The World of Ice Page 6

  CHAPTER SIX.

  THE GALE--ANCHORED TO A BERG WHICH PROVES TO BE A TREACHEROUS ONE--DANGERS OF THE "PACK"--BESET IN THE ICE--MIVINS SHOWS AN ENQUIRINGMIND--WALRUS--GALE FRESHENS--CHAINS AND CABLES--HOLDING ON FOR LIFE--ANUNEXPECTED DISCOVERY--A "NIP" AND ITS TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES--YOKED TO ANICEBERG.

  The narrow escape related in the last chapter was but the prelude to anight of troubles. Fortunately, as we have before mentioned, _night_did not now add darkness to their difficulties. Soon after passing thebergs, a stiff breeze sprang up off shore, between which and the_Dolphin_ there was a thick belt of loose ice, or sludge, while outside,the pack was in motion, and presented a terrible scene of crashing andgrinding masses under the influence of the breeze, which soon freshenedto a gale.

  "Keep her away two points," said Captain Guy to the man at the wheel;"we'll make fast to yonder berg, Mr Bolton; if this gale carries usinto the pack, we shall be swept far out of our course, if, indeed, weescape being nipped and sent to the bottom."

  Being nipped is one of the numberless dangers to which Arctic navigatorsare exposed. Should a vessel get between two moving fields or floes ofice, there is a chance, especially in stormy weather, of the ice beingforced together and squeezing in the sides of the ship; this is callednipping.

  "Ah!" remarked Buzzby, as he stood with folded arms by the capstan,"many and many a good ship has been sent to the bottom by that same.I've see'd a brig, with my own two eyes, squeezed together a'most flatby two big floes of ice, and after doin' it they jist separated agin an'let her go plump down to the bottom. Before she was nipped, the crewsaved themselves by jumpin' on to the ice, and they wos picked up by ourship that wos in company."

  "There's no dependin' on the ice, by no means," remarked Amos Parr, "forI've see'd the self-same sort of thing that ye mention happen to a smallschooner in Davis Straits, only, instead o' crushin' it flat, the icelifted it right high and dry out o' the water, and then let it downagain, without more ado, as sound as iver."

  "Get out the warps and ice-anchors, there," cried the captain.

  In a moment the men were in the boats, and busy heaving and plantingice-anchors, but it was not until several hours had been spent in thistedious process that they succeeded in making fast to the berg. Theyhad barely accomplished this when the berg gave indications of breakingup, so they cast off again in great haste, and, not long afterwards, amass of ice, many tons in weight, fell from the edge of the berg closeto where they had been moored.

  The captain now beat up for the land in the hope of findinganchoring-ground. At first the ice presented an impenetrable barrier,but at length a lead of open water was found, through which they passedto within a few hundred yards of the shore, which, at this spot, showeda front of high precipitous cliffs.

  "Stand by to let go the anchor," shouted the captain.

  "Ay, ay, sir!"

  "Down your helm! Let go!"

  Down went the anchor to the music of the rattling chain-cable, a soundwhich had not been heard since the good ship left the shores of OldEngland.

  "If we were only a few yards farther in, sir," remarked the first mate,"we should be better. I'm afraid of the stream of ice coming roundyonder point."

  "So am I," replied the captain; "but we can scarcely manage it, I fear,on account of the shore ice. Get out a boat, Mr Saunders, and try tofix an anchor. We may warp in a few yards."

  The anchor was fixed, and the men strained at the capstan with a will,but, notwithstanding their utmost efforts, they could not penetrate theshore ice. Meanwhile the wind increased, and snow began to fall inlarge flakes. The tide, too, as it receded, brought a stream of iceround the point ahead of them, which bore right down on their bows. Atfirst the concussions were slight, and the bow of the ship turned thefloes aside, but heavier masses soon came down, and at last one fixeditself on the cable, and caused the anchor to drag with a harsh, gratingsound.

  Fred Ellice, who stood beside the second mate, near the companion hatch,looked enquiringly at him.

  "Ah! that's bad," said Saunders, shaking his head slowly, "I dinna likethat sound. If we're carried out into the pack there, dear knows wherewe'll turn up in the long run."

  "Perhaps we'll turn bottom up, sir," suggested the fat cook, as hepassed, at the moment with a tray of meat. Mizzle could not resist ajoke--no matter how unsuitable the time or dreadful the consequences.

  "Hold your tongue, sir," exclaimed Saunders indignantly. "Attend toyour business, and speak only when you're spoken to."

