"It is a good deal to know which way to go," answered Shandon quickly.
"We can do without the captain and his instructions for another month
at least. Besides, you know what I think about it."
"A short time ago," said the doctor, "I thought like you that the
captain would never appear, and that you would remain commander of
the ship; but now----"
"Now what?" replied Shandon in an impatient tone.
"Since the arrival of the second letter I have modified that opinion."
"Why, doctor?"
"Because the letter tells you the route to follow, but leaves you
ignorant of the -Forward's- destination; and we must know where we
are going to. How the deuce are you to get a letter now we are out
at sea? On the coast of Greenland the service of the post must leave
much to wish for. I believe that our gentleman is waiting for us in
some Danish settlement--at Holsteinborg or Uppernawik; he has
evidently gone there to complete his cargo of sealskins, buy his
sledges and dog, and, in short, get together all the tackle wanted
for a voyage in the Arctic Seas. I shouldn't be at all surprised to
see him come out of his cabin one of these fine mornings and begin
commanding the ship in anything but a supernatural way."
"It's possible," answered Shandon drily; "but in the meantime the
wind is getting up, and I can't risk my gallant sails in such weather."
Shandon left the doctor and gave the order to reef the topsails.
"He takes it to heart," said the doctor to the boatswain.
"Yes," answered the latter, "and it's a great pity, for you may be
right, Mr. Clawbonny."
In the evening of Saturday the -Forward- doubled the Mull of Galloway,
whose lighthouse shone to the north-east; during the night they left
the Mull of Cantyre to the north, and Cape Fair, on the coast of Ireland,
to the east. Towards three o'clock in the morning, the brig, leaving
Rathlin Island on her starboard side, disembogued by the Northern
Channel into the ocean. It was Sunday, the 8th of April, and the doctor
read some chapters of the Bible to the assembled seamen. The wind
then became a perfect hurricane, and tended to throw the brig on to
the Irish coast; she pitched, and rolled, and tossed, and if the doctor
was not seasick it was because he would not be, for nothing was easier.
At noon Cape Malinhead disappeared towards the south; it was the last
European ground that these bold sailors were to perceive, and more
than one watched it out of sight, destined never to see it again.
They were then in 55 degrees 57 minutes latitude and 7 degrees 40
minutes longitude by the Greenwich meridian.
The storm spent itself out about nine o'clock in the evening; the
-Forward-, like a good sailor, maintained her route north-west. She
showed by her behaviour during the day what her sailing capacities
were, and as the Liverpool connoisseurs had remarked, she was above
all, a sailing vessel. During the following days the -Forward- gained
the north-west with rapidity; the wind veered round south, and the
sea had a tremendous swell on; the brig was then going along under
full sail. Some petrels and puffins came sailing over the poop; the
doctor skilfully shot one of the latter, and it fell, fortunately,
on the deck. The harpooner, Simpson, picked it up and brought it to
its owner.
"Nasty game that, Mr. Clawbonny," he said.
"It will make an excellent meal, on the contrary," said the doctor.
"You don't mean to say you are going to eat that thing?"
"And so are you, old fellow," said the doctor, laughing.
"Poh!" replied Simpson, "but it's oily and rancid, like all other
sea birds."
"Never mind!" answered the doctor, "I have a peculiar way of cooking
that game, and if you recognise it for a sea bird I'll consent never
to kill another in my life."
"Do you know how to cook, then?"
"A -savant- ought to know how to do a little of everything."
"You'd better take care, Simpson," said the boatswain; "the doctor's
a clever man, and he'll make you take this puffin for a grouse."
The fact is that the doctor was quite right about his fowl; he took
off all the fat, which all lies under the skin, principally on the
thighs, and with it disappeared the rancidity and taste of fish which
is so disagreeable in a sea bird. Thus prepared the puffin was declared
excellent, and Simpson acknowledged it the first.
During the late storm Richard Shandon had been able to judge of the
qualities of his crew; he had watched each man narrowly, and knew
how much each was to be depended upon.
James Wall was devoted to Richard, understood quickly and executed
well, but he might fail in initiative; he placed him in the third
rank. Johnson was used to struggle with the sea; he was an old stager
in the Arctic Ocean, and had nothing to learn either in audacity or
-sang-froid-. The harpooner, Simpson, and the carpenter, Bell, were
sure men, faithful to duty and discipline. The ice-master, Foker,
was an experienced sailor, and, like Johnson, was capable of rendering
important service. Of the other sailors Garry and Bolton seemed to
be the best; Bolton was a gay and talkative fellow; Garry was
thirty-five, with an energetic face, but rather pale and sad-looking.
The three sailors, Clifton, Gripper, and Pen, seemed less ardent and
resolute; they easily grumbled. Gripper wanted to break his
engagement even before the departure of the -Forward-; a sort of shame
kept him on board. If things went on all right, if there were not
too many risks to run, no dangers to encounter, these three men might
be depended upon; but they must be well fed, for it might be said
that they were led by their stomachs. Although warned beforehand,
they grumbled at having to be teetotallers; at their meals they
regretted the brandy and gin; it did not, however, make them spare
the tea and coffee, which was prodigally given out on board. As to
the two engineers, Brunton and Plover, and the stoker, Warren, there
had been nothing for them to do as yet, and Shandon could not tell
anything about their capabilities.
