Up to this time the _Germania_ and _Hansa_ had stood well together with occasional separation in the fogs, and on the 18th of July the officers of the two ships exchanged hospitalities. The next day, through a fatal misunderstanding of signals, the _Hansa_ separated from the _Germania_, and they never met again.
On the 28th of July, the _Hansa_ stood in 72° 56´ north latitude and 16° 54´ west latitude. The dark rock coast of East Greenland was visible for the first time from Cape Broer Ruys to Cape James.
By sailing, towing, and warping, the _Hansa_ made slow progress through the ice. The captain and two officers and two sailors made an attempt to land on August 24, but were obliged to return to the ship without having accomplished their mission. On the 25th of August the _Hansa_ reached within thirty-five nautical miles of Sabine Island. The ship was continually subjected to dangerous ice pressure, and often forced southward by the drifting ice-fields. By the 6th of September, she lay between two promontories of a large ice-field, which eventually proved a raft of deliverance. By the 14th of September, she was completely frozen up in 73° 25.7´ north latitude and 18° 39.5´ west latitude. At the mercy of the drifting currents, the _Hansa_ stood in imminent peril of total destruction. Between October 5 and 14 the drift had carried the ship seventy-two nautical miles to the south-southwest. The nights were cold, sometimes 4° F. below zero. The only sign of animal life to be seen were ravens, which were doubtless wintering on the coast; once a gull and a falcon made the ship a visit. A severe storm from the north-northwest on the 19th brought disastrous pressure upon, the _Hansa_.
“Shortly before one o’clock, the deck seams sprang, but still she seemed tight. Mighty blocks of ice pushed themselves under the bow, and, although they were crushed by it, they forced the ship up no less than seventeen feet. The rising of the ship was an extraordinary and awful, yet splendid spectacle, of which the whole crew were witnesses from the ice.”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Captain Hegemann at once ordered clothing, nautical instruments, and stores to be removed from the ship to a safe distance. The pumps were put in action to free her from water, but to the horror of all, it was discovered before many hours that the _Hansa_ was doomed.