CHAPTER XXIII.ATTACKED BY THE ICE.
Hatteras, after seeing to the anchorage of the ship, returned to hiscabin, took out his chart, and marked his position on it verycarefully; he found himself in latitude 76 degrees 57 minutes, andlongitude 99 degrees 20 minutes, that is to say, only three minutesfrom latitude 77 degrees. It was here that Sir Edward Belcher passedhis first winter with the _Pioneer_ and _Assistance_. It was from herethat he organized his sledge and canoe expeditions; he discoveredTable Island, North Cornwall, Victoria Archipelago, and BelcherChannel. Having gone beyond latitude 78 degrees, he saw the coastinclining towards the southeast. It seemed as if it ought to connectwith Jones's Strait, which opens into Baffin's Bay. But, says thereport, an open sea, in the northwest, "stretched as far as the eyecould reach."
Hatteras gazed with emotion at that portion of the charts where alarge white space marked unknown regions, and his eyes always returnedto the open polar sea.
"After so many statements," he said to himself,--"after the accountsof Stewart, Penny, and Belcher, doubt is impossible! These boldsailors saw, and with their own eyes! Can I doubt their word? No! Butyet if this sea is closed by an early winter-- But no, thesediscoveries have been made at intervals of several years; this seaexists, and I shall find it! I shall see it!"
Hatteras went upon the quarter-deck. A dense mist enveloped the_Forward_; from the deck one could hardly see the top of the mast.Nevertheless, Hatteras ordered the ice-master below, and took hisplace; he wanted to make use of the first break in the fog to look atthe horizon in the northwest.
Shandon took occasion to say to the second mate,--
"Well, Wall, and the open sea?"
"You were right, Shandon," answered Wall, "and we have only six weeks'coal in the bunkers."
"The doctor will invent some scientific way," continued Shandon, "ofheating us without fuel. I've heard of making ice with fire; perhapshe will make fire with ice."
Shandon returned to his cabin, shrugging his shoulders.
The next day, August 20th, the fog lifted for a few minutes. From thedeck they saw Hatteras in his lofty perch gazing intently towards thehorizon; then he came down without saying a word and ordered them toset sail; but it was easy to see that his hopes had been once moredeceived.
The _Forward_ heaved anchor and resumed her uncertain path northward.So wearisome was it that the main-topsail and fore-topsail yards werelowered with all their rigging; the masts were also lowered, and itwas no longer possible to place any reliance on the varying wind,which, moreover, the winding nature of the passes made almost useless;large white masses were gathering here and there in the sea, likespots of oil; they indicated an approaching thaw; as soon as the windbegan to slacken, the sea began to freeze again, but when the windarose this young ice would break and disperse. Towards evening thethermometer fell to 17 degrees.
When the brig arrived at the end of a closed pass, it rushed on atfull steam against the opposing obstacle. Sometimes they thought herfairly stopped; but some unexpected motion of the ice-streams wouldopen a new passage into which she would plunge boldly; during thesestoppages the steam would escape from the safety-valves and fall onthe deck in the form of snow. There was another obstacle to theprogress of the brig; the ice would get caught in the screw, and itwas so hard that the engine could not break it; it was then necessaryto reverse the engines, turn the brig back, and send some men to freethe snow with axes and levers; hence arose many difficulties,fatigues, and delays.
It went on in this way for thirteen days; the _Forward_ advancedslowly through Penny Strait. The crew murmured, but obeyed; they knewthat retreat was now impossible. The advance towards the north wasless perilous than a return to the south; it was time to think ofgoing into winter-quarters.
The sailors talked together about their condition, and one day theyeven began to talk with Shandon, who, they knew, was on their side. Heso far forgot his duty as an officer as to allow them to discuss inhis presence the authority of his captain.
"So you say, Mr. Shandon," asked Gripper, "that we can't go back now?"
"No, it's too late," answered Shandon.
"Then," said another sailor, "we need only look forward to going intowinter-quarters?"
"It's our only resource! No one would believe me--"
"The next time," said Pen, who had returned to duty, "they willbelieve you."
"Since I sha'n't be in command--" answered Shandon.
"Who can tell?" remarked Pen. "John Hatteras is free to go as far ashe chooses, but no one is obliged to follow him."
"Just remember," resumed Gripper, "his first voyage to Baffin's Bayand what came of it!"
"And the voyage of the _Farewell_," said Clifton, "which was lost inthe Spitzenberg seas under his command."
