’In the evening we received the Fury’s crew on board the Hecla, every arrangement and regulation having been previously made for their personal comfort, and for the preservation of cleanliness, ventilation, and dry warmth throughout the ship.  The officers of the Fury, by their own choice, pitched a tent on shore for messing and sleeping in, as our accommodation for two sets of officers was necessarily confined.  On the 17th, when every preparation was completed, the cables were found again so slack, by the wasting of the bergs, in consequence of the continued sea, and possibly also in part by the masses being moved somewhat in shore, that we were obliged to occupy several hours in putting them to rights, as we should soon require all our strength at the purchases.  One berg also had, at the last low water, fallen over on its side, in consequence of its substance being undermined by the sea, and the cable surrounding it was thus forced so low under water as no longer to afford protection from the ice should it again come in.  In tightening the cables, we found it to have the effect of bringing the bergs in towards the shore, still further contracting our narrow basin; but anything was better than suffering them to go adrift.

’This work being finished at ten P.M., the people were allowed three hours’ rest only, it being necessary to heave the ship down at, or near, high water, as there was not sufficient depth to allow her to take her distance at any other time of tide.  Every preparation being made, at three A.M., on the 18th, we began to heave her down on the larboard side; but when the purchases were nearly a-block, we found that the strops under the Hecla’s bottom, as well as some of the Fury’s shore-fasts, had stretched or yielded so much, that they could bring the keel out of water within three or four feet.  We immediately eased her up again, and re-adjusted everything as requisite, hauling her further in shore than before by keeping a considerable keel upon her, so as to make less depth of water necessary; and we were then in the act of once more heaving her down, when a snow storm came on, and blew with such violence off the land, as to raise a considerable sea.  The ships had now so much motion as to strain the gear very much, and even to make the lower mast of the Fury bend in spite of the shores.  We were, therefore, most unwillingly compelled to desist until the sea should go down, keeping everything ready to recommence the instant we could possibly do so with safety.  The officers and men were now literally so harassed and fatigued as to be scarcely capable of further exertion without some rest; and on this and one or two other occasions, I noticed more than a single instance of stupor amounting to a certain degree of failure in intellect, rendering the individual so affected quite unable at first to comprehend the meaning of an order, though still as willing as ever to obey it.  It was, therefore, perhaps, a fortunate necessity which produced the intermission of labour which the strength of every individual seemed to require.