On the 14th of April the -Forward- got into the grand current of the
Gulf Stream, which, after ascending the eastern coast of America to
Newfoundland, inclines to the north-east along the coast of Norway.
They were then in 57 degrees 37 minutes latitude by 22 degrees 58
minutes longitude, at two hundred miles from the point of Greenland.
The weather grew colder, and the thermometer descended to thirty-two
degrees, that is to say to freezing point.
The doctor had not yet begun to wear the garments he destined for
the Arctic Seas, but he had donned a sailor's dress like the rest;
he was a queer sight with his top-boots, in which his legs disappeared,
his vast oilcloth hat, his jacket and trousers of the same; when
drenched with heavy rains or enormous waves the doctor looked like
a sort of sea-animal, and was proud of the comparison.
During two days the sea was extremely rough; the wind veered round
to the north-west, and delayed the progress of the -Forward-. From
the 14th to the 16th of April the swell was great, but on the Monday
there came such a torrent of rain that the sea became calm immediately.
Shandon spoke to the doctor about this phenomenon.
"It confirms the curious observations of the whaler Scoresby, who
laid it before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which I have the
honour to be an honorary member. You see that when it rains the waves
are not very high, even under the influence of a violent wind, and
when the weather is dry the sea is more agitated, even when there
is less wind."
"But how is this phenomenon accounted for?"
"Very simply; it is not accounted for at all."
Just then the ice-master, who was keeping watch on the crossbars of
the topsails, signalled a floating mass on the starboard, at about
fifteen miles distance before the wind.
"An iceberg here!" cried the doctor.
Shandon pointed his telescope in the direction indicated, and
confirmed the pilot's announcement.
"That is curious!" said the doctor.
"What! you are astonished at last!" said the commander, laughing.
"I am surprised, but not astonished," answered the doctor, laughing;
"for the brig -Ann-, of Poole, from Greenspond, was caught in 1813
in perfect ice-fields, in the forty-fourth degree of north latitude,
and her captain, Dayernent, counted them by hundreds!"
"I see you can teach us something, even upon that subject."
"Very little," answered Clawbonny modestly; "it is only that ice has
been met with in even lower latitudes."
"I knew that already, doctor, for when I was cabinboy on board the
war-sloop -Fly-----"
"In 1818," continued the doctor, "at the end of March, almost in April,
you passed between two large islands of floating ice under the
forty-second degree of latitude."
"Well, I declare you astonish me!" cried Shandon.
"But the iceberg doesn't astonish me, as we are two degrees further
north."
"You are a well, doctor," answered the commander, "and all we have
to do is to be water-buckets."
"You will draw me dry sooner than you think for; and now, Shandon,
if we could get a nearer look at this phenomenon, I should be the
happiest of doctors."
"Just so, Johnson," said Shandon, calling his boatswain. "It seems
to me that the breeze is getting up."
"Yes, commander," answered Johnson; "we are making very little way,
and the currents of Davis's Straits will soon be against us."
"You are right, Johnson, and if we wish to be in sight of Cape Farewell
on the 20th of April we must put the steam on, or we shall be thrown
on the coasts of Labrador. Mr. Wall, will you give orders to light
the fires?"
The commander's orders were executed, an hour afterwards the steam
was up, the sails were furled, and the screw cutting the waves sent
the -Forward- against the north-west wind.
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT
A short time after the flights of birds became more and more numerous.
Petrels, puffins, and mates, inhabitants of those desolate quarters,
signalled the approach of Greenland. The -Forward- was rapidly
nearing the north, leaving to her leeward a long line of black smoke.
On Tuesday the 17th of April, about eleven o'clock in the morning,
the ice-master signalled the first sight of the ice-blink; it was
about twenty miles to the N.N.W. This glaring white strip was
brilliantly lighted up, in spite of the presence of thick clouds in
the neighbouring parts of the sky. Experienced people on board could
make no mistake about this phenomenon, and declared, from its
whiteness, that the blink was owing to a large ice-field, situated
at about thirty miles out of sight, and that it proceeded from the
reflection of luminous rays. Towards evening the wind turned round
to the south, and became favourable; Shandon put on all sail, and
for economy's sake caused the fires to be put out. The -Forward-,
under her topsails and foresails, glided on towards Cape Farewell.
At three o'clock on the 18th they came across the ice-stream, and
a white thick line of a glaring colour cut brilliantly the lines of
the sea and sky. It was evidently drifting from the eastern coast
of Greenland more than from Davis's Straits, for ice generally keeps
to the west coast of Baffin's Sea. An hour afterwards the -Forward-
passed in the midst of isolated portions of the ice-stream, and in
the most compact parts, the icebergs, though welded together, obeyed
the movements of the swell. The next day the man at the masthead
signalled a vessel. It was the -Valkirien-, a Danish corvette, running
alongside the -Forward-, and making for the bank of Newfoundland.
