The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 32

"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 is dismissed and another appointed. Isn't that so, Mr. Shandon?"

"My friends," answered Shandon, evasively, "you will always find me devoted to you. But let us wait and see what turns up."

The storm, as may be seen, was gathering over Hatteras's head; but he pushed on boldly, firm, energetic, and confident. In fact, if he had not always managed the brig as he wanted to, and carried her where he was anxious to go, he had still been very successful; the distance pa.s.sed over in five months was as great as what it had taken other explorers two or three years to make. Hatteras was now obliged to go into winter-quarters, but this would not alarm men of courage, experience, and confidence. Had not Sir John Ross and MacClure spent three successive winters in the arctic regions? Could not he do what they 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 get through Smith's Sound, at the north of Baffin's Bay? I should be at the Pole now!"

"Well," the doctor used invariably to answer,--if necessary he could have invented confidence,--"we shall get there, Captain, but, it is true, at the ninety-ninth meridian instead of the seventy-fifth; but what difference does that make? If every road leads to Rome, it is even surer that every meridian leads to the Pole."

August 31st, the thermometer fell to 13. The end of the summer was evidently near; the _Forward_ left Exmouth Island to starboard, and three days afterward she pa.s.sed Table Island, lying in the middle of Belcher Channel. Earlier in the season it would have been possible to reach Baffin's Bay through this channel, but at this time it was impossible to think of it. This arm of the sea was completely filled with ice, and would not have offered a drop of open water to the prow of the _Forward_; for the next eight months their eyes would see nothing but boundless, motionless ice-fields.

Fortunately, they could still get a few minutes farther north, but only by breaking the new ice with huge beams, or by blowing it up with charges of powder. They especially had cause to fear calm weather while the temperature was so low, for the pa.s.ses closed quickly, and they rejoiced even at contrary winds. A calm night, and everything was frozen!

Now the _Forward_ could not winter where she was, exposed to the wind, icebergs, and the drift of the channel; a safe protection was the first thing to be found; Hatteras hoped to gain the coast of New Cornwall, and to find, beyond Point Albert, a bay sufficiently sheltered. Hence he persisted in crowding northward.

But, September 8, an impenetrable, continuous ma.s.s of ice lay between him and the north; the temperature fell to 10. Hatteras, with an anxious heart, in vain sought for a pa.s.sage, risking his ship a hundred times and escaping from his perils with wonderful skill. He might 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, the sea was closing behind her, and in a few hours the ice grew so hard that men could run upon it and tow the brig in perfect safety.

Hatteras, not being able to get around this obstacle, determined to attack it boldly in front. He made use of his strongest blasting cylinders, containing eight or ten pounds of powder. The men would dig a hole in the broadest part of the ice, close the orifice with snow, after having placed the cylinder in a horizontal position, so that a greater extent of ice might be exposed to the explosion; then a fuse was 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 hoping to get through the next day.

But during the night the wind blew a gale; the sea raised the crust of ice, 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 dim light was indeed alarming.

A great ma.s.s of ice, drifting northward with the tide, was rushing towards 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 in confusion and crashing together like huge grains of sand before a violent tempest; the air was filled with a terrible noise.

"That, Doctor," said Johnson, "is one of the greatest perils we have yet 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 antediluvian animals, such as might have lived near the Pole. How they hurry on, as if they were racing!"

"Besides," added Johnson, "some carry sharp lances, of which you had better take care, Doctor."

"It's a real siege," shouted the doctor. "Well, let us run to the ramparts!"

He ran aft where the crew, provided with beams and bars, were standing ready to repel this formidable a.s.sault.

The avalanche came on, growing larger at every moment as it caught up the floating ice in its eddy; by Hatteras's orders the cannon was loaded with ball to break the threatening line. But it came on and ran towards the brig; a crash was heard, and as it came against the starboard-quarter, part of the rail had given way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A crash was heard, and as it came against the starboard-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 of ice, weighing many hundredweight, scaled the sides of the ship; the smallest, hurled as high as the yards, fell back in sharp arrows, breaking the shrouds and cutting the rigging. The men were overcome by numberless enemies, who were heavy enough to crush a hundred ships like the _Forward_. Every one tried to drive away these lumps, and more than one sailor was wounded by their sharp ends; among others, Bolton, who had his left shoulder badly torn. The noise increased immensely. Duke barked angrily at these new enemies. The darkness of the night added to the horrors of the situation, without hiding the ice 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 to this enormous pressure, inclined to larboard, and the end of the main-yard was already touching the ice, at the risk of breaking the mast.

Hatteras saw the danger; it was a terrible moment; the brig seemed about to be overturned, and the masts might be easily carried away.

A large block, as large as the ship, appeared to be pa.s.sing along the keel; it arose with irresistible power; it came on past the quarter-deck; if it fell on the _Forward_, all was over; soon it rose even above the topmasts, and began to totter.

A cry of terror escaped from every one's lips. Every one ran back to starboard.

But at that moment the ship was relieved. They felt her lifted up, and for an instant she hung in the air, then she leaned over and fell back on 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 this strange sailing, which seemed as long as a century, she fell back on the other side of the obstacle on a field of ice; she broke it with her weight, and fell back into her natural element.

"We have got by the thick ice!" shouted Johnson, who had run forward.

"Thank G.o.d!" said Hatteras.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In fact, the brig lay in the centre of a basin of ice, which entirely surrounded her, and although her keel lay under water she could not stir; 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 submarine current the bank of ice was floating northward with great rapidity.

This floating ma.s.s carried the _Forward_ with it, in the midst of the ice-field, the edge of which could not be seen; to provide for any accident that might happen, Hatteras had a large supply of provisions carried on deck, as well as materials for camping, clothing, and cover; as MacClure had done under similar circ.u.mstances, he surrounded the ship with hammocks filled with air to protect her from damage.

Soon it was so cold (7), that the ship was surrounded by a wall from which only the masts issued.

For seven days they sailed in this way; Point Albert, which forms the western extremity of New Cornwall, was seen September 10th, and soon disappeared; the ice-field was seen to be drifting eastward from that time. Where was it going? Where would it stop? Who could say?

The crew waited with folded arms. At last, September 15th, towards three o'clock in the afternoon, the ice-field, having probably run against 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 95 35', and lat.i.tude 78 15', in the centre of the region of the unknown sea, which geographers have considered the place of greatest cold.