Fort Mandan, preparing for departure — John Ordway: February 24, 1805
The crew spent the day working to free the barge from thick ice that had encased it, even underneath the hull. As they cut away the ice, water seeped up and surrounded the vessel. By evening, using large pry levers, they managed with great difficulty to break the barge loose and hoist its stern up onto the ice. They discovered a small leak where caulking had worked out during the freeing process, bailed out the water, and also got the pirogue out.
ployed cutting away the Ice from round the Barge, found that
the Ice was verry thick clear under hir. we worked hard the
water came up in places untill it Got all round hir. towards even-
ing we Got large prizes and put under hir and with much adieu
1 It weighed 2,400 pounds. Clark.
184 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS [Feb. 25
we Got hir started loose and hoisted hir Stern up on the Ice
found She had a Small leak where the corking worked out as
She came loose, bailed the water out of hir. Got out the perogue
also.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
...employed cutting away the ice from around the barge. We found that the ice was very thick clear under her. We worked hard, and the water came up in places until it got all around her. Towards evening we got large prizes (pry bars) and put them under her, and with much ado we got her started loose and hoisted her stern up on the ice.
We found she had a small leak where the caulking had worked out as she came loose. We bailed the water out of her. We got out the pirogue also.
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