The World of Ice

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER NINE.

  THE DOLPHIN GETS BESET IN THE ICE--PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING IN THEICE--CAPTAIN GUY'S CODE OF LAWS.

  An accident now befell the _Dolphin_ which effectually decided the fateof the ship and her crew, at least for that winter. This was hergetting aground near the ravine of the giant flagstaff before mentioned,and being finally beset by ice from which all efforts on the part of themen to extricate her proved abortive, and in which she was ultimatelyfrozen in--hard and fast.

  The first sight the crew obtained of the red snow filled them withunbounded amazement, and a few of the more superstitious amongst themwith awe approaching to fear. But soon their attention was attractedfrom this by the wonderful column.

  "Och, then! may I niver!" exclaimed O'Riley, the moment he caught sightof it, "if there ben't the north pole at long last--sure enough!"

  The laugh that greeted this remark was almost immediately checked,partly from the feelings of solemnity inspired by the magnificent viewwhich opened up to them, and partly from a suspicion on the part of themore ignorant among the men that there might be some truth in O'Riley'sstatement after all.

  But their attention and energies were speedily called to the dangerousposition of the ship, which unexpectedly took the ground in a bay wherethe water proved to be unusually shallow, and before they could warp heroff, the ice closed round her in compact, immovable masses. At firstCaptain Guy was not seriously alarmed by this untoward event, althoughhe felt a little chagrin in consequence of the detention, for the summerwas rapidly advancing, and it behoved him to return to Baffin's Bay, andprosecute the whale-fishing as energetically as possible; but when dayafter day passed, and the ice round the ship still remained immovable,he became alarmed, and sought by every means in his power to extricatehimself.

  His position was rendered all the more aggravating by the fact that, aweek after he was beset, the main body of the ice in the strait openedup and drifted to the southward, leaving a comparatively clear seathrough which he could have pushed his way without much difficulty inany direction, but the solid masses in which they lay embedded were fastto the ground for about fifty yards beyond the vessel, seaward, anduntil these should be floated away there was no chance of escape.

  "Get up some powder and canisters, Mr Bolton," he exclaimed, onemorning after breakfast; "I'll try what can be done by blasting the ice.The highest spring tide will occur to-morrow, and if the ship don'tmove then we shall--"

  He did not finish the sentence, but turned on his heel, and walkedforward, where he found Buzzby and some of the men preparing theice-saws.

  "Ay, ay," muttered the mate, as he went below to give the necessarydirections, "you don't need to conclude your speech, Captain. If wedon't get out to-morrow, we're locked up for one winter at least if notmore."

  "Ay, and ye'll no get oot to-morrow," remarked Saunders with a shake ofhis head, as he looked up from the log-book, in which he was making anentry. "We're hard and fast, so we'll just have to make the best o't."

  Saunders was right as the efforts of the next day proved. The ice layaround the vessel in solid masses, as we have said, and with each of thelast three tides these masses had been slightly moved. Saws and icechisels, therefore, had been in constant operation, and the men workedwith the utmost energy, night and day, taking it by turns, and havingdouble allowance of hot coffee served out to them. We may mention herethat the _Dolphin_ carried no spirits, except what was needed formedicinal purposes, and for fuel to several small cooking-lamps that hadbeen recently invented. It had now been proved by many voyagers ofexperience that in cold countries, as well as hot, men work harder, andendure the extremity of hardship better, without strong drink than withit, and the _Dolphin's_ crew were engaged on the distinct understandingthat coffee, and tea, and chocolate were to be substituted for rum, andthat spirits were never to be given to anyone on board, except in casesof extreme necessity.

  But, to return--although the men worked as only those can who toil forliberation from long imprisonment, no impression worth mentioning couldbe made on the ice. At length the attempt to rend it by means ofgunpowder was made.

