stefansson-wrangel-09-31-037v

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38 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

about ten hours each day. By the time we passed Point
Barrow we had only five hours of sunlight, and on
November 15, the sun disappeared below the horizon
altogether and we entered upon the long Arctic night.

In the meantime Captain Bartlett set about taking
measures for our safety. He first had us bank up the
sides of the ship with ice for the purpose of forming
a kind of cushion against the lateral pressure of the floe
that held us. Then we blew down the boilers and began
repairing the engines. This we did by taking them apart
piece by piece and replacing each as soon as it had been
gone over and repairs made if needed. Captain Bartlett
had us remove all the sacked coal that we had on deck
and place it on the ice beside the ship; also all the biscuits,
kerosene, alcohol, sleds and skiis. We then put the ship
and the portion of the cargo that remained on her in
good and snug shape and made her our living quarters.
Keeping us at work as much of the time as he could
was the best thing Captain Bartlett could have done for
us. As long as we were working it seemed that we were
living for a purpose and were still a part of the busy
world.

But we were drifting, drifting, we knew not to what
haven, in the silent icy fastnesses of the North. On
every hand there was an unbroken stretch of ice, level
save where it had been forced into hummocky ridges
by the lateral pressure of its own irresistible mass. So
long as the sun was with us to measure the night and
day it was not so bad; but when the orb disappeared a
sort of sickening sensation of loneliness came over us.
We did not despair, although we knew that the ice and
the tides and currents were bearing us further into the
gloom.

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