HOW TO STEER SMALL--HOW TO RUN THE GAUNTLET WITH A SHIP--HOW TO GO
CLEAR--A NEW-FASHIONED SCREW--DOCK, AND CERTAIN MILE-STONES.
Captain Poke no longer deliberated about the course we were to
steer. With his pumpkin for a chart, his instinct for an
observation, and his nose for a compass, the sturdy sealer stood
boldly to the southward; or, at least, he ran dead before a stiff
gale, which, as he more than once affirmed, was as true a norther as
if bred and born in the Canadas.
After coursing over the billows at a tremendous rate for a day and a
night, the captain appeared on deck, with a face of unusual meaning,
and a mind loaded with its own reflections, as was proved by his
winking knowingly whenever he delivered himself of a sentiment; a
habit that he had most probably contracted, in early youth, at
Stunin'tun, for it seemed to be quite as inveterate as it was
thoroughbred.
"We shall soon know, Sir John," he observed, hitching the sea-lion
skin into symmetry, "whether it is sink or swim!"
"Pray explain yourself, Mr. Poke," cried I, in a little alarm. "If
anything serious is to happen, you are bound to give timely notice."
"Death is always untimely to some critturs, Sir John."
"Am I to understand, sir, that you mean to cast away the ship?"
"Not if I can help it, Sir John; but a craft that is foreordained to
be a wrack, will be a wrack, in spite of reefing and bracing. Look
ahead, you Dick Lion--ay, there you have it!"
There we had it, sure enough! I can only compare the scene which now
met my eyes, to a sudden view of the range of the Oberland Alps,
when the spectator is unexpectedly placed on the verge of the
precipice of the Weissenstein. There he would see before him a
boundless barrier of glittering ice, broken into the glorious and
fantastic forms of pinnacles, walls, and valleys; while here, we saw
all that was sublime in such a view heightened by the fearful action
of the boisterous ocean, which beat upon the impassable boundary in
ceaseless violence.
"Good God! Captain Poke," I exclaimed, the instant I caught a
glimpse of the formidable danger that menaced us, "you surely do not
mean to continue madly on, with such a warning of the consequences
in plain view?"
"What would you have, Sir John? Leaphigh lies on the t'other side of
these ice-islands!"
"But you need not run the ship against them--why not go round them?"
"Because they go round the 'arth, in this latitude. Now is the time
to speak, Sir John. If we are bound to Leaphigh, we have the choice
of three pretty desperate chances; to go through, to go under, or to
go over that there ice. If we are to put back, there is not a moment
to lose, for it may be even now questioned whether the ship would
claw off, as we are, with a sending sea, and this heavy norther."
I believe I would, at that moment, gladly have given up all my
social stakes to be well rid of the adventure. Still pride, that
substitute for so many virtues, the greatest and the most potent of
all hypocrites, forbade my betraying the desire to retreat. I
deliberated, while the ship flew; and when, at length, I turned to
the captain to suggest a doubt that might, at an earlier notice,
possibly have changed the whole aspect of affairs, he bluntly told
me it was too late. It was safer to proceed than to return, if
indeed, return were possible, in the present state of the winds and
waves. Making a merit of necessity, I braced my nerves to meet the
crisis, and remained a submissive, and, apparently, a calm spectator
of that which followed.
The Walrus (such was the name of our good ship) by this time was
under easy canvas, and yet, urged by the gale, she rolled down with
alarming velocity towards the boundary of foam where the congealed
and the still liquid element held their strife. The summits of the
frozen crags waved in their glittering glory in a way just to show
that they were afloat; and I remembered to have heard that, at
times, as their bases melted, entire mountains had been known to
roll over, engulfing all that lay beneath. To me it seemed but a
moment, before the ship was fairly overshadowed by these shining
cliffs, which, gently undulating, waved their frozen summits nearly
a thousand feet in air. I looked at Noah, in alarm, for it appeared
to me that he intentionally precipitated us to destruction. But,
just as I was about to remonstrate, he made a sign with his hand,
and the vessel was brought to the wind. Still retreat was
impossible; for the heave of the sea was too powerful, and the wind
too heavy, to leave us any hope of long keeping the Walrus from
drifting down upon the ragged peaks that bristled in icy glory to
leeward. Nor did Captain Poke himself seem to entertain any such
design; for, instead of hugging the gale, in order to haul off from
the danger, he had caused the yards to be laid perfectly square, and
we were now running, at a great rate, in a line nearly parallel with
the frozen coast, though gradually setting upon it.