The current of the Strait began to make itself felt, and Shandon had
to put on sail to go up it. At this moment the commander, the doctor,
James Wall, and Johnson were assembled on the poop examining the
direction and strength of the current. The doctor wanted to know if
the current existed also in Baffin's Sea.
"Without the least doubt," answered Shandon, "and the sailing vessels
have much trouble to stem it."
"Besides there," added Wall, "you meet with it on the eastern coast
of America, as well as on the western coast of Greenland."
"There," said the doctor, "that is what gives very singular reason
to the seekers of the North-West passage! That current runs about
five miles an hour, and it is a little difficult to suppose that it
springs from the bottom of a gulf."
"It is so much the more probable, doctor," replied Shandon, "that
if this current runs from north to south we find in Behring's Straits
a contrary current which runs from south to north, and which must
be the origin of this one."
"According to that," replied the doctor, "we must admit that America
is totally unconnected with the Polar lands, and that the waters of
the Pacific run round the coasts of America into the Atlantic. On
the other hand, the greater elevation of the waters of the Pacific
gives reason to the supposition that they fall into the European
seas."
"But," sharply replied Shandon, "there must be facts to establish
that theory, and if there are any," added he with irony, "our
universally well-informed doctor ought to know them."
"Well," replied the above-mentioned, with amiable satisfaction, "if
it interests you, I can tell you that whales, wounded in Davis's
Straits, are caught some time afterwards in the neighbourhood of
Tartary with the European harpoon still in their flanks."
"And unless they have been able to double Cape Horn or the Cape of
Good Hope," replied Shandon, "they must necessarily have rounded the
septentrional coasts of America--that's what I call indisputable,
doctor."
"However, if you were not convinced, my dear fellow," said the doctor,
smiling, "I could still produce other facts, such as drift-wood, of
which Davis's Straits are full, larch, aspen, and other tropical trees.
Now we know that the Gulf Stream hinders those woods from entering
the Straits. If, then, they come out of it they can only get in from
Behring's Straits."
"I am convinced, doctor, and I avow that it would be difficult to
remain incredulous with you."
"Upon my honour," said Johnson, "there's something that comes just
in time to help our discussion. I perceive in the distance a lump
of wood of certain dimensions; if the commander permits it we'll haul
it in, and ask it the name of its country."
"That's it," said the doctor, "the example after the rule."
Shandon gave the necessary orders; the brig was directed towards the
piece of wood signalled, and soon afterwards, not without trouble,
the crew hoisted it on deck. It was the trunk of a mahogany tree,
gnawed right into the centre by worms, but for which circumstance
it would not have floated.
"This is glorious," said the doctor enthusiastically, "for as the
currents of the Atlantic could not carry it to Davis's Straits, and
as it has not been driven into the Polar basin by the streams of
septentrional America, seeing that this tree grew under the Equator,
it is evident that it comes in a straight line from Behring; and look
here, you see those sea-worms which have eaten it, they belong to
a hot-country species."
"It is evident," replied Wall, "that the people who do not believe
in the famous passage are wrong."
"Why, this circumstance alone ought to convince them," said the
doctor; "I will just trace you out the itinerary of that mahogany;
it has been floated towards the Pacific by some river of the Isthmus
of Panama or Guatemala, from thence the current has dragged it along
the American coast as far as Behring's Straits, and in spite of
everything it was obliged to enter the Polar Seas. It is neither so
old nor so soaked that we need fear to assign a recent date to its
setting out; it has had the good luck to get clear of the obstacles
in that long suite of straits which lead out of Baffin's Bay, and
quickly seized by the boreal current came by Davis's Straits to be
made prisoner by the -Forward- to the great joy of Dr. Clawbonny,
who asks the commander's permission to keep a sample of it."
"Do so," said Shandon, "but allow me to tell you that you will not
be the only proprietor of such a wreck. The Danish governor of the
Isle of Disko----"
"On the coast of Greenland," continued the doctor, "possesses a
mahogany table made from a trunk fished up under the same
circumstances. I know it, but I don't envy him his table, for if it
were not for the bother, I should have enough there for a whole
bedroom."
During the night, from Wednesday to Thursday, the wind blew with
extreme violence, and driftwood was seen more frequently. Nearing
the coast offered many dangers at an epoch in which icebergs were
so numerous; the commander caused some of the sails to be furled,
and the -Forward- glided away under her foresail and foremast only.
The thermometer sank below freezing-point. Shandon distributed
suitable clothing to the crew, a woollen jacket and trousers, a
flannel shirt, wadmel stockings, the same as those the Norwegian
country-people wear, and a pair of perfectly waterproof sea-boots.
As to the captain, he contented himself with his natural fur, and
appeared little sensible to the change in the temperature; he had,
no doubt, gone through more than one trial of this kind, and besides,
a Dane had no right to be difficult. He was seen very little, as he
kept himself concealed in the darkest parts of the vessel.
Towards evening the coast of Greenland peeped out through an opening
in the fog. The doctor, armed with his glass, could distinguish for
an instant a line of peaks, ridged with large blocks of ice; but the
fog closed rapidly on this vision, like the curtain of a theatre
falling in the most interesting moment of the piece.
