At four A.M., on the 4th, we came to a quantity of loose ice, which lay straggling among the bergs; and, as there was a light breeze from the southward, and I was anxious to avoid, if possible, the necessity of going eastward, I pushed the Hecla into the ice, in the hope of being able to make our way through it. We had scarcely done so, however, before it fell calm; when the ship became perfectly unmanageable, and was for some time at the mercy of the swell, which drifted us fast toward the bergs. All the boats were immediately set a-head to tow; and the Griper's signal was made, not to enter the ice. After two hours' hard pulling, we succeeded in getting the Hecla back again into clear water, and to a sufficient distance from the icebergs, which it is very dangerous to approach when there is any swell. [Parry in his Journal, p. 11.]