"Keep full! Let her go through water, you Jim Tiger," said the old
sealer, whose professional ardor was fairly aroused. "Now, Sir John,
unluckily, we are on the wrong side of these ice mountains, for the
plain reason that Leaphigh lies to the south'ard of them. We must be
stirring, therefore, for no craft that was ever launched could keep
off these crags with such a gale driving home upon them, for more
than an hour or two. Our great concern, at present, is to look out
for a hole to run into."
"Why have you come so close to the danger, with your knowledge of
the consequences?"
"To own the truth, Sir John, natur' is natur', and I'm getting to be
a little near-sighted as I grow old; besides, I'm not so sartain
that the danger is the more dangerous, for taking a good, steady
look plump in its face."
Noah raised his hand, as much as to say he wished no answer, and
both of us were immediately occupied in gazing anxiously to leeward.
The ship was just opening a small cove in the ice, which might have
been a cable's length in depth, and a quarter of a mile across its
outer, or the widest part. Its form was regular, being that of a
semicircle; but, at its bottom, the ice, instead of forming a
continued barrier, like all the rest we had yet passed, was
separated by a narrow opening, that was bounded on each side by a
frowning precipice. The two bergs were evidently drawing nearer to
each other, but there was still a strait, or a watery gorge between
them, of some two hundred feet in width. As the ship plunged onward,
the pass was opened, and we caught a glimpse of the distant view to
leeward. It was merely a glimpse--the impatient Walrus allowing us
but a moment for examination--but it appeared sufficient for the
purposes of the old sealer. We were already across the mouth of the
cove, and within a cable's length of the ice again; for as we drew
near what may be called the little cape, we found ourselves once
more in closer proximity to the menacing mountain. It was a moment
when all depended on decision; and fortunately, our sealer, who was
so wary and procrastinating in a bargain, never had occasion to make
two drafts on his thoughts, in situations of emergency. As the ship
cleared the promontory on the eastern side of the cove, we again
opened a curvature of the ice, which gave a little more water to
leeward. Tacking was impossible, and the helm was put hard aweather.
The bow of the Walrus fell off, and as she rose on the next wave, I
thought its send would carry us helplessly down upon the berg. But
the good craft, obedient to her rudder, whirled round, as if
sensible herself of the danger, and, in less time than I had ever
before known her to wear, we felt the wind on the other quarter. Our
cats and dogs bestirred themselves, for there was no one there,
Captain Noah Poke excepted, whose heart did not beat quick and hard.
In much less time than usual, the yards were braced up on the other
tack, and the ship was ploughing heavily against the sea, with her
head to the westward. It is impossible to give one who has never
been in such a situation, a just idea of the feverish impatience,
the sinking and mounting of hope, as we watch the crablike movement
of a vessel that is clawing off a lee-shore, in a gale. In the
present case, it being well known that the sea was fathomless, we
had run so near the danger that not even the smallest of its horrors
was veiled from sight.
While the ship labored along, I saw the clouds fast shutting in to
windward, by the interposition of the promontory of ice--the certain
sign that our drift was rapid--and, as we drew nearer to the point,
breathing became labored and even audible. Here Noah took a chew of
tobacco, I presume on the principle of enjoying a last quid, should
the elements prove fatal; and then he went to the wheel in person.
"Let her go through the water," he said, easing the helm a little--
"let her jog ahead, or we shall lose command of her in this devil's-
pot!"