On the morning of the 20th of April the -Forward- was in sight of
an iceberg a hundred and fifty feet high, stranded there from time
immemorial; the thaws had taken no effect on it, and had respected
its strange forms. Snow saw it; James Ross took an exact sketch of
it in 1829; and in 1851 the French lieutenant Bellot saw it from the
deck of the -Prince Albert-. Of course the doctor wished to keep a
memento of the celebrated mountain, and made a clever sketch of it.
It is not surprising that such masses should be stranded and adhere
to the land, for to each foot above water they have two feet below,
giving, therefore, to this one about eighty fathoms of depth.
At last, under a temperature which at noon was only 12 degrees, under
a snowy and foggy sky, Cape Farewell was perceived. The -Forward-
arrived on the day fixed; if it pleased the unknown captain to come
and occupy his position in such diabolical weather he would have no
cause to complain.
"There you are, then," said the doctor to himself, "cape so celebrated
and so well named! Many have cleared it like us who were destined
never to see it again. Is it, then, an eternal adieu said to one's
European friends? You have all passed it. Frobisher, Knight, Barlow,
Vaughan, Scroggs, Barentz, Hudson, Blosseville, Franklin, Crozier,
Bellot, never to come back to your domestic hearth, and that cape
has been really for you the cape of adieus."
It was about the year 970 that some navigators left Iceland and
discovered Greenland. Sebastian Cabot forced his way as far as
latitude 56 degrees in 1498. Gaspard and Michel Cotreal, in 1500 and
1502, went as far north as 60 degrees; and Martin Frobisher, in 1576,
arrived as far as the bay that bears his name. To John Davis belongs
the honour of having discovered the Straits in 1585; and two years
later, in a third voyage, that bold navigator and great whaler reached
the sixty-third parallel, twenty-seven degrees from the Pole.
Barentz in 1596, Weymouth in 1602, James Hall in 1605 and 1607, Hudson,
whose name was given to that vast bay which hollows out so profoundly
the continent of America, James Poole, in 1611, advanced far into
the Strait in search of that North-West passage the discovery of which
would have considerably shortened the track of communication between
the two worlds. Baffin, in 1616, found the Straits of Lancaster in
the sea that bears his own name; he was followed, in 1619, by James
Munk, and in 1719 by Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs, of whom
no news has ever been heard. In 1776 Lieutenant Pickersgill, sent
out to meet Captain Cook, who tried to go up Behring's Straits, reached
the sixty-eighth degree; the following year Young, for the same
purpose, went as far north as Woman's Island.
Afterwards came Captain James Ross, who, in 1818, rounded the coasts
of Baffin's Sea, and corrected the hydrographic errors of his
predecessors. Lastly, in 1819 and 1820, the celebrated Parry passed
through Lancaster Straits, and penetrated, in spite of unnumbered
difficulties, as far as Melville Island, and won the prize of 5,000
pounds promised by Act of Parliament to the English sailors who would
reach the hundred and seventeenth meridian by a higher latitude than
the seventy-seventh parallel.
In 1826 Beechey touched Chamisso Island; James Ross wintered from
1829 to 1833 in Prince Regent Straits, and amongst other important
works discovered the magnetic pole. During this time Franklin, by
an overland route, traversed the septentrional coasts of America from
the River Mackenzie to Turnagain Point. Captain Back followed in his
steps from 1823 to 1835, and these explorations were completed in
1839 by Messrs. Dease and Simpson and Dr. Rae.
Lastly, Sir John Franklin, wishing to discover the North-West passage,
left England in 1845 on board the -Erebus- and the -Terror-; he
penetrated into Baffin's Sea, and since his passage across Disko
Island no news had been heard of his expedition.
That disappearance determined the numerous investigations which have
brought about the discovery of the passage, and the survey of these
Polar continents, with such indented coast lines. The most daring
English, French, and American sailors made voyages towards these
terrible countries, and, thanks to their efforts, the maps of that
country, so difficult to make, figured in the list of the Royal
Geographical Society of London. The curious history of these
countries was thus presented to the doctor's imagination as he leaned
on the rail, and followed with his eyes the long track left by the
brig. Thoughts of the bold navigators weighed upon his mind, and he
fancied he could perceive under the frozen arches of the icebergs
the pale ghosts of those who were no more.
CHAPTER VII
DAVIS'S STRAITS
During that day the -Forward- cut out an easy road amongst the
half-broken ice; the wind was good, but the temperature very low;
the currents of air blowing across the ice-fields brought with them
their penetrating cold. The night required the severest attention;
the floating icebergs drew together in that narrow pass; a hundred
at once were often counted on the horizon; they broke off from the
elevated coasts under the teeth of the grinding waves and the
influence of the spring season, in order to go and melt or to be
swallowed up in the depths of the ocean. Long rafts of wood, with
which it was necessary to escape collision, kept the crew on the alert;
the crow's nest was put in its place on the mizenmast; it consisted
of a cask, in which the ice-master was partly hidden to protect him
from the cold winds while he kept watch over the sea and the icebergs
in view, and from which he signalled danger and sometimes gave orders
to the crew. The nights were short; the sun had reappeared since the
31st of January in consequence of the refraction, and seemed to get
higher and higher above the horizon. But the snow impeded the view,
and if it did not cause complete obscurity it rendered navigation
laborious.
