrying on their researches at sea encounter perils at least as great as those making long journeys on the land.