  With some difficulty the mass of ice that had got foul of the cable wasdisengaged, but in a few moments another and a larger mass fixed uponit, and threatened to carry it away. In this extremity the captainordered the anchor to be hove up, but this was not easily accomplished,and when at last it was hove up to the bow, both flukes were found tohave been broken off, and the shank was polished bright with rubbing onthe rocks.

  Ice now came rolling down in great quantities and with irresistibleforce, and at last the ship was whirled into the much-dreaded pack,where she became firmly embedded, and drifted along with it before thegale into the unknown regions of the north all that night. To add totheir distress and danger a thick fog overspread the sea, so that theycould not tell whither the ice was carrying them, and to warp out of itwas impossible. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to drivebefore the gale and take advantage of the first opening in the ice thatshould afford them a chance of escape.

  Towards evening of the following day the gale abated, and the sun shoneout bright and clear, but the pack remained close as ever, driftingsteadily towards the north.

  "We're far beyond the most northerly sea that has ever yet beenreached," remarked Captain Guy to Fred and Singleton, as he leaned onthe weather bulwarks, and gazed wistfully over the fields of ice inwhich they were embedded.

  "I beg your pardon for differing, Captain Guy, but I think that CaptainParry was farther north than this when he attempted to reach the pole,"remarked Saunders, with the air of a man who was prepared to defend hisposition to the last.

  "Very possibly, Mr Saunders, but I think we are at least farther northin _this_ direction than anyone has yet been; at least I make it out soby the chart."

  "I'm no sure o' that," rejoined the second mate positively; "charts arenot always to be depended on, and I've heard that whalers have been uphereabouts before now."

  "Perhaps you are right, Mr Saunders," replied the captain, smiling;"nevertheless I shall take observations and name the various headlandsuntil I find that others have been here before me. Mivins, hand me theglass; it seems to me there's a water-sky to the northward."

  "What is a water-sky, Captain?" enquired Fred.

  "It is a peculiar, dark appearance of the sky on the horizon, whichindicates open water--just the reverse of that bright appearance whichyou have often seen in the distance, and which we call the ice-blink."

  "We'll have open water soon," remarked the second mate authoritatively.

  "Mr Saunders," said Mivins, who, having just finished clearing away andwashing up the debris and dishes of one meal, was enjoying in completeidleness the ten minutes of leisure that intervened between that andpreparations for the next,--"Mr Saunders, sir, can you hinform me, sir,'ow it is that the sea don't freeze at 'ome the same as it does hout'ere?"

  The countenance of the second mate brightened, for he prided himself nota little on his vast and varied stores of knowledge, and nothing pleasedhim so much as to be questioned, particularly on knotty subjects.

  "Hem! yes, Mivins, I can tell 'ee that. Ye must know that before freshwater can freeze on the surface the whole volume of it must be cooleddown to 40 degrees, and _salt_ water must be cooled down to 45 degrees.Noo, frost requires to be very long continued and very sharp indeedbefore it can cool the deep sea from the top to the bottom, and until itis so cooled it canna freeze."

  "Oh!" remarked Mivins, who only half understood the meaning of theexplanation, "'ow very hodd. But can you tell me, Mr Saunders, 'ow it
is that them 'ere hicebergs is made? Them's wot I don't comprehend no'ow."

  "Ay," replied Saunders, "there has been many a wiser head than yourspuzzled for a long time aboot icebergs. But if ye'll use yer eyesyou'll see how they are formed. Do you see the high cliffs yonder awayto the nor'-east? Well, there are great masses o' ice that have beenformed against them by the melting and freezing of the snows of manyyears. When these become too heavy to stick to the cliffs, they tumbleinto the sea and float away as icebergs. But the biggest bergs comefrom the foot of glaciers. We know what glaciers are, Mivins!"

  "No, sir, I don't."

  The second mate sighed. "They are immense accumulations of ice, Mivins,that have been formed by the freezings and meltings of the snows ofhundreds of years. They cover the mountains of Norway and Switzerland,and many other places in this world, for miles and miles in extent, andsometimes they flow down and fill up whole valleys. I once saw one inNorway that filled up a valley eight miles long, two miles broad, andseven or eight hundred feet deep, and that was only a wee bit of it, forI was told by men who had travelled over it that it covered themountains of the interior, and made them a level field of ice, with asurface like rough, hard snow, for more than twenty miles in extent."

  "You don't say so, sir!" said Mivins in surprise. "And don't they_never_ melt?"

  "No, never. What they lose in summer they more than gain in winter.Moreover, they are always in motion, but they move so slow that you maylook at them ever so closely and so long, you'll not be able to observethe motion--just like the hour hand of a watch,--but we know it byobserving the changes from year to year. There are immense glaciershere in the Arctic regions, and the lumps which they are constantlyshedding off into the sea are the icebergs that one sees and hears somuch about."

