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THE LOSS OF THE SAPPHO.

“Hail, snow and ice, which, praise the Lord: I've met them at their work, An' wished we had anither route, or they anither kirk."

THE last of the cargo had been hoisted on shore, the hatches were all covered and secured, and the Chief Officer gave a sigh of relief as he left the deck and hurried into the welcome warmth of the saloon. It was terribly cold outside. Winter had come unusually early, and with quite unlookedfor severity. For the last fortnight the thermometer had not stood above zero, and had often been 20° below, and now in the first week of December 1915 the river at Arkhangel was covered with two feet of ice.

"Thank God that's over at last," he exclaimed. "I don't think I could have stood another day of it myself, and I'm pretty sure half the crew would have ohuoked their hands in if it had gone on much longer. Working cargo is no joke in this sort of weather, and four or five of them had their ears frostbitten this afternoon."

The Captain, to whom these remarks were addressed, put down the book he had been reading, and rose from his ohair.

"You can certainly thank God you've finished," he replied, "because we're just in time to get away and save wintering here. We are to be ready to go down the river with the last batch of home

-RUDYARD KIPLING.

ward bound ships at 9 A.M. tomorrow; they've just brought me my orders."

"The Lord be praised," interposed the Chief Engineer piously; "it's the best bit of news I've heard for two months or more."

"How are we off for bunkers?" said the Captain, addressing the last speaker; "my orders are to call in for coal at Kola Inlet if we are short."

The Engineer smiled. "I reckon we needn't suspect the Lords of the Admiralty of trying to make puns, but I'm inelined to think we shall be coaling at Kola all right in about ten days time, as we shan't have enough to get home. We've got enough for ten days, that's all."

"What are the latest reports of the ice in the Gorla, sir?" asked the Chief Officer.

"All the other ships are believed to have got through safely without much trouble," replied the Captain; "and the Russians say there ought not to be any quantity there for at least a fortnight. I'm more frightened of those blinking mines than I am of the ice, as all the trawlers have had to stop sweeping for the rest of the year."

"Well, anyhow, thank God we're off," said the Chief

Officer, "and may I never see this perishing place again. My next trip will be to the Indian Ocean if I can possibly manage it."

to salt water being largely responsible for this. The weather was still bitterly cold, and a fresh northerly wind was blowing, with occasional snow-showers.

Before very long clear water was encountered, and by the morning of the second day the Sappho was the last of the little batch of ships, and there was nothing to be seen of her companions except an occasional patch of smoke far ahead between the snowsqualls.

Next day the Sappho joined a procession of four or five ships of various sizes, who were slowly following the leading ice-breaker down the river. There were constant stoppages and delays, and the thirty miles to the Bar took the whole day and part of the night; but it was safely accomplished without serious accidents. Quite a The Sappho at her best was number of British ships were not a fast ship, but now, in passed in the river, lying at her light condition, and with different unloading stations the necessity of husbanding or waiting for berths, and her coal, she was not able to the crew of the the Sappho make more than three or four exchanged greetings as they knots in a strong wind. Howpassed with the less fortunate ever, she was making progress, and envious crews who were and the ice was left behind; destined to spend the next and though no one on board five months in the darkness looked forward to a pleasant and cold of an Arotic yachting trip, still everybody winter. realised that things might have been very much worse, and that they had a great deal to be thankful for.

"A merry Christmas," shouted the Captain to a friend whom he recognised on the bridge of a big ammunitioncarrier which they passed close at hand.

"Thanks, old chap; I'm expecting it. Bully beef and melted snow is about all we've got to be merry on. You're all right; you'll be just about home in time. Good luck," and the ships separated in the dusk.

Soon after passing the Bar the ice thinned very consider ably, and before long the little group of ships were able to proceed on their way independently, the change from fresh

There was very little sea running, and the ship made good weather of it, though a certain amount of spray kept washing over the forepart of the ship, which froze solid almost immediately it reached the deck. Everything was soon covered with ice, creating a weird and rather ghostly effect in the twilight. The sun was only above the horizon for about an hour at noon, and the remaining twenty-three hours were divided up between about five hours of twilight and eighteen of darkness.

Early in the morning of the third day the wind died away, and before long the ship entered a dense curtain of fog or "frost smoke." It was literally impossible to see across the bridge, and the Captain decided, much against his will, to ease down to dead slow. He was now nearing the narrow part of the Gorla or strait connecting the White Sea and Barent's Sea, and his position was too uncertain to risk steaming his full eight knots in such a blanket of fog. Such fogs are the dread of all navigators in these latitudes at this time of year. They are caused by clouds of steam rising from the comparatively warm water, and occur when the temperature of the air is about 35° colder than that of the surface water. They are usually low-lying, and in some cases high land or the masts of another ship will be seen standing out above them; but this can never be relied upon.

About dusk that evening the mist suddenly cleared and speed was increased at once. The Captain paced the bridge for some time, and at last sent down a message to the engineer on watch below to "let her go," but received a message in reply to say she had been going full speed for some time. The sea was like a mill pond, and all around the ship in the olosing darkness could be seen thousands of small brown oiroles rather like innumerable jelly-fish. For some minutes the Captain peered anxiously over the side of the bridge intently watching these brown

ciroles. At that moment the noise of the ash-hoist greeted his ear, and hurrying over to the other side of the bridge he stood and watched the fireman unhook his first bucket of ashes from the hoist and carry them to the ash-shoot.