  A jar containing about thirty pounds of powder was sunk in a hole in animmense block of ice which lay close against the stern of the ship.Mivins, being light of foot, was set to fire the train. He did so, andran--ran so fast that he missed his footing in leaping over a chasm, andhad well-nigh fallen into the water below. There was a whiz and a loudreport, and the enormous mass of ice heaved upwards in the centre, andfell back in huge fragments. So far the result was satisfactory, andthe men were immediately set to sink several charges in variousdirections around the vessel, to be in readiness for the highest tide,which was soon expected. Warps and hawsers were also got out and fixedto the seaward masses, ready to heave on them at a moment's notice; theship was lightened as much as possible, by lifting her stores upon theice, and the whole crew--captain, mates, and all--worked and heaved likehorses, until the perspiration streamed from their faces, while Mizzlekept supplying them with a constant deluge of hot coffee. Fred and theyoung surgeon, too, worked like the rest, with their coats off,handkerchiefs bound round their heads, and shirt-sleeves tucked up totheir shoulders.

  At last the tide rose--inch by inch, and slowly, as if it grudged togive them even a chance of escape.

  Mivins grew impatient and unbelieving under it. "I don't think it'llrise another hinch," he remarked to O'Riley, who stood near him.

  "Niver fear, boy. The capting knows a sight better than you do, and_he_ says it'll rise a fut yit."

  "Does he?" asked Grim, who was also beginning to despond.

  "Ov coorse he does. Sure he towld me in a confidential way, just beforehe wint to turn in last night--if it wasn't yisturday forenoon, for it'smeself as niver knows an hour o' the day since the sun becamedissipated, and tuck to sittin' up all night in this fashion."

  "Shut up yer tatie trap and open yer weather eye," muttered Buzzby, whohad charge of the gang, "there'll be time enough to speak after we'reoff."

  Gradually, as the tide rose, the ice and the ship moved, and it becameevident that the latter was almost afloat though the former seemed to beonly partly raised from the ground. The men were at their several postsready for instant action, and gazing in anxious expectation at thecaptain, who stood, watch in hand, ready to give the word.

  "Now, then, fire!" he said in a low voice.

  In a moment the ice round the ship was rent and upheaved, as if someleviathan of the deep were rising from beneath it and the vessel swungslowly round. A loud cheer burst from the men.

  "Now, lads, heave with a will!" roared the captain.

  Round went the capstan, the windlass clanked, and the ship forged slowlyahead as the warps and hawsers became rigid. At that moment a heavyblock of ice, which had been overbalanced by the motion of the vessel,fell with a crash on the rudder, splitting off a large portion of it,and drawing the iron bolts that held it completely out of thestern-post.

  "Never mind; heave away--for your lives!" cried the captain. "Jump onboard all of you!"

  The few men who had until now remained on the ice scrambled up the side.There was a sheet of ice right ahead which the ship could not clear,but which she was pushing out to sea in advance of her. Suddenly thistook the ground and remained motionless.

  "Out there with ice-chisels. Sink a hole like lightning. Prepare acanister, Mr Bolton; quick!" shouted the captain in desperation, as hesprang over the side and assisted to cut into the unwieldy obstruction.The charge was soon fixed and fired, but it only split the block in two,and left it motionless as before. A few minutes after, the ship againgrounded; the ice settled round her; the spring tide was lost, and theywere not delivered.

  Those who know the bitterness of repeated disappointment, and of hopedeferred, may judge of the feelings with which the crew of the _Dolphin_now regarded their position. Little, indeed, was said, but the gravelooks of most of the men, and the absence of the usual laugh, and jest,and disp
osition to skylark, which on almost all other occasionscharacterised them, showed too plainly how heavily the prospect of awinter in the Arctic regions weighed upon their spirits. They continuedtheir exertions to free the ship, however, for several days after thehigh tide, and did not finally give in until all reasonable hope ofmoving her was utterly annihilated. Before this, however, a reactionbegan to take place; the prospects of the coming winter were discussed,and some of the more sanguine looked even beyond the winter, and beganto consider how they would contrive to get the ship out of her positioninto deep water again.

  Fred Ellice, too, thought of his father, and this abrupt check to thesearch, and his spirits sank again as his hopes decayed. But poor Fred,like the others, at last discovered that it was of no use to repine, andthat it was best to face his sorrows and difficulties "like a man!"

  Among so many men there were all shades of character, and the fact thatthey were doomed to a year's imprisonment in the frozen regions wasreceived in very different ways. Some looked grave and thought of itseriously; others laughed and treated it lightly; a few grumbled andspoke profanely, but most of them became quickly reconciled, and in aweek or two nearly all forgot the past and the future in the duties, andcares, and amusements of the present. Captain Guy and his officers,however, and a few of the more sedate men, among whom were Buzzby andPeter Grim, looked forward with much anxiety, knowing full well thedangers and trials that lay before them.