On the 21st of April Desolation Cape appeared in the midst of thick
mists; the crew were tired out with the constant strain on their
energies rendered necessary ever since they had got amongst the
icebergs; the sailors had not had a minute's rest; it was soon
necessary to have recourse to steam to cut a way through the heaped-up
blocks. The doctor and Johnson were talking together on the stern,
whilst Shandon was snatching a few hours' sleep in his cabin.
Clawbonny was getting information from the old sailor, whose numerous
voyages had given him an interesting and sensible education. The
doctor felt much friendship for him, and the boatswain repaid it with
interest.
"You see, Mr. Clawbonny," Johnson used to say, "this country is not
like all others; they call it -Green-land, but there are very few
weeks in the year when it justifies its name."
"Who knows if in the tenth century this land did not justify its name?"
added the doctor. "More than one revolution of this kind has been
produced upon our globe, and I daresay I should astonish you if I
were to tell you that according to Icelandic chronicles two thousand
villages flourished upon this continent about eight or nine hundred
years ago."
"You would so much astonish me, Mr. Clawbonny, that I should have
some difficulty in believing you, for it is a miserable country."
"However miserable it may be, it still offers a sufficient retreat
to its inhabitants, and even to civilised Europeans."
"Without doubt! We met men at Disko and Uppernawik who consented to
live in such climates; but my ideas upon the matter were that they
lived there by compulsion and not by choice."
"I daresay you are right, though men get accustomed to everything,
and the Greenlanders do not appear to me so unfortunate as the workmen
of our large towns; they may be unfortunate, but they are certainly
not unhappy. I say unhappy, but the word does not translate my thought,
for if these people have not the comforts of temperate countries,
they are formed for a rude climate, and find pleasures in it which
we are not able to conceive."
"I suppose we must think so, as Heaven is just. Many, many voyages
have brought me upon these coasts, and my heart always shrinks at
the sight of these wretched solitudes; but they ought to have cheered
up these capes, promontories, and bays with more engaging names, for
Farewell Cape and Desolation Cape are not names made to attract
navigators."
"I have also remarked that," replied the doctor, "but these names
have a geographical interest that we must not overlook. They describe
the adventures of those who gave them those names. Next to the names
of Davis, Baffin, Hudson, Ross, Parry, Franklin, and Bellot, if I
meet with Cape Desolation I soon find Mercy Bay; Cape Providence is
a companion to Port Anxiety; Repulsion Bay brings me back to Cape
Eden, and leaving Turnagain Point I take refuge in Refuge Bay. I have
there under my eyes an unceasing succession of perils, misfortunes,
obstacles, successes, despairs, and issues, mixed with great names
of my country, and, like a series of old-fashioned medals, that
nomenclature retraces in my mind the whole history of these seas."
"You are quite right, Mr. Clawbonny, and I hope we shall meet with
more Success Bays than Despair Capes in our voyage."
"I hope so too, Johnson; but, I say, is the crew come round a little
from its terrors?"
"Yes, a little; but since we got into the Straits they have begun
to talk about the fantastic captain; more than one of them expected
to see him appear at the extremity of Greenland; but between you and
me, doctor, doesn't it astonish you a little too?"
"It does indeed, Johnson."
"Do you believe in the captain's existence?"
"Of course I do."
"But what can be his reasons for acting in that manner?"
"If I really must tell you the whole of my thoughts, Johnson, I believe
that the captain wished to entice the crew far enough out to prevent
them being able to come back. Now if he had been on board when we
started they would all have wanted to know our destination, and he
might have been embarrassed."
"But why so?"
"Suppose he should wish to attempt some superhuman enterprise, and
to penetrate where others have never been able to reach, do you believe
if the crew knew it they would ever have enlisted? As it is, having
got so far, going farther becomes a necessity."
"That's very probable, Mr. Clawbonny. I have known more than one
intrepid adventurer whose name alone was a terror, and who would never
have found any one to accompany him in his perilous expeditions----"
"Excepting me," ventured the doctor.
"And me, after you," answered Johnson, "and to follow you; I can
venture to affirm that our captain is amongst the number of such
adventurers. No matter, we shall soon see; I suppose the unknown will
come as captain on board from the coast of Uppernawik or Melville
Bay, and will tell us at last where it is his good pleasure to conduct
the ship."
"I am of your opinion, Johnson, but the difficulty will be to get
as far as Melville Bay. See how the icebergs encircle us from every
point! They scarcely leave a passage for the -Forward-. Just examine
that immense plain over there."
"The whalers call that in our language an ice-field, that is to say
a continued surface of ice the limits of which cannot be perceived."
"And on that side, that broken field, those long pieces of ice more
or less joined at their edges?"
"That is a pack; if it was of a circular form we should call it a
patch; and, if the form was longer, a stream."
"And there, those floating icebergs?"
"Those are drift-ice; if they were a little higher they would be
icebergs or hills; their contact with vessels is dangerous, and must
be carefully avoided. Here, look over there: on that ice-field there
is a protuberance produced by the pressure of the icebergs; we call
that a hummock; if that protuberance was submerged to its base we
should call it a calf. It was very necessary to give names to all
those forms in order to recognise them."