  Mivins seemed deeply impressed with this explanation, and would probablyhave continued the conversation much longer had he not been interruptedby the voice of his mischievous satellite, Davie Summers, who touchedhis forelock and said: "Please, Mr Mivins, shall I lay the table-cloth,or would it be better to slump dinner with tea this afternoon?"

  Mivins started. "Ha! caught me napping! Down below, you young dog!"

  The boy dived instantly, followed first by a dish-clout, rolled tightlyup and well aimed, and afterwards by his active-limbed superior. Bothreached the region of smells, cruets, and crockery at the same moment,and each set energetically to work at their never-ending duties.

  Soon after this the ice suddenly loosened, and the crew succeeded, aftera few hours' hard labour, in warping the _Dolphin_ once more out of thepack; but scarcely had this been accomplished when another storm, whichhad been gradually gathering, burst upon them, and compelled them oncemore to seek the shelter of the land.

  Numerous walrus rolled about in the bays here, and they approached muchnearer to the vessel than they had yet done, affording those on board agood view of their huge, uncouth visages, as they shook their shaggyfronts and ploughed up the waves with their tusks. These enormouscreatures are the elephants of the Arctic Ocean. Their aspect isparticularly grim and fierce, and, being nearly equal to elephants inbulk, they are not less terrible than they appear. In form theysomewhat resemble seals, having barrel-shaped bodies, with round, orrather square, blunt heads and shaggy bristling moustache, and two longivory tusks which curve downwards instead of upwards, serving thepurpose frequently of hooks, by means of which and their fore-flippersthey can pull themselves up on the rocks and icebergs. Indeed they aresometimes found at a considerable height up the sides of steep cliffs,basking in the sun.

  Fred was anxious to procure the skull of one of these monstrous animals,but the threatening appearance of the weather rendered any attempt tosecure one at that time impossible. A dark sinister scowl overhung theblink under the cloud-bank to the southward, and the dovkies which hadenlivened their progress hitherto forsook the channel, as if theydistrusted the weather. Captain Guy made every possible preparation tomeet the coming storm, by warping down under the shelter of a ledge ofrock, to which he made fast with two good hawsers, while everything wasmade snug on board.

  "We are going to catch it, I fear," said Fred, glancing at the blackclouds that hurried across the sky to the northward, while he walked thedeck with his friend, Tom Singleton.

  "I suspect so," replied Tom, "and it does not raise my spirits to seeSaunders shaking his huge visage so portentously. Do you know, I have agreat belief in that fellow. He seems to know everything and to havegone through every sort of experience, and I notice that most of hisprognostications come to pass."

  "So they do, Tom," said Fred, "but I wish he would put a better face onthings till they _do_ come to pass. His looks are enough to frightenone."

  "I think we shall require another line out, Mr Saunders," remarked thecaptain, as the gale freshened, and the two hawsers were drawn straightand rigid like bars of iron: "send ashore and make a whale-line fastimmediately."

  The second mate obeyed with a grunt that seemed to insinuate that _he_would have had one out long ago. In a few minutes it was fast, and nota moment too soon, for immediately after it blew a perfect hurricane.Heavier and heavier it came, and the ice began to drift more wildly thanever. The captain had just given orders to make fast another line, whenthe sharp, twanging snap of a cord was heard. The six-inch hawser hadparted, and they were swinging by the two others, with the gale roaringlike a lion through the spars and rigging. Half a minute more and"twang, twang!" came another report, and the whale-line was gone. Onlyone rope now held them to the land, and prevented them being swept intothe turmoil of ice, and wind, and water, from which the rocky ledgeprotected them. The hawser was a good one--a new ten-inch rope. Itsung like the deep tones of an organ, loud above the rattle of therigging and the shrouds, but that was its death-song. It gave way withthe noise of a cannon, and in the smoke that followed its recoil, theywere dragged out by the wild ice and driven hither and hither at itsmercy.

  With some difficulty the ship was warped into a place of comparativesecurity in the rushing drift, but it was soon thrown loose again, andseverely squeezed by the rolling masses. Then an attempt was made toset the sails and beat up for the land, but the rudder was almostunmanageable owing to the ice, and nothing could be made of it, so theywere compelled to go right before the wind under close-reefed top-sails,in order to keep some command of the ship. All hands were on deckwatching in silence the ice ahead of them, which presented a mostformidable aspect.

  Away to the north the strait could be seen growing narrower, with heavyice-tables grinding up and clogging it from cliff to cliff on eitherside. About seven in the evening they were close upon the pilingmasses, to enter into which seemed certain destruction.

