But their attention and energies were speedily called to the dangerous position of the ship, which unexpectedly took the ground in a bay where the water proved to be unusually shallow, and before they could warp her off the ice closed round her in compact, immovable masses.  At first Captain Guy was not seriously alarmed by this untoward event, although he felt a little chagrin in consequence of the detention, for the summer was rapidly advancing, and it behoved him to return to Baffin’s Bay and prosecute the whale-fishing as energetically as possible; but when day after day passed, and the ice round the ship still remained immovable, he became alarmed, and sought by every means in his power to extricate himself.

His position was rendered all the more aggravating by the fact that, a week after he was beset, the main body of the ice in the strait opened up and drifted to the southward, leaving a comparatively clear sea through which he could have pushed his way without much difficulty in any direction; but the solid masses in which they lay embedded were fast to the ground for about fifty yards beyond the vessel, seaward, and until these should be floated away there was no chance of escape.

“Get up some powder and canisters, Mr. Bolton,” he exclaimed, one morning after breakfast, “I’ll try what can be done by blasting the ice.  The highest spring tide will occur to-morrow, and if the ship don’t move then we shall—­”

He did not finish the sentence, but turned on his heel and walked forward, where he found Buzzby and some of the men preparing the ice-saws.

“Ay, ay,” muttered the mate, as he went below to give the necessary directions, “you don’t need to conclude your speech, captain.  If we don’t get out to-morrow, we’re locked up for one winter, at least, if not more.”

“Ay, and ye’ll no get oot to-morrow,” remarked Saunders, with a shake of his head as he looked up from the log-book in which he was making an entry.  “We’re hard and fast, so we’ll just have to make the best o’t.”

Saunders was right, as the efforts of the next day proved.  The ice lay around the vessel in solid masses, as we have said, and with each of the last three tides these masses had been slightly moved.  Saws and ice chisels, therefore, had been in constant operation, and the men worked with the utmost energy, night and day, taking it by turns, and having double allowance of hot coffee served out to them.  We may mention here that the Dolphin carried no spirits, except what was needed for medicinal purposes, and for fuel to several small cooking lamps that had been recently invented.  It had now been proved by many voyagers of experience that in cold countries, as well as hot, men work harder, and endure the extremity of hardship better, without strong drink than with it, and the Dolphin’s crew were engaged on the distinct understanding that coffee, and tea, and chocolate were to be substituted for rum, and that spirits were never to be given to any one on board, except in cases of extreme necessity.