The vessel, instead of being suddenly crushed, was lifted out of the water by every movement of the ice, and then fell back again on it with the force of a trip-hammer.  At any moment after one of these frightful falls they might be broken up, crushed, buried.  To ward off this danger there was only one resource, and this was to re-enforce their barrier by heaping up the drift ice and snow around the vessel to protect her as well as they could.

Everybody set to work with ardor.  It was a touching spectacle to see this little handful of men taxing their pygmy muscles to resist the forces of nature—­trying with anchors, chains, and planks to fill up the fissures made in the ice and to cover them with snow, so that there might be a uniformity of motion among the mass.  After four or five hours of almost superhuman exertions, and when their strength was exhausted, they were in no less danger, for the storm had increased.

Erik held a consultation with his officers, and it was decided that they should make a depot on the ice-field for their food and ammunition in case the “Alaska” should be unable to resist the powerful shocks to which she was being subjected.  At the first moment of danger every man had received provisions enough for eight days, with precise instructions in case of disaster, besides being ordered to keep his gun in his belt even while he was working.  The operation of transporting twenty tons of provisions was not easy of accomplishment, but at last it was done and the food was placed about two hundred yards from the ship under a covering of tarred canvas, which was soon covered by the snow with a thick white mantle.

This precaution, having been taken, everybody felt more comfortable as to the result of a shipwreck, and the crew assembled to recruit their strength with a supper supplemented with tea and rum.

Suddenly, in the midst of supper, a more violent shock than any that had as yet agitated the vessel, split the bed of ice and snow around the “Alaska.”  She was lifted up in the stern with a terrible noise, and then it appeared as if she were plunging head-foremost into an abyss.  There was a panic, and every one rushed on deck.  Some of the men thought that the moment had come to take refuge on the ice, and without waiting for the signal of the officers they commenced clambering over the bulwarks.

Four or five of these unfortunate ones managed to leap on a snow-bank.  Two others were caught between the masses of floating ice and the beams of the starboard, as the “Alaska” righted herself.

Their cries of pain and the noise of their crushed bones were lost in the storm.  There was a lull, and the vessel remained motionless.  The lesson which the sailors had been taught was a tragical one.  Erik made use of it to enforce on the crew the necessity of each man’s retaining his presence of mind, and of waiting for positive orders on all occasions.