ADRIFT ON THE ICE: A TALE OF EXTREME SURVIVAL

It was a truly terrifying situation.

Grenfell: born to survive

A lone man was adrift on a floating island of ice and drifting steadily out to the wild ocean. Behind him lay the snow-swept coastline of Newfoundland. Ahead lay the lonely, ice-filled sea.

Wilfred Grenfell knew that his chances of survival were extremely slim. He also knew that he had taken a risk-too-far in attempting to cross the gigantic Newfoundland bay.

But it was the quickest route to the local hospital and his journey was a matter of life and death for a young boy in the hospital. The lad had poisonous gangrene in his leg and needed it treated - and possibly amputated - if he was to have any chance of pulling through. Only Grenfell could perform the operation.

Newfoundland in winter: the big chill

His journey across the sea-ice had begun well. He was well prepared, with a change of garments, snowshoes, rifle and oilskin clothes. He also had a team of six dogs who were to pull his komatic or heavy sledge.

As Grenfell pushed out into the bay he suddenly grew alarmed. The heavy sea had smashed the ice into blocks that were held together by wafer-thin skins. Some of these skins had melted leaving great gaping chasms between the blocks.

Brin and the unfortunate Watch

With great effort he made it across to a stable island of ice. From here, it was a further four miles across slushy ice to the rocky headland. He set off undaunted and was close to the landing point when disaster struck.

He suddenly found himself crossing ‘sish’ - a slush-like porridge of ice. One moment he was afloat; the next, he was sinking.
‘There was not a moment to lose. I tore off my oilskins, threw myself on my hands … and shouted to my team to go ahead for the shore.’

But the dogs were frightened and also began to sink in the slush, along with the sledge. Soon they were all flailing in icy water, ‘like flies in treacle.’

After thrashing through this icy water, Grenfell managed to reach an 'ice pan' or miniature floating island of ice. With heroic effort, he pulled himself onto the pan and then got his dogs onto the ice as well. But the wind was now whipping a gale and they found themselves pushed out to sea, where the ice pan was certain to be smashed to pieces.

Grenfell was icy cold, for all his equipment had been lost. ‘I stood with next to nothing on, the wind going through me and every stitch soaked in ice water…’ He felt sure he would meet with a quick death, for the sea was growing wilder and wilder. ‘Immense pans of Arctic ice, surging to and fro on the heavy seas, were thundering into the cliffs like medieval battering rams.’

Grenfell out on the ice

Yet he was a born survivor and now used every survival technique he had ever learned. He cut off his moccasins and split them open to make a makeshift jacket.

Still freezing, he realised that his only course was to start killing the dogs. 
He made a slip-knot from leather, pulled it over one of their necks and stabbed it through the heart. He then hacked off the skin and wrapped the bloody pelt over his shoulders. Two more dogs were also killed and he used their skins to keep warm.

It was by now growing dark: he had already been adrift many hours. He hadn’t eaten for 18 hours but kept himself from hunger by chewing a rubber band.

Through sheer willpower he survived the icy night, with the wind whipping across the ice and causing frostbite to spread through his feet. When the sun finally rose, he tied together the thigh bones of his slaughtered dogs and then tied his shirt to the end, making a rudimentary flag. It was his last hope of being sighted.

He was in a sorry state: ‘my poor, gruesome pan [was] bobbing up and down… stained with blood and littered with carcasses and debris.’

Grenfell and his bloody clothes

What he did not know was that he’d been sighted some hours before. A man on the cliffs had seen him and raised the alarm. Now, rescue was on its way. Four men were rowing with tremendous effort through the slush, aware that their village comrade could not keep himself alive for much longer.

Grenfell didn’t see them coming, for he was badly afflicted with snow blindness. But he never gave up hope of being rescued.

At long last, they were upon him: they had reached his ice pan. ‘As the man in the bow leaped from the boat onto my ice raft and grasped both my hands in his, not a word was uttered.’

Grenfell, in common with his rescuers, knew that he’d had a very lucky escape.

As for the boy who he was intending to treat in hospital, he was successfully operated and made a full recovery.

‘We all love life,’ was how Grenfell finished the gripping little narrative of his survival. ‘I was glad to be back once more with a new lease of it before me.’

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'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail

'Engaging, page-turning and thought-provoking... a fascinating subject' Victoria Hislop