  It is true the ship was provisioned for more than a year, but most ofthe provisions were salt, and Tom Singleton could have told them, hadthey required to be told, that without fresh provisions they stood apoor chance of escaping that dire disease, scurvy, before which havefallen so many gallant tars whom nothing in the shape of dangers ordifficulties could subdue. There were, indeed, myriads of wild fowlflying about the ship, on which the men feasted and grew fat every day;and the muskets of Meetuck, and those who accompanied him, seldom failedto supply the ship with an abundance of the flesh of seals, walrus, andpolar bears, portions of all of which creatures were considered verygood indeed by the men, and particularly by the dogs, which grew so fatthat they began to acquire a very disreputable waddle in their gait asthey walked the deck for exercise, which they seldom did, by the way,being passionately fond of sleep! But birds and, perchance, beastsmight be expected to take themselves off when the winter arrived, andleave the crew without fresh food.

  Then, although the _Dolphin_ was supplied with every necessary for awhaling expedition, and with many luxuries besides, she was ill-providedwith the supplies that men deem absolutely indispensable for a winter inthe Arctic regions, where the cold is so bitterly intense that, after aprolonged sojourn, men's minds become almost entirely engrossed by twoclamant demands of nature--food and heat. They had only a smallquantity of coal on board, and nothing except a few extra spars thatcould be used as a substitute, while the bleak shores afforded neithershrub nor tree of any kind. Meanwhile they had a sufficiency ofeverything they required for at least two or three months to come, andfor the rest as Grim said, they had "stout hearts and strong arms."

  As soon as it became apparent that they were to winter in the bay, whichthe captain named the Bay of Mercy, all further attempt to extricate theship was abandoned, and every preparation for spending the winter wasbegun and carried out vigorously. It was now that Captain Guy'squalities as a leader began to be displayed. He knew, from longexperience and observation, that in order to keep up the _morale_ of anybody of men it was absolutely necessary to maintain the strictestdiscipline. Indeed this rule is so universal in its application thatmany men find it advantageous to impose strict rules on themselves inthe regulation of their time and affairs, in order to keep their ownspirits under command. One of the captain's first resolves, therefore,was to call the men together and address them on this subject, and heseized the occasion of the first Sabbath morning they spent in the Bayof Mercy, when the crew were assembled on the quarterdeck, to speak tothem.

  It was an exceedingly bright day. Captain Guy stood up, and, in anearnest, firm tone, said:--

  "My lads, I consider it my duty to say a few plain words to you inreference to our present situation and prospects. I feel that theresponsibility of having brought you here rests very much upon myself,and I deem it my solemn duty, in more than the ordinary sense, to do allI can to get you out of the ice again. You know as well as I do thatthis is impossible at the present time, and that we are compelled tospend a winter here. Some of you know what that means, but the most ofyou know it only by hearsay, and that's much the same as knowing nothingabout it at all. Before the winter is done your energies and endurancewill probably be taxed to the uttermost. I think it right to be candidwith you. The life before you will not be child's-play, but I assureyou that it may be mingled with much that will be pleasant and hearty ifyou choose to set about it in the right way. Well, then, to be shortabout it. There is no chance whatever of our getting through the winterin this ship comfortably, or even safely, unless the strictestdiscipline is maintained aboard. I know, for I've been in similarcircumstances before, that when cold and hunger, and, it may be,sickness, press upon us--should it please the Almighty to send these onus in great severity--you will feel duty to be irksome, and you'll thinkit useless, and perhaps be tempted to mutiny. Now I ask you solemnly,while your minds are clear from all prejudices, each individually tosign a written code of laws, and a written promise that you will obeythe same, and help me to enforce them even with the punishment of_death_, if need be. Now, lads, will you agree to that?"

  "Agreed, agreed!" cried the men at once, and in a tone of promptdecision that convinced their leader he had their entire confidence--amatter of the highest importance in the critical circumstances, in whichthey were placed.

  "Well, then, I'll read the rules; they are few, but sufficientlycomprehensive.

  "First. Prayers shall be read every morning before breakfast, unlesscircumstances render it impossible to do so."

  The captain laid down the paper, and looked earnestly at the men.

  "My lads, I have never felt so strongly as I now