"It is truly a marvellous spectacle!" exclaimed the doctor,
contemplating the wonders of the Boreal Seas; "there is a field for
the imagination in such pictures!"
"Yes," answered Johnson, "ice often takes fantastic shapes, and our
men are not behindhand in explaining them according to their own
notions."
"Isn't that assemblage of ice-blocks admirable? Doesn't it look like
a foreign town, an Eastern town, with its minarets and mosques under
the pale glare of the moon? Further on there is a long series of Gothic
vaults, reminding one of Henry the Seventh's chapel or the Houses
of Parliament."
"They would be houses and towns very dangerous to inhabit, and we
must not sail too close to them. Some of those minarets yonder totter
on their base, and the least of them would crush a vessel like the
-Forward-."
"And yet sailors dared to venture into these seas before they had
steam at their command! How ever could a sailing vessel be steered
amongst these moving rocks?"
"Nevertheless, it has been accomplished, Mr. Clawbonny. When the wind
became contrary--and that has happened to me more than once--we
quietly anchored to one of those blocks, and we drifted more or less
with it and waited for a favourable moment to set sail again. I must
acknowledge that such a manner of voyaging required months, whilst
with a little good fortune we shall only want a few days."
"It seems to me," said the doctor, "that the temperature has a tendency
to get lower."
"That would be a pity," answered Johnson, "for a thaw is necessary
to break up these masses and drive them away into the Atlantic; besides,
they are more numerous in Davis's Straits, for the sea gets narrower
between Capes Walsingham and Holsteinborg; but on the other side of
the 67th degree we shall find the seas more navigable during the months
of May and June."
"Yes; but first of all we must get to the other side."
"Yes, we must get there, Mr. Clawbonny. In June and July we should
have found an open passage, like the whalers do, but our orders were
precise; we were to be here in April. I am very much mistaken if our
captain has not his reasons for getting us out here so early."
The doctor was right in stating that the temperature was lowering;
the thermometer at noon only indicated 6 degrees, and a north-west
breeze was getting up, which, although it cleared the sky, assisted
the current in precipitating the floating masses of ice into the path
of the -Forward-. All of them did not obey the same impulsion, and
it was not uncommon to encounter some of the highest masses drifting
in an opposite direction, seized at their base by an undercurrent.
It is easy to understand the difficulties of this kind of navigation;
the engineers had not a minute's rest; the engines were worked from
the deck by means of levers, which opened, stopped, and reversed them
according to the orders of the officers on watch. Sometimes the brig
had to hasten through an opening in the ice-fields, sometimes to
struggle against the swiftness of an iceberg which threatened to close
the only practicable issue, or, again, some block, suddenly
overthrown, compelled the brig to back quickly so as not to be crushed
to pieces. This mass of ice, carried along, broken up and amalgamated
by the northern current, crushed up the passage, and if seized by
the frost would oppose an impassable barrier to the passage of the
-Forward-.
Birds were found in innumerable quantities on these coasts, petrels
and other sea-birds fluttered about here and there with deafening
cries, a great number of big-headed, short-necked sea-gulls were
amongst them; they spread out their long wings and braved in their
play the snow whipped by the hurricane. This animation of the winged
tribe made the landscape more lively.
Numerous pieces of wood were floating to leeway, clashing with noise;
a few enormous, bloated-headed sharks approached the vessel, but
there was no question of chasing them, although Simpson, the harpooner,
was longing to have a hit at them. Towards evening several seals made
their appearance, nose above water, swimming between the blocks.
On the 22nd the temperature again lowered; the -Forward- put on all
steam to catch the favourable passes: the wind was decidedly fixed
in the north-west; all sails were furled.
During that day, which was Sunday, the sailors had little to do. After
the reading of Divine service, which was conducted by Shandon, the
crew gave chase to sea-birds, of which they caught a great number.
They were suitably prepared according to the doctor's method, and
furnished an agreeable increase of provisions to the tables of the
officers and crew.
At three o'clock in the afternoon the -Forward- had attained Thin
de Sael, Sukkertop Mountain; the sea was very rough; from time to
time a vast and inopportune fog fell from the grey sky; however, at
noon an exact observation could be taken. The vessel was in 65 degrees
20 minutes latitude by 54 degrees 22 minutes longitude. It was
necessary to attain two degrees more in order to meet with freer and
more favourable navigation.
During the three following days, the 24th, 25th, and 26th of April,
the -Forward- had a continual struggle with the ice; the working of
the machines became very fatiguing. The steam was turned off quickly
or got up again at a moment's notice, and escaped whistling from its
valves. During the thick mist the nearing of icebergs was only known
by dull thundering produced by the avalanches; the brig was instantly
veered; it ran the risk of being crushed against the heaps of
fresh-water ice, remarkable for its crystal transparency, and as hard
as a rock.
Richard Shandon never missed completing his provision of water by
embarking several tons of ice every day. The doctor could not accustom
himself to the optical delusions that refraction produces on these
coasts. An iceberg sometimes appeared to him like a small white lump
within reach, when it was at least at ten or twelve miles' distance.
