“She’s sprung a leak, sir!” and anxiously asked, “Had we better put back?”

“No!  We’ll stand on!” answered Grenfell.  “Those croakers ashore would never let us hear the end of it if we turned back.  We’ll see what’s happened.”

An examination discovered a small opening in the bottom.  A wooden plug was shaped and driven into the hole.  To Doctor Grenfell’s satisfaction and relief, this was found to heal the leak effectually, and the Princess May continued on her course.

But this was not to end the difficulties.  In those waters dense fogs settled suddenly and without warning, and now such a fog fell upon them to shut out all view of land and the surrounding sea.

Nevertheless, the Princess May steamed bravely ahead.  To avoid danger Grenfell was holding her, as he believed, well out to sea, when suddenly there rose out of the fog a perpendicular towering cliff.  They were almost in the white surf of the waves pounding upon the rocky base of the cliff before they were aware of their perilous position.

Every one expected that the little vessel would be driven upon the rocks and lost, and they realized if that were to happen only a miracle could save them.  Grenfell shouted to the engineer, the engine was reversed and by skillful maneuvering the Princess May succeeded, by the narrowest margin, in escaping unharmed.  To their own steady nerves, and the intervention of Providence the fearless mariner and his little crew undoubtedly owed their lives.

Grenfell suspected that the compass was not registering correctly.  Standing out to sea until they were at a safe distance from the treacherous shore rocks, a careful examination was made.  The binnacle had been left in St. Johns for necessary repairs, and the examination discovered that iron screws had been used to make the compass box fast to the cabin.  These screws were responsible for a serious deviation of the needle, and this it was that had so nearly led them to fatal disaster.

A heavy swell was running, and the little vessel, with but eight feet beam, rolled so rapidly that the compass needle, even when the defect had been remedied, made a wide swing from side to side as the vessel rolled.  The best that could be done was to read the dial midway between the extreme points of the needle’s swing.  This was deemed safe enough, and away the Princess May ploughed again through the fog.

At five o’clock in the afternoon it was decided to work in toward shore and search for a sheltering harbor in which to anchor for the night.  Under any circumstance it would be foolhardy for so small a vessel to remain in the open sea outside, after darkness set in, in those ice-menaced fog-choked northern waters.  The course of the Princess May was accordingly changed to bear to the westward and Grenfell was continuously feeling his way through the fog when suddenly, and to the dismay of all on board, they found themselves surrounded by jagged reefs and small rocky islands and in the midst of boiling surf.