"And from which he came back alone," added Gripper.
"Alone, but with his dog," said Clifton.
"We don't care to sacrifice ourselves for the whims of that man,"continued Pen.
"Nor to lose all the wages we've earned so hard."
They all recognized Clifton by those words.
"When we pass latitude 78 degrees," he added, "and we are not far fromit, that will make just three hundred and seventy-five pounds for eachman, six times eight degrees."
"But," asked Gripper, "sha'n't we lose them if we go back without thecaptain?"
"No," answered Clifton, "if we can prove that it was absolutelynecessary to return."
"But the captain--still--"
"Don't be uneasy, Gripper," answered Pen; "we shall have a captain,and a good one, whom Mr. Shandon knows. When a captain goes mad, he isdismissed and another appointed. Isn't that so, Mr. Shandon?"
"My friends," answered Shandon, evasively, "you will always find medevoted to you. But let us wait and see what turns up."
The storm, as may be seen, was gathering over Hatteras's head; but hepushed on boldly, firm, energetic, and confident. In fact, if he hadnot always managed the brig as he wanted to, and carried her where hewas anxious to go, he had still been very successful; the distancepassed over in five months was as great as what it had taken otherexplorers two or three years to make. Hatteras was now obliged to gointo winter-quarters, but this would not alarm men of courage,experience, and confidence. Had not Sir John Ross and MacClure spentthree successive winters in the arctic regions? Could not he do whatthey had done?
"Yes, of course," Hatteras used to say, "and more too, if need be.Ah!" he said regretfully to the doctor, "why was I unable to getthrough Smith's Sound, at the north of Baffin's Bay? I should be atthe Pole now!"
"Well," the doctor used invariably to answer,--if necessary he couldhave invented confidence,--"we shall get there, Captain, but, it istrue, at the ninety-ninth meridian instead of the seventy-fifth; butwhat difference does that make? If every road leads to Rome, it iseven surer that every meridian leads to the Pole."
August 31st, the thermometer fell to 13 degrees. The end of the summerwas evidently near; the _Forward_ left Exmouth Island to starboard,and three days afterward she passed Table Island, lying in the middleof Belcher Channel. Earlier in the season it would have been possibleto reach Baffin's Bay through this channel, but at this time it wasimpossible to think of it. This arm of the sea was completely filledwith ice, and would not have offered a drop of open water to the prowof the _Forward_; for the next eight months their eyes would seenothing but boundless, motionless ice-fields.
Fortunately, they could still get a few minutes farther north, butonly by breaking the new ice with huge beams, or by blowing it up withcharges of powder. They especially had cause to fear calm weatherwhile the temperature was so low, for the passes closed quickly, andthey rejoiced even at contrary winds. A calm night, and everything wasfrozen!
Now the _Forward_ could not winter where she was, exposed to the wind,icebergs, and the drift of the channel; a safe protection was thefirst thing to be found; Hatteras hoped to gain the coast of NewCornwall, and to find, beyond Point Albert, a bay sufficientlysheltered. Hence he p
ersisted in crowding northward.
But, September 8, an impenetrable, continuous mass of ice lay betweenhim and the north; the temperature fell to 10 degrees. Hatteras, withan anxious heart, in vain sought for a passage, risking his ship ahundred times and escaping from his perils with wonderful skill. Hemight have been accused of imprudence, recklessness, folly, blindness,but he was one of the best of sailors.
The situation of the _Forward_ became really dangerous; in fact, thesea was closing behind her, and in a few hours the ice grew so hardthat men could run upon it and tow the brig in perfect safety.
Hatteras, not being able to get around this obstacle, determined toattack it boldly in front. He made use of his strongest blastingcylinders, containing eight or ten pounds of powder. The men would diga hole in the broadest part of the ice, close the orifice with snow,after having placed the cylinder in a horizontal position, so that agreater extent of ice might be exposed to the explosion; then a fusewas lighted, which was protected by a gutta-percha tube.
In this way they tried to break the ice; it was impossible to saw it,for the fissures would close immediately. Still, Hatteras was hopingto get through the next day.
But during the night the wind blew a gale; the sea raised the crust ofice, and the terrified pilot was heard shouting,--
"Look out there aft, look out there aft!"
Hatteras turned his eyes in that direction, and what he saw in the dimlight was indeed alarming.
A great mass of ice, drifting northward with the tide, was rushingtowards the brig with the speed of an avalanche.
"All hands on deck!" shouted the captain.