He endeavoured to accustom his eyesight to this singular phenomenon,
so that he might be able to correct its errors rapidly.
At last the crew were completely worn out by their labours in hauling
the vessel alongside of the ice-fields and by keeping it free from
the most menacing blocks by the aid of long perches. Nevertheless,
the -Forward- was still held back in the impassable limits of the
Polar Circle on Friday, the 27th of April.
CHAPTER VIII
GOSSIP OF THE CREW
However, the -Forward- managed, by cunningly slipping into narrow
passages, to gain a few more minutes north; but instead of avoiding
the enemy, it was soon necessary to attack it. The ice-fields, several
miles in extent, were getting nearer, and as these moving heaps often
represent a pressure of more than ten millions of tons, it was
necessary to give a wide berth to their embraces. The ice-saws were
at once installed in the interior of the vessel, in such a manner
as to facilitate immediate use of them. Part of the crew
philosophically accepted their hard work, but the other complained
of it, if it did not refuse to obey. At the same time that they assisted
in the installation of the instruments, Garry, Bolton, Pen and Gripper
exchanged their opinions.
"By Jingo!" said Bolton gaily, "I don't know why the thought strikes
me that there's a very jolly tavern in Water-street where it's
comfortable to be between a glass of gin and a bottle of porter. Can't
you imagine it, Gripper?"
"To tell you the truth," quickly answered the questioned sailor, who
generally professed to be in a bad temper, "I don't imagine it here."
"It's for the sake of talking, Gripper; it's evident that the snow
towns Dr. Clawbonny admires so don't contain the least public where
a poor sailor can get a half-pint of brandy."
"That's sure enough, Bolton; and you may as well add that there's
nothing worth drinking here. It's a nice idea to deprive men of their
grog when they are in the Northern Seas."
"But you know," said Garry, "that the doctor told us it was to prevent
us getting the scurvy. It's the only way to make us go far."
"But I don't want to go far, Garry; it's pretty well to have come
this far without trying to go where the devil is determined we shan't."
"Well, we shan't go, that's all," replied Pen. "I declare I've almost
forgotten the taste of gin."
"But remember what the doctor says," replied Bolton.
"It's all very fine for them to talk. It remains to be seen if it
isn't an excuse for being skinny with the drink."
"Pen may be right, after all," said Gripper.
"His nose is too red for that," answered Bolton. "Pen needn't grumble
if it loses a little of its colour in the voyage."
"What's my nose got to do with you?" sharply replied the sailor,
attacked in the most sensitive place. "My nose doesn't need any of
your remarks; take care of your own."
"Now, then, don't get angry, Pen; I didn't know your nose was so touchy.
I like a glass of whisky as well as anybody, especially in such a
temperature; but if I know it'll do me more harm than good, I go
without."
"You go without," said Warren, the stoker; "but everyone don't go
without."
"What do you mean, Warren?" asked Garry, looking fixedly at him.
"I mean that for some reason or other there are spirits on board,
and I know they don't go without in the stern."
"And how do you know that?" asked Garry.
Warren did not know what to say: he talked for the sake of talking.
"You see Warren don't know anything about it, Garry," said Bolton.
"Well," said Pen, "we'll ask the commander for a ration of gin; we've
earned it well and we'll see what he says."
"I wouldn't if I were you," answered Garry.
"Why?" cried Pen and Gripper.
"Because he'll refuse. You knew you weren't to have any when you
enlisted; you should have thought of it then."
"Besides," replied Bolton, who took Garry's part because he liked
his character, "Richard Shandon isn't master on board; he obeys, like
us."
"Who is master if he isn't?"
"The captain."
"Always that unfortunate captain!" exclaimed Pen. "Don't you see that
on these ice-banks there's no more a captain than there is a public?
It's a polite way of refusing us what we've a right to claim."
"But if there's a captain," replied Bolton, "I'll bet two months'
pay we shall see him before long."
"I should like to tell the captain a bit of my mind," said Pen.
"Who's talking about the captain?" said a new-comer. It was Clifton,
the sailor, a superstitious and envious man. "Is anything new known
about the captain?" he asked.
"No," they all answered at once.
"Well, I believe we shall find him one fine morning installed in his
cabin, and no one will know how he got there."
"Get along, do!" replied Bolton. "Why, Clifton, you imagine that he's
a hobgoblin--a sort of wild child of the Highlands."
"Laugh as much as you like, Bolton, you won't change my opinion. Every
day as I pass his cabin I look through the keyhole. One of these fine
mornings I shall come and tell you what he's like."
"Why, he'll be like everyone else," said Pen, "and if he thinks he'll
be able to do what he likes with us, he'll find himself mistaken,
that's all!"
"Pen don't know him yet," said Bolton, "and he's beginning to quarrel
with him already."
"Who doesn't know him?" said Clifton, looking knowing; "I don't know
that he don't!"
"What the devil do you mean?" asked Gripper.
"I know very well what I mean."
"But we don't."
"Well, Pen has quarrelled with him before."
"With the captain?"
"Yes, the dog-captain--it's all one."
