Mittens, too, we wore
on deck, but it would not do to go aloft with them on, for it was
impossible to work with them, and, being wet and stiff, they might let
a man slip overboard, for all the hold be could get upon a rope; so,
we were obliged to work with bare hands, which, as well as our
faces, were often cut with the hail-stones, which fell thick and
large. Our ship was now all cased with ice,- hull, spars, and
standing rigging;- and the running rigging so stiff that we could
hardly bend it so as to delay it, or, still worse, take a knot with
it; and the sails nearly as stiff as sheet iron. One at a time, (for
it was a long piece of work and required many hands,) we furled the
courses, mizen topsail, and fore-topmast staysail, and close-reefed
the fore and main topsails, and hove the ship to under the fore,
with the main hauled up by the clewlines and buntlines, and ready to
be sheeted home, if we found it necessary to make sail to get to
windward of an ice island. A regular look-out was then set, and kept
by each watch in turn, until the morning. It was a tedious and anxious
night. It blew hard the whole time, and there was an almost constant
driving of either rain, hall, or snow.
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