CHAPTER XXIII
ATTACKED BY ICEBERGS
Hatteras, after seeing to the anchoring of his ship, re-entered hiscabin and examined his map attentively. He found himself in latitude76 degrees 57 minutes and longitude 99 degrees 20 minutes--that isto say, at only three minutes from the 77th parallel. It was at thisvery spot that Sir Edward Belcher passed his first winter with the_Pioneer_ and the _Assistance_. It was thence that he organised hissledge and boat excursions. He discovered Table Isle, North Cornwall,Victoria Archipelago, and Belcher Channel. He reached the 78thparallel, and saw that the coast was depressed on the south-east.It seemed to go down to Jones's Strait, the entrance to which liesin Baffin's Bay. But to the north-west, on the contrary, says hisreport, an open sea lay as far as the eye could reach.
Hatteras considered attentively the white part of the map, whichrepresented the Polar basin free from ice.
"After such testimony as that of Stewart, Penny, and Belcher, I can'thave a doubt about it," he said to himself. "They saw it with theirown eyes. But if the winter has already frozen it! But no; they madetheir discoveries at intervals of several years. It exists, and Ishall find it! I shall see it."
Hatteras went on to the poop. An intense fog enveloped the _Forward_;the masthead could scarcely be distinguished from the deck. However,Hatteras called down the ice-master from his crow's nest, and tookhis place. He wished to profit by the shortest clear interval toexamine the north-western horizon. Shandon did not let the occasionslip for saying to the lieutenant:
"Well, Wall, where is the open sea?"
"You were right, Shandon, and we have only six weeks' coal in thehold."
"Perhaps the doctor will find us some scientific fuel to warm us inthe place of coal," answered Shandon. "I have heard say you can turnfire to ice; perhaps he'll turn ice to fire." And he entered his cabin,shrugging his shoulders. The next day was the 20th of August, andthe fog cleared away for several minutes. They saw Hatteras lookeagerly at the horizon, and then come down without speaking; but itwas easy to see that his hopes had again been crushed. The _Forward_weighed anchor, and took up her uncertain march northward. As the_Forward_ began to be weather-worn, the masts were unreeved, for theycould no longer rely on the variable wind, and the sails were nearlyuseless in the winding channels. Large white marks appeared here andthere on the sea like oil spots; they presaged an approaching frost;as soon as the breeze dropped the sea began to freeze immediately;but as soon as the wind got up again, the young ice was broken upand dispersed. Towards evening the thermometer went down to 17degrees.
When the brig came to a closed-up pass she acted as a battering ram,and ran at full steam against the obstacle, which she sunk. Sometimesthey thought she was stopped for good; but an unexpected movementof the streams opened her a new passage, and she took advantage ofit boldly. When the brig stopped, the steam which escaped from thesafety-pipes was condensed by the cold air and fell in snow on tothe deck. Another impediment came in the way; the ice-blocks sometimesgot entangled in the paddles, and they were so hard that all thestrength of the machine was not sufficient to break them; it was thennecessary to back the engine and send men to clear the screws withtheir handspikes. All this delayed the brig; it lasted thirteen days.The _Forward_ dragged herself painfully along Penny Strait; the crewgrumbled, but obeyed: the men saw now that it was impossible to goback. Keeping north was less dangerous than retreating south. Theywere obliged to think about wintering. The sailors talked togetherabout their present position, and one day they mentioned it to RichardShandon, who, they knew, was on their side. The second officer forgothis duty as an officer, and allowed them to discuss the authorityof the captain before him.
"You say, then, Mr. Shandon, that we can't go back now?" said Gripper.
"No, it's too late now," answered Shandon.
"Then we must think about wintering," said another sailor.
"It's the only thing we can do. They wouldn't believe me."
"Another time," said Pen, who had been released, "we shall believeyou."
"But as I am not the master----" replied Shandon.
"Who says you mayn't be?" answered Pen. "John Hatteras may go as faras he likes, but we aren't obliged to follow him."
"You all know what became of the crew that did follow him in his firstcruise to Baffin's Sea?" said Gripper.
