Some of the escapes were of the most thrilling nature.

One of the ships barely missed being crushed by hundreds of tons of ice which fell from the top of an overhanging iceberg.

The weather was intensely cold and the snow and fine sleet which were whirled horizontally through the air cut the face like bird shot.
The _Vincennes_ prowled along the edge of the Antarctic Continent as far as 97 degrees east, when Lieutenant Wilkes headed northward and arrived at Sydney in March, 1840, and found the _Peacock_ at anchor.

The _Porpoise_ reached 100 degrees east and 64 degrees 65 minutes south when she turned her prow away from the inhospitable solitude and in March arrived at Auckland Isle.
The following summer was spent in exploring the islands of the Southern Archipelago.

A party was engaged in a launch and cutter, when a tempest compelled them to run into a bay of the Fiji group for shelter.