The vessel felt the slight change, and drew faster through the
foaming brine, bringing us, with increasing velocity, nearer to the
dreaded point. As we came up to the promontory the water fell back
in spray on the decks, and there was an instant when it appeared as
if the wind was about to desert us. Happily the ship had drawn so
far ahead as to feel the good effects of a slight change of current
that was caused by the air rushing obliquely into the cove; and, as
Noah, by easing the helm still more, had anticipated this
alteration, which had been felt adversely but a moment before, while
struggling to the eastward of the promontory, we drew swiftly past
the icy cape, opening the cove handsomely, with the ship's head
falling off fast towards the gorge.
There was but a minute or two, for squaring the yards and obtaining
the proper position to windward of the narrow strait. Instead of
running down in a direct line for the latter, Captain Poke kept the
ship on such a course as to lay it well open, before her head was
pointed towards the passage. By this time, the two bergs had drawn
so near each other as actually to form an arch across its mouth; and
this, too, at a part so low as to render it questionable whether
there was sufficient elevation to permit the Walrus to pass beneath.
But retreat was impossible, the gale urging the ship furiously
onwards. The width of the passage was now but little more than a
hundred feet, and it actually required the nicest steerage to keep
our yard-arms clear of the opposite precipices, as the vessel
dashed, with foaming bows, into the gorge. The wind drew through the
opening with tremendous violence, fairly howling as if in delight at
discovering a passage by which it might continue its furious career.
We may have been aided by the sucking of the wind and the waves,
both of which were irresistibly drawn towards the pass, or it is
quite probable that the skill of Captain Poke did us good service on
this awful occasion; but, owing to the one or the other, or to the
two causes united, the Walrus shot into the gorge so accurately as
to avoid touching either of the lateral margins of the ice. We were
not so fortunate, however, with the loftier spars; for scarcely was
the vessel beneath the arch, when she lifted on a swell, and her
main-top-gallant-mast snapped off in the cap. The ice groaned and
cracked over our heads, and large fragments fell both ahead and
astern of us, several of them even tumbling upon our decks. One
large piece came down within an inch of the extremity of Dr.
Reasono's tail, just escaping the dire calamity of knocking out the
brains of that profound and philo-monikin philosopher. In another
instant the ship was through the pass, which completely closed, with
the crash of an earthquake, as soon as possible afterwards.
Still driven by the gale, we ran rapidly towards the south, along a
channel less than a quarter of a mile in width, the bergs evidently
closing on each side of us, and the ship, as if conscious of her
jeopardy, doing her utmost, with Captain Poke still at the wheel. In
a little more than an hour, the worst was over--the Walrus issuing
into an open basin of several leagues in extent, which was, however,
completely encircled by the frozen mountains. Here Noah took a look
at the pumpkin, after which he made no ceremony in plumply telling
Dr. Reasono that he had been greatly mistaken in laying down the
position of Captivity Island, as he himself had named the spot where
the amiable strangers had fallen into human hands. The philosopher
was a little tenacious of his opinion; but what is argument in the
face of facts? Here was the pumpkin, and there were the blue waters!
The captain now quite frankly declared that he had great doubts
whether there was any such place as Leaphigh at all; and as the ship
had a capital position for such an object, he bluntly, though
privately proposed to me, that we should throw all the monikins
overboard, project the entire polar basin on his chart as being
entirely free from islands, and then go a-sealing. I rejected the
propositions, firstly, as premature; secondly, as inhuman; thirdly,
as inhospitable; fourthly, as inconvenient; and lastly, as
impracticable.
There might have arisen a disagreeable controversy between us on
this point; for Mr. Poke had begun to warm, and to swear that one
good seal, of the true quality of fur, was worth a hundred monkeys;
when most happily the panther at the masthead cried out that two of
the largest mountains, to the southward of us, were separating, and
that he could discern a passage into another basin. Hereupon Captain
Poke concentrated his oaths, which he caused to explode like a bomb,
and instantly made sail again in the proper direction. By three
o'clock, P.M., we had run the gauntlet of the bergs a second time,
and were at least a degree nearer the pole, in the basin just
alluded to.
The mountains had now entirely disappeared in the southern board;
but the sea was covered, far as the eye could reach, with field-ice.
