Run the gauntlet

[Mher]

Hi. I can't understand the meaning of the underlined expression: ""I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we encountered 'on the grounds' — it is a bad spot to be in, even in good weather — but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moskoe-ström itself without accident."

 

[Tdol]

They have to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskstraumen, which would involve considerable risk.

 

[probus]

"We made shift to always" means "we always tried our best to", in my opinion.

To "run the gauntlet" is to travel through a passage in which one will be subject to assault. It goes back to the age of chivalry, when knights were sometimes obliged to walk between lines of their peers, who were allowed to strike them as they passed by. It is used figuratively here in the sense that the violent currents of the stream could seriously harm them or even kill them as they attempted to pass through.

 

[Mher]

Thanks. As always, your answer is exhaustive.