The sailors looked at one another, afraid to say anything.
"Man or dog," muttered Pen, "I declare that that animal will have
his account one of these days."
"Come, Clifton," asked Bolton seriously, "you don't mean to say that
you believe the dog is the real captain?"
"Indeed I do," answered Clifton with conviction. "If you noticed
things like I do, you would have noticed what a queer beast it is."
"Well, tell us what you've noticed."
"Haven't you noticed the way he walks on the poop with such an air
of authority, looking up at the sails as if he were on watch?"
"That's true enough," added Gripper, "and one evening I actually found
him with his paws on the paddle-wheel."
"You don't mean it!" said Bolton.
"And now what do you think he does but go for a walk on the ice-fields,
minding neither the bears nor the cold?"
"That's true enough," said Bolton.
"Do you ever see that 'ere animal, like an honest dog, seek men's
company, sneak about the kitchen, and set his eyes on Mr. Strong when's
he taking something good to the commander? Don't you hear him in the
night when he goes away two or three miles from the vessel, howling
fit to make your blood run cold, as if it weren't easy enough to feel
that sensation in such a temperature as this? Again, have you ever
seen him feed? He takes nothing from any one. His food is always
untouched and unless a secret hand feeds him on board, I may say that
he lives without eating, and if he's not unearthly, I'm a fool!"
"Upon my word," said Bell, the carpenter, who had heard all Clifton's
reasoning, "I shouldn't be surprised if such was the case." The other
sailors were silenced.
"Well, at any rate, where's the -Forward- going to?"
"I don't know anything about it," replied Bell. "Richard Shandon will
receive the rest of his instructions in due time."
"But from whom?"
"From whom?"
"Yes, how?" asked Bolton, becoming pressing.
"Now then, answer, Bell!" chimed in all the other sailors.
"By whom? how? Why, I don't know," said the carpenter, embarrassed
in his turn.
"Why, by the dog-captain," exclaimed Clifton. "He has written once
already; why shouldn't he again? If I only knew half of what that
'ere animal knows, I shouldn't be embarrassed at being First Lord
of the Admiralty!"
"So then you stick to your opinion that the dog is the captain?"
"Yes."
"Well," said Pen in a hoarse voice, "if that 'ere animal don't want
to turn up his toes in a dog's skin, he's only got to make haste and
become a man, or I'm hanged if I don't settle him."
"What for?" asked Garry.
"Because I choose," replied Pen brutally; "besides, it's no business
of any one."
"Enough talking, my boys," called out Mr. Johnson, interfering just
in time, for the conversation was getting hot. "Get on with your work,
and set up your saws quicker than that. We must clear the iceberg."
"What! on a Friday?" replied Clifton, shrugging his shoulders.
"You'll see she won't get over the Polar circle as easily as you
think."
The efforts of the crew were almost powerless during the whole day.
The -Forward- could not separate the ice-fields even by going against
them full speed, and they were obliged to anchor for the night. On
Saturday the temperature lowered again under the influence of an
easterly wind. The weather cleared up, and the eye could sweep over
the white plains in the distance, which the reflection of the sun's
rays rendered dazzling. At seven in the morning the thermometer marked
eight degrees below zero. The doctor was tempted to stay quietly in
his cabin, and read the Arctic voyages over again; but, according
to his custom, he asked himself what would be the most disagreeable
thing he could do, which he settled was to go on deck and assist the
men to work in such a temperature. Faithful to the line of conduct
he had traced out for himself, he left his well-warmed cabin and came
to help in hauling the vessel. His was a pleasant face, in spite of
the green spectacles by which he preserved his eyes from the biting
of the reflected rays; in his future observations he was always
careful in making use of his snow spectacles, in order to avoid
ophthalmia, very frequent in these high latitudes.
Towards evening the -Forward- had made several miles further north,
thanks to the activity of the men and Shandon's skill, which made
him take advantage of every favourable circumstance; at midnight he
had got beyond the sixty-sixth parallel, and the fathom line declared
twenty-three fathoms of water; Shandon discovered that he was on the
shoal where Her Majesty's ship -Victoria- struck, and that land was
drawing near, thirty miles to the east. But now the heaps of ice,
which up till now had been motionless, divided and began to move;
icebergs seemed coming from every point of the horizon; the brig was
entangled in a series of moving rocks, the crushing force of which
it was impossible to resist. Moving became so difficult that Garry,
the best helmsman, took the wheel; the mountains had a tendency to
close up behind the brig; it then became essential to cut through
the floating ice, and prudence as well as duty ordered them to go
ahead. Difficulties became greater from the impossibility that
Shandon found in establishing the direction of the vessel amongst
such changing points, which kept moving without offering one firm
perspective. The crew was divided into two tacks, larboard and
starboard; each one, armed with a long perch with an iron point, drove
back the two threatening blocks. Soon the -Forward- entered into a
pass so narrow, between two high blocks, that the extremity of her
yards struck against the walls, hard as rock; by degrees she entangled
herself in the midst of a winding valley, filled up with eddies of
snow, whilst the floating ice was crashing and splitting with sinister
cracklings. But it soon became certain that there was no egress from
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