This floating mountain was hardly half a mile away; the ice was all inconfusion and crashing together like huge grains of sand before aviolent tempest; the air was filled with a terrible noise.
"That, Doctor," said Johnson, "is one of the greatest perils we haveyet met with."
"Yes," answered the doctor, quietly; "it is terrible enough."
"A real attack which we must repel," resumed the boatswain.
"In fact, one might well think it was an immense crowd of antediluviananimals, such as might have lived near the Pole. How they hurry on, asif they were racing!"
"Besides," added Johnson, "some carry sharp lances, of which you hadbetter take care, Doctor."
"It's a real siege," shouted the doctor. "Well, let us run to theramparts!"
He ran aft where the crew, provided with beams and bars, were standingready to repel this formidable assault.
The avalanche came on, growing larger at every moment as it caught upthe floating ice in its eddy; by Hatteras's orders the cannon wasloaded with ball to break the threatening line. But it came on and rantowards the brig; a crash was heard, and as it came against thestarboard-quarter, part of the rail had given way.
"A crash was heard, and as it came against thestarboard-quarter, part of the rail had given way."]
"Let no one stir!" shouted Hatteras. "Look out for the ice!"
They swarmed on board the ship with an irresistible force; lumps ofice, weighing many hundredweight, scaled the sides of the ship; thesmallest, hurled as high as the yards, fell back in sharp arrows,breaking the shrouds and cutting the rigging. The men were overcome bynumberless enemies, who were heavy enough to crush a hundred shipslike the _Forward_. Every one tried to drive away these lumps, andmore than one sailor was wounded by their sharp ends; among others,Bolton, who had his left shoulder badly torn. The noise increasedimmensely. Duke barked angrily at these new enemies. The darkness ofthe night added to the horrors of the situation, without hiding theice which glowed in the last light of the evening.
Hatteras's orders sounded above all this strange, impossible,supernatural conflict of the men with the ice. The ship, yielding tothis enormous pressure, inclined to larboard, and the end of themain-yard was already touching the ice, at the risk of breaking themast.
Hatteras saw the danger; it was a terrible moment; the brig seemedabout to be overturned, and the masts might be easily carried away.
A large block, as large as the ship, appeared to be passing along thekeel; it arose with irresistible power; it came on past thequarter-deck; if it fell on the _Forward_, all was over; soon it roseeven above the topmasts, and began to totter.
A cry of terror escaped from every one's lips. Every one ran back tostarboard.
But at that moment the ship was relieved. They felt her lifted up, andfor an instant she hung in the air, then she leaned over and fell backon the ice, and then she rolled so heavily that her planks cracked.What had happened?
Raised by this rising tide, driven by the ice which attacked her aft,she was getting across this impenetrable ice. After a minute of thisstrange sailing, which seemed as long as a century, she fell back onthe other side of the obstacle on a field of ice; she broke it withher weight, and fell back into her natural element.
"We have got by the thick ice!" shouted Johnson, who had run forward.
"Thank God!" said Hatteras.
In fact, the brig lay in the centre of a basin of ice, which entirelysurrounded her, and although her keel lay under water she could notstir; but if she were motionless, the field was drifting along.
"We are drifting, Captain!" shouted Johnson.
"All right," answered Hatteras.
Indeed, how was it possible to resist it?
Day broke, and it was evident that under the influence of a submarinecurrent the bank of ice was floating northward with great rapidity.This floating mass carried the _Forward_ with it, in the midst of theice-field, the edge of which could not be seen; to provide for anyaccident that might happen, Hatteras had a large supply of provisionscarried on deck, as well as materials for camping, clothing, andcover; as MacClure had done under similar circumstances, he surroundedthe ship with hammocks filled with air to protect her from damage.Soon it was so cold (7 degrees), that the ship was surrounded by awall from which only the masts issued.
For seven days they sailed in this way; Point Albert, which forms thewestern extremity of New Cornwall, was seen September 10th, and soondisappeared; the ice-field was seen to be drifting eastward from thattime. Where was it going? Where would it stop? Who could say?
The crew waited with folded arms. At last, September 15th, towardsthree o'clock in the afternoon, the ice-field, having probably runagainst another one, stopped suddenly; the ship was jarred violently;Hatteras, who had kept his reckoning all along, looked at his chart;he found himself in the north, with no land in sight, in longitude 95degrees 35 minutes, and latitude 78 degrees 15 minutes, in the centreof the region of the unknown sea, which geographers have consideredthe place of greatest cold.