Noah stood on, without apprehension; for the water had been smooth
ever since we entered the first opening, the wind not having rake
enough to knock up a swell. When about a mile from the margin of the
frozen and seemingly interminable plain, the ship was brought to the
wind, and hove-to.
Ever since the vessel left the docks, there had been six sets of
spars of a form so singular, lying among the booms, that they had
often been the subject of conversation between the mates and myself,
neither of the former being able to tell their uses. These sticks
were of no great length, some fifteen feet at the most, of sound
English oak. Two or three pairs were alike, for they were in pairs,
each pair having one of the sides of a shape resembling different
parts of the ship's bottom, with the exception that they were
chiefly concave, while the bottom of a vessel is mainly convex. At
one extremity each pair was firmly connected by a short, massive,
iron link, of about two feet in length; and, at its opposite end, a
large eye-bolt was driven into each stick, where it was securely
forelocked. When the Walrus was stationary, we learned, for the
first time, the uses of these unusual preparations. A pair of the
timbers, which were of great solidity and strength, were dropped
over the stern, and, sinking beneath the keel, their upper
extremities were separated by means of lanyards turned into the eye-
bolts. The lanyards were then brought forward to the bilge of the
vessel, where, by the help of tackles, the timbers were rowsed up in
such a manner that the links came close to the false keel, and the
timbers themselves were laid snug against each side of the ship. As
great care had been taken, by means of marks on the vessel, as well
as in forming the skids themselves, the fit was perfect. No less
than five pairs were secured in and near the bilge, and as many more
were distributed forwards and aft, according to the shape of the
bottom. Fore-and-aft pieces, that reached from one skid to the
other, were then placed between those about the bilge of the ship,
each of them having a certain number of short ribs, extending
upwards and downwards. These fore-and-aft pieces were laid along the
waterline, their ends entering the skids by means of mortices and
tenons, where they were snugly bolted. The result of the entire
arrangement was, to give the vessel an exterior protection against
the field-ice, by means of a sort of network of timber, the whole of
which had been so accurately fitted in the dock, as to bear equally
on her frame. These preparations were not fairly completed before
ten o'clock on the following morning, when Noah stood directly for
an opening in the ice before us, which just about that time began to
be apparent.
"We sha'nt go so fast for our armor," observed the cautious old
sealer; "but what we want in heels, we'll make up in bottom."
For the whole of that day we worked our devious course, by great
labor and at uncertain intervals, to the southward; and at night we
fastened the Walrus to a floe, in waiting for the return of light.
Just as the day dawned, however, I heard a tremendous grating sound
against the side of the vessel; and rushing on deck, I found that we
were completely caught between two immense fields, which seemed to
be attracted towards each other for no other apparent purpose than
to crush us. Here it was that the expedient of Captain Poke made
manifest its merits. Protected by the massive timbers and false
ribs, the bilge of the ship resisted the pressure; and as, under
such circumstances, something must yield, luckily nothing but the
attraction of gravitation was overcome. The skids, through their
inclination, acted as wedges, the links pressing against the keel;
and in the course of an hour the Walrus was gradually lifted out of
the water, maintaining her upright position, in consequence of the
powerful nip of the floes. No sooner was this experiment handsomely
effected, than Mr. Poke jumped upon the ice, and commenced an
examination of the ship's bottom.
"Here's a dry-dock for you, Sir John!" exclaimed the old sealer,
chuckling. "I'll have a patent for this, the moment I put foot ag'in
in Stunin'tun."
A feeling of security, to which I had been a stranger ever since we
entered the ice, was created by the composure of Noah, and by his
self-congratulation at what he called his project to get a look at
the Walrus's bottom. Notwithstanding all the fine declarations of
exultation and success, however, that he flourished among us who
were not mariners, I was much disposed to think that, like other men
of extraordinary genius, he had blundered on the grand result of his
"ice-screws," and that it was not foreseen and calculated. Let this
be as it may, however, all hands were soon on the floe, with brooms,
scrapers, hammers, and nails, and the opportunity of repairing and
cleaning was thoroughly improved.
For four-and-twenty hours the ship remained in the same attitude,
still as a church, and some of us began to entertain apprehensions
that she might be kept on her frozen blocks forever. The accident
had happened, according to the statements of Captain Poke, in lat.