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Over the side they went, but instead of disappearing with a splash they slid out into a little heap and remained there. They moved slowly aft, and the next bucketful which was thrown overboard took up a position a few yards ahead of the first lot on the ice. There was no doubt about it whatever: the ship was crawling through newly forming ice with rapidly decreasing speed, and about an hour later she stopped altogether. The telegraph was put to "stop" and the Captain left the bridge to confer with the Chief Engineer. It was very soon decided that it was useless to waste precious coal in steaming, so fires were banked and the ship lay motionless through the rest of the night.

It was a gorgeous night, and the Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, were visible until after midnight in all their splendour. The whole of the northern part of the horizon as far as the zenith was a mass of shimmering light of constantly changing colours and intensity. It was as if hundreds of searchlights were playing on the sky, each light light being capable of changing its colour from red or gold to white at will. It was bitterly cold, and the ship's thermometer had

altogether ceased to record, as the mercury had vanished into the bulb.

The fourth day dawned clear and bright, and as daylight appeared the land on the north shore of the Gorla could be plainly seen, and the ship's position was estimated to be about fifteen miles from the land. The ice was beautifully transparent, but much more solid than the evening before, and the yellow circles or blotches of the forming stage had disappeared. An attempt to move the ship ahead or astern proved quite abortive, and the fires were again banked to await a more favourable opportunity. Not a living thing of any sort was in sight, and the day passed drearily and without incident.

The Captain ordered a careful survey to be made of the provisions on board, and this revealed the alarming fact that there was only about a fortnight's, or at the most three weeks', supply, and orders were given that the most drastio economy was to be exercised.

During the evening the weather changed for the worse, and the wind was soon blowing hard from the westward, accompanied by snow-squalls. The effect of the wind was soon noticeable, as the ice commenced to move and crack in all directions, and by the morning of the fifth day the whole aspect of affairs had undergone a great change, The smooth surface of transparent ice had changed to an irregular surface of white ice, and there was obviously con

siderable pressure going on. A considerable mass of rather older floe-ice to windward was being driven towards the ship by the wind. Periodically one could see quite a large piece of ice stand right up on end and then slide down again on top of another piece, the two being rapidly frozen together into one piece of twice the original thickness.

The engines were tried again and worked for some time, but a few cables were all that were achieved as a result of several hours' steaming, and the effort was again reluctantly abandoned.

A careful look-out was kept for any signs of another ship, and the Captain was constantly sending up to the mast-head to sean the horizon for smoke, which might turn out possibly to be an icebreaker which had been sent to assist ships. But nothing was sighted, though a careful watch was kept; the temperature prevented any one remaining in such an exposed position for very long at a time.

The pressure on the ship became slowly worse; the ice on the windward side seemed to be gradually climb. ing up the side, and a lot of noise and grinding was going on.

There could be no doubt at all that the ship was drifting with the ice, but fortunately she was drifting the right way, and there was just a chance that in a day or two she might find herself free.

was very said the Captain; "but we can't rely on it, and I fear we shall have to trust to ourselves to get out of this mess."

The Captain anxious, but he kept a smiling face through it all, and it was only to the Chief Officer and Chief Engineer that he unburdened himself in the privacy of his cabin. "If we are here for another ten days things will become desperate," he remarked; "but I have every hope that a change of wind and a rise in the temperature may clear this ice away altogether before that."

"We ought to have plenty of coal left to get us as far as Yukanskie, or even Kola Inlet, even by then: we're not burning much now," said the Engineer; "but I can't see how we can hope to be clear of this in ten days, or even ten weeks. It looks to me as if we shall be here till April, or rather the ship will: we shall all be dead of starvation before Christmas."

"Yes, I'm afraid it's a bad look-out for us," said the Chief Officer. "I'd gladly exchange now with any of those ships tied up alongside Solombolo dookyard, even if it did mean that we had to assist the Russians in their favourite pastime of propping up the jetty for about six months."

"I wonder how the other ships ahead of us are getting on," said the Engineer; "if only we had wireless we might get help from one of them."

"The best hope for us is that they may send an icebreaker to make sure that no one has been caught,"

VOL. CCVIII.-NO. MCCLIX,

For four more days the ship drifted slowly to the northeastward, and the ice conditions became gradually worse. The pressure varied greatly, depending on whether the tidal stream was with or against the wind, and the surface of the ice was stantly changing its appearance.

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It was gradually becoming evident to every one on board that the ship was caught in the winter ice, and that nothing short of a miracle could save her. She might last through the winter, or she might be crushed like an egg at any moment if the pressure became suddenly worse; but whatever ultimately happened to the ship, the fate of the men on board was bound to be

decided before very long. There was only a fortnight's provisions on board, and in this temperature it was very diffioult to maintain health and strength on reduced rations.

The land on the northern shore was was generally visible during daylight, and it seemed to be getting gradually closer. On the tenth day the Captain reckoned they were not more than ten miles from the nearest point. The sailing directions were carefully consulted and the charts anxiously scanned, but no signs of a permanent village could be found nearer than Ponoi river, a distance of at least 100 miles

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