  "Stand by to let go the anchor," cried the captain, in the desperatehope of being able to wind the ship.

  "What's that ahead of us?" exclaimed the first mate suddenly.

  "Ship on the starboard bow, right inshore!" roared the look-out.

  The attention of the crew was for a moment called from their owncritical situation towards the strange vessel which now came into view,having been previously concealed from them by a large grounded berg.

  "Can you make her out, Mr Bolton?"

  "Yes, sir, I think she's a large brig, but she seems much chafed, andthere's no name left on the stern, if ever there was one."

  As he spoke, the driving snow and fog cleared up partially, and the brigwas seen not three hundred yards from them, drifting slowly into theloose ice. There was evidently no one on board, and although one or twoof the sails were loose, they hung in shreds from the yards. Scarcelyhad this been noted when the _Dolphin_ struck against a large mass ofice, and quivered under the violence of the shock.

  "Let go!" shouted the captain.

  Down went the heaviest anchor they had, and for two minutes the chainflew out at the hawse-hole.

  "Hold on!"

  The chain was checked, but the strain was awful. A mass of ice,hundreds of tons weight, was tea
ring down towards the bow. There was nohope of resisting it. Time was not even afforded to attach a buoy orlog to the cable, so it was let slip, and thus the _Dolphin's_ bestbower was lost for ever.

  But there was no time to think of or regret this, for the ship was nowdriving down with the gale, scraping against a lee of ice which wasseldom less than thirty feet thick. Almost at the same moment thestrange vessel was whirled close to them, not more than fifty yardsdistant, between two driving masses of thick ice.

  "What if it should be my father's brig?" whispered Fred Ellice, as hegrasped Singleton's arm, and turned to him a face of ashy paleness.

  "No fear of that, lad," said Buzzby, who stood near the larboard gangwayand had overheard the remark. "I'd know your father's brig among athousand--"

  As he spoke, the two masses of ice closed, and the brig was nippedbetween them. For a few seconds she seemed to tremble like a livingcreature, and every timber creaked. Then she was turned slowly on oneside, until the crew of the _Dolphin_ could see down into her hold,where the beams were giving way and cracking up as matches might becrushed in the grasp of a strong hand. Then the larboard bow wasobserved to yield as if it were made of soft clay, the starboard bow waspressed out, and the ice was forced into the forecastle. Scarcely threeminutes had passed since the nip commenced; in one minute more the brigwent down, and the ice was rolling wildly, as if in triumph, over thespot where she had disappeared.

  The fate of this vessel, which might so soon be their own, threw amomentary gloom over the crew of the _Dolphin_, but their position leftthem no time for thought. One upturned mass rose above the gunwale,smashed in the bulwarks, and deposited half a ton of ice on deck.Scarcely had this danger passed when a new enemy appeared in sightahead. Directly in their way, just beyond the line of floe-ice againstwhich they were alternately thumping and grinding, lay a group of bergs.There was no possibility of avoiding them, and the only question waswhether they were to be dashed to pieces on their hard blue sides or,perchance, in some providential nook to find a refuge from the storm.

  "There's an open lead between them and the floe-ice," exclaimed Boltonin a hopeful tone of voice, seizing an ice-pole and leaping on thegunwale.

  "Look alive, men, with your poles," cried the captain, "and shove with awill."

  The "Ay, ay, sir!" of the men was uttered with a heartiness that showedhow powerfully this gleam of hope acted on their spirits; but a new dampwas cast over them when, on gaining the open passage, they discoveredthat the bergs were not at rest, but were bearing down on the floe-icewith slow but awful momentum, and threatened to crush the ship betweenthe two. Just then a low berg came driving up from the southward,dashing the spray over its sides, and with its fore-head ploughing upthe smaller ice as if in scorn. A happy thought flashed across thecaptain's mind. "Down the quarter boat," he cried.

  In an instant it struck the water, and four men were on the thwarts.

  "Cast an ice-anchor on that berg."

  Peter Grim obeyed the order, and, with a swing that Hercules would haveenvied, planted it securely. In another moment the ship was followingin the wake of this novel tug! It was a moment of great danger, for thebergs encroached on their narrow canal as they advanced, obliging themto brace the yards to clear the impending ice-walls, and they shaved thelarge berg so closely that the port-quarter boat would have been crushedif it had not been taken from the davits. Five minutes of suchtravelling brought them abreast of a grounded berg, to which theyresolved to make fast; the order was given to cast off the rope; awaywent their white tug on his race to the far north, and the ship swunground in safety under the lee of the berg, where the crew acknowledgedwith gratitude their merciful deliverance from imminent danger.