78 degrees 13' 26"--although I never knew in what manner he
ascertained the important particular of our precise situation.
Thinking it might be well to get some more accurate ideas on this
subject, after so long and ticklish a run, I procured the quadrant
from Bob Ape, and brought it down upon the ice, where I made it a
point, as an especial favor, the weather being favorable and the
proper hour near, that our commander would correct his instinct by a
solar observation. Noah protested that your old seaman, especially
if a sealer and a Stunin'tunner, had no occasion for such geometry
operations, as he termed them; that it might be well enough, perhaps
necessary, for your counting-house, silk-gloved captains, who run
between New York and Liverpool, to be rubbing up their glasses and
polishing their sextants, for they hardly ever knew where they were,
except at such times; but as for himself, he had little need of
turning star-gazer at his time of life, and that as he had already
told me, he was getting to be near-sighted, and had some doubts
whether he could discern an object like the sun, that was known to
be so many thousands of millions of miles from the earth. These
scruples, however, were overcome by my cleaning the glasses,
preparing a barrel for him to stand on, that he might be at the
customary elevation above his horizon, and putting the instrument
into his hands, the mates standing near, ready to make the
calculations when he gave the sun's declination.
"We are drifting south'ard, I know," said Mr. Poke before he
commenced his sight--"I feel it in my bones. We are at this moment
in 79 degrees 36' 14."--having made a southerly drift of more than
eighty miles since yesterday noon. Now mind my words, and see what
the sun will say about it."
When the calculations were made, our latitude was found to be 79
degrees 35' 47". Noah was somewhat puzzled by the difference, for
which he could in no plausible way account, as the observation had
been unusually good and certain. But an opinionated and an ingenious
man is seldom at a loss to find a sufficient reason to establish his
own correctness, or to prove the mistakes of others.
"Ay, I see how it is," he said, after a little cogitation, "the sun
must be wrong--it should be no wonder if the sun did get a little
out of his track in these high, cold latitudes. Yes, yes; the sun
must be wrong."
I was too much delighted at being certain we were going on our
course to dispute the point, and the great luminary was abandoned to
the imputation of sometimes being in error. Dr. Reasono took
occasion to say, in my private ear, that there was a sect of
philosophers in Leaphigh, who had long distrusted the accuracy of
the planetary system, and who had even thrown out hints that the
earth, In its annual revolution, moved in a direction absolutely
contrary to that which nature had contemplated when she gave the
original polar impulse; but that, as regarded himself, he thought
very little of these opinions, as he had frequent occasion to
observe that there was a large class of monikins whose ideas always
went uphill.
For two more days and as many nights, we continued to drift with the
floes to the southward, or as near as might be, towards the haven of
our wishes. On the fourth morning, there was a suitable change in
the weather; both thermometer and barometer rose; the air became
more bland, and most of our cats and dogs, notwithstanding we were
still surrounded by the ice, began to cast their skins. Dr. Reasono
noted these signs, and stepping on the floe, he brought back with
him a considerable fragment of the frozen element. This was carried
to the camboose, where it was subjected to the action of fire,
which, within a given number of minutes, pretty much as a matter of
course, as I thought, caused it to melt. The whole process was
watched with an anxiety the most intense, by the whole of the
monikins, however; and when the result was announced, the amiable
and lovely Chatterissa clapped her pretty little pattes with joy,
and gave all the other natural indications of delight, which
characterize the emotions of that gentle sex of which she was so
bright an ornament. Dr. Reasono was not backwards in explaining the
cause of so much unusual exhilaration, for hitherto her manner had
been characterized by the well-bred and sophisticated restraint
which marks high training. The experiment had shown, by the
infallible and scientific tests of monikin chemistry, that we were
now within the influence of a steam-climate, and there could no
longer be any rational doubt of our eventual arrival in the polar
basin.
The result proved that the philosopher was right. About noon the
floes, which all that day had begun to assume what is termed a
"sloppy character," suddenly gave way, and the Walrus settled down
into her proper element, with great equanimity and propriety.
