Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/56

52 making a stern-board, with all sails aback, and screwing full speed astern at the same time. The deck was covered with frozen powdery snow, and forward was coated with ice from the shipping of seas."

The following day the Challenger had forty icebergs in sight at noon.

At the end of March 1903, whilst looking for a harbour in the South Orkneys, we had four anxious days and nights on board the Scotia, navigating amongst bergs in dirty weather, and on the 22nd of March 1903 narrowly escaped shipwreck by collision with an iceberg. The nights at this time were very dark and of full twelve hours' duration, and it was blowing almost continually with fog and driving snow, especially when we came near the land. All day in such weather we would approach the land cautiously, looking in vain to find a safe harbour where the Scotia might winter; and at night, to prevent being driven ashore, we would steam out to sea. To the north of the South Orkneys at this time the sea was clear of pack ice, but it was full of bergs, and the greatest vigilance had to be shown. On the afternoon of Sunday, March the 22nd, while endeavouring to discover Lethewaite Strait, the squalls became exceedingly violent, accompanied by snow and very heavy, blinding drift from the high mountains