The darkness is almost complete, and we mess about in the wet with half-frozen hands and try to keep the coal from slipping back into the bilges.

The men on deck pour buckets of boiling water from the galley down the pipe as we prod and hammer from below, and at last we get the pump clear, cover up the bilges to keep the coal out, and rush on deck, very thankful to find ourselves safe again in the open air." Monday, October 25, dawned cloudy and misty, with a minus temperature and a strong south-easterly breeze.

All hands were pumping at intervals and assisting the carpenter with the coffer-dam.

The leak was being kept under fairly easily, but the outlook was bad.

Heavy pressure- ridges were forming in all directions, and though the immediate pressure upon the ship was not severe, I realized that the respite would not be prolonged.