Captain Poke lost no time in unshipping the skids; and a smacking
breeze, that was well saturated with steam, springing up from the
westward, we made sail. Our course was due south, without regard to
the ice, which yielded before our bows like so much thick water, and
just as the sun set, we entered the open sea, rioting in the
luxuriance of its genial climate, in triumph.
Sail was carried on the ship all that night; and just as the day
dawned, we made the first mile-stone, a proof, not to be mistaken,
that we were now actually within the monikin region. Dr. Reasono had
the goodness to explain to us the history of these aquatic
phenomena. It would seem that when the earth exploded, its entire
crust, throughout the whole of this part of the world, was started
upwards in such a way as to give a very uniform depth to the sea,
which in no place exceeds four fathoms. It follows, as a
consequence, that no prevalence of northerly winds can force the
icebergs beyond 78 degrees of south latitude, as they invariably
ground on reaching the outer edge of the polar bank. The floes,
being thin, are melted of course; and thus, by this beneficent
prevention, the monikin world is kept entirely free from the very
danger to which a vulgar mind would be the most apt to believe it is
the most exposed.
A congress of nations had been held, about five centuries since,
which was called the Holy-philo-marine-safety-and-find-the-way
Alliance. At this congress the high contracting parties agreed to
name a commission to make provision, generally, for the secure
navigation of the seas. One of the expedients of this commission,
which, by the way, is said to have been composed of very illustrious
monikins, was to cause massive blocks of stone to be laid down, at
measured distances, throughout the whole of the basin, and in which
other stone uprights were secured. The necessary inscriptions were
graved on proper tablets, and as we approached the one already
named, I observed that it had the image of a monikin, carved also in
stone, with his tail extended in a right line, pointing, as Mr. Poke
assured me, S. and by W. half W. I had made sufficient progress in
the monikin language to read, as we glided past this watermark--"To
Leaphigh,--15 miles." One monikin mile, however, we were next told,
was equal to nine English statute miles; and, consequently, we were
not so near our port as was at first supposed. I expressed great
satisfaction at finding ourselves so fairly on the road, however,
and paid Dr. Reasono some well-merited compliments on the high state
of civilization to which his species had evidently arrived. The day
was not distant, I added, when it was reasonable to suppose, our own
seas would have floating restaurants and cafes, with suitable pot-
houses for the mariners; though I did not well see how we were to
provide a substitute for their own excellent organization of mile-
stones. The Doctor received my compliments with becoming modesty,
saying that he had no doubt mankind would do all that lay in their
power to have good eating and drinking-houses, whereever they could
be established; but as to the marine milestones, he agreed with me,
that there was little hope of their being planted, until the crust
of the earth should be driven upwards, so as to rise within four
fathoms of the surface of the water. On the other hand, Captain Poke
held this latter improvement very cheap. He affirmed it was no sign
of civilization at all, for, as a man became civilized, he had less
need of primers and finger-boards; and, as for Leaphigh, any
tolerable navigator could see it bore S. by W. half W. allowing for
variation, distant 135 English miles. To these objections I was
silent, for I had frequent occasion to observe that men very often
underrate any advantage of which they have come into the enjoyment
by a providential interposition.
Just as the sun was in the meridian, the cry of "land ahead" was
heard from aloft. The monikins were all smiles and gratitude; the
crew were excited by admiration and wonder; and as for myself, I was
literally ready to jump out of my skin, not only with delight, but,
in some measure also, from the exceeding warmth of the atmosphere.
Our cats and dogs began to uncase; Bob was obliged to unmask his
most exposed frontier, by removing the union-jack; and Noah himself
fairly appeared on deck in his shirt and night-cap. The amiable
strangers were too much occupied to be particular, and I slipped
into my state-room to change my toilet to a dress of thin silk, that
was painted to resemble the skin of a polar bear--a contradiction
between things that is much too common in our species ever to be
deemed out of fashion.
We neared the land with great rapidity, impelled by a steam-breeze,
and just as the sun sank in the horizon our anchor was let go, in
the outer harbor of the city of Aggregation.