"And the cruise of the _Farewell_ under him that got lost in theSpitzbergen seas!" said Clifton.
"He was the only man that came back," continued Gripper.
"He and his dog," answered Clifton.
"We won't die for his pleasure," added Pen.
"Nor lose the bounty we've been at so much trouble to earn," criedClifton. "When we've passed the 78th degree--and we aren't far offit, I know--that will make just the 375 pounds each."
"But," answered Gripper, "shan't we lose it if we go back withoutthe captain?"
"Not if we prove that we were obliged to," answered Clifton.
"But it's the captain----"
"You never mind, Gripper," answered Pen; "we'll have a captain anda good one--that Mr. Shandon knows. When one commander goes mad, folkshave done with him, and they take another; don't they, Mr. Shandon?"
Shandon answered evasively that they could reckon upon him, but thatthey must wait to see what turned up. Difficulties were getting thickround Hatteras, but he was as firm, calm, energetic, and confidentas ever. After all, he had done in five months what other navigatorshad taken two or three years to do! He should be obliged to winternow, but there was nothing to frighten brave sailors in that. SirJohn Ross and McClure had passed three successive winters in theArctic regions. What they had done he could do too!
"If I had only been able to get up Smith Strait at the north of Baffin'sSea, I should be at the Pole by now!" he said to the doctor regretfully.
"Never mind, captain!" answered the doctor, "we shall get at it bythe 99th meridian instead of by the 75th; if all roads lead to Rome,it's more certain still that all meridians lead to the Pole."
On the 31st of August the thermometer marked 13 degrees. The end ofthe navigable season was approaching; the _Forward_ left ExmouthIsland to the starboard, and three days after passed Table Islandin the middle of Belcher Channel. At an earlier period it would perhapshave been possible to regain Baffin's Sea by this channel, but itwas not to be dreamt of then; this arm of the sea was entirelybarricaded by ice; ice-fields extended as far as the eye could reach,and would do so for eight months longer. Happily they could stillgain a few minutes further north on the condition of breaking up theice with huge clubs and petards. Now the temperature was so low, anywind, even a contrary one, was welcome, for in a calm the sea frozein a single night. The _Forward_ could not winter in her presentsituation, exposed to winds, icebergs, and the drift from the channel;a shelter was the first thing to find; Hatteras hoped to gain thecoast of New Cornwall, and to find above Albert Point a bay of refugesufficiently sheltered. He therefore pursued his course northwardwith perseverance. But on the 8th an impenetrable ice-bank lay infront of him, and the temperature was at 10 degrees. Hatteras didall he could to force a passage, continually risking his ship andgetting out of danger by force of skill. He could be accused ofimprudence, want of reflection, folly, blindness, but he was a goodsailor, and one of the best! The situation of the _Forward_ becamereally dangerous; the sea closed up behind her, and in a few hoursthe ice got so hard that the men could run along it and tow the shipin all security.
Hatteras found he could not get round the obstacle, so he resolvedto attack it in front; he used his strongest blasting cylinders ofeight to ten pounds of powder; they began by making a hole in thethick of the ice, and filled it with snow, taking care to place thecylinder in a horizontal position, so that a greater portion of theice might be submitted to the explosion; lastly, they lighted thewick, which was protected by a gutta-percha tube. They worked at theblasting, as they could not saw, for the saws stuck immediately inthe ice. Hatteras hoped to pass the next day. But during the nighta viole
nt wind raged, and the sea rose under her crust of ice as ifshaken by some submarine commotion, and the terrified voice of thepilot was heard crying:
"Look out aft!"
Hatteras turned to the direction indicated, and what he saw by thedim twilight was frightful. A high iceberg, driven back north, wasrushing on to the ship with the rapidity of an avalanche.
"All hands on deck!" cried the captain.
The rolling mountain was hardly half a mile off; the blocks of icewere driven about like so many huge grains of sand; the tempest ragedwith fury.
"There, Mr. Clawbonny," said Johnson to the doctor, "we are insomething like danger now."
"Yes," answered the doctor tranquilly, "it looks frightful enough."
"It's an assault we shall have to repulse," replied the boatswain.
"It looks like a troop of antediluvian animals, those that weresupposed to inhabit the Pole. They are trying which shall get herefirst!"
"Well," added Johnson, "I hope we shan't get one of their spikes intous!"
"It's a siege--let's run to the ramparts!"
And they made haste aft, where the crew, armed with poles, bars ofiron, and handspikes, were getting ready to repulse the formidableenemy. The avalanche came nearer, and got bigger by the addition ofthe blocks of ice which it caught in its passage; Hatteras gave ordersto fire the cannon in the bow to break the threatening line. But itarrived and rushed on to the brig; a great crackling noise was heard,and as it struck on the brig's starboard a part of her barricadingwas broken. Hatteras gave his men orders to keep steady and preparefor the ice. It came along in blocks; some of them weighing severalhundredweight came over the ship's side; the smaller ones, thrownup as high as the topsails, fell in little spikes, breaking the shroudsand cutting the rigging. The ship was boarded by these innumerableenemies, which in a block would have crushed a hundred ships likethe _Forward_. Some of the sailors were badly wounded whilst tryingto keep off the ice, and Bolton had his left shoulder torn open. Thenoise was deafening. Dick barked with rage at this new kind of enemy.The obscurity of the night came to add to the horror of the situation,but did not hide the threatening blocks, their white surface reflectedthe last gleams of light. Hatteras's orders were heard in the midstof the crew's strange struggle with the icebergs. The ship givingway to the tremendous pressure, bent to the larboard, and theextremity of her mainyard leaned like a buttress against the icebergand threatened to break her mast.
Hatteras saw the danger; it was a terrible moment; the brig threatenedto turn completely over, and the masting might be carried away. Anenormous block, as big as the steamer itself, came up alongside herhull; it rose higher and higher on the waves; it was already abovethe poop; it fell over the _Forward_. All was lost; it was now upright,higher than the gallant yards, and it shook on its foundation. A cryof terror escaped the crew. Everyone fled to starboard. But at thismoment the steamer was lifted completely up, and for a little whileshe seemed to be suspended in the air, and fell again on to theice-blocks; then she rolled over till her planks cracked again. Aftera minute, which appeared a century, she found herself again in hernatural element, having been turned over the ice-bank that blockedher passage by the rising of the sea.
"She's cleared the ice-bank!" shouted Johnson, who had rushed to thefore of the brig.
"Thank God!" answered Hatteras.
The brig was now in the midst of a pond of ice, which hemmed her inon every side, and though her keel was in the water, she could notmove; she was immovable, but the ice-field moved for her.
"We are drifting, captain!" cried Johnson.
"We must drift," answered Hatteras; "we can't help ourselves."
When daylight came, it was seen that the brig was drifting rapidlynorthward, along with a submarine current. The floating mass carriedthe _Forward_ along with it. In case of accident, when the brig mightbe thrown on her side, or crushed by the pressure of the ice, Hatterashad a quantity of provisions brought up on deck, along with materialsfor encamping, the clothes and blankets of the crew. Taking examplefrom Captain McClure under similar circumstances, he caused the brigto be surrounded by a belt of hammocks, filled with air, so as toshield her from the thick of the damage; the ice soon accumulatedunder a temperature of 7 degrees, and the ship was surrounded by awall of ice, above which her masts only were to be seen. They navigatedthus for seven days; Point Albert, the western extremity of NewCornwall, was sighted on the 10th of September, but soon disappeared;from thence the ice-field drifted east. Where would it take them to?Where should they stop? Who could tell? The crew waited, and the menfolded their arms. At last, on the 15th of September, about threeo'clock in the afternoon, the ice-field, stopped, probably, bycollision with another field, gave a violent shake to the brig, andstood still. Hatteras found himself out of sight of land in latitude78 degrees 15 minutes and longitude 95 degrees 35 minutes in the midstof the unknown sea, where geographers have placed the Frozen Pole.