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The sun was out bright , the sea of a deep blue , fringed with the white foam of the waves which ran high before a strong southwester ; our solitary ship tore on through the water , as though glad to be out of her confinement ; and the ice islands lay scattered upon the ocean here and there , of various sizes and shapes , reflecting the bright rays of the sun , and drifting slowly northward before the gale . It was not easy to sleep , lying , as I did , with my head directly against the bows , which might be dashed in by an island of ice , brought down by the very next sea that struck her . A list of all those familiar names , ( beginning as usual with Abbot , and ending with W ., ) which , as I read them over , one by one , brought up their faces and characters as I had known them in the various scenes of college life . It was soon read by every one on board , and various opinions pronounced . All hands were soon on deck , looking at it , and admiring in various ways its beauty and grandeur . The next morning , we made sail at slack water , with a fair wind , and got on board by eleven o'clock , when all hands were turned-to , to unload and stow away the wood , which took till night . While not off , on these wood and water parties , or up the rivers to the missions , we had very easy times on board the ship . And so irritated and impatient had the crew become , that even this proposition , which was open mutiny , punishable with state prison , was entertained , and the carpenter went to his berth , leaving it tacitly understood that something serious would be done , if things remained as they were many hours longer . Between daylight and dark - that is , between nine o'clock and three - we saw thirty-four ice islands , of various sizes ; some no bigger than the hull of our vessel , and others apparently nearly as large as the one that we first saw ; though , as we went on , the islands became smaller and more numerous ; and , at sundown of this day , a man at the mast-head saw large fields of floating ice called " field-ice " at the south-east . Our merchant ships are always under-manned , and if one man is lost by sickness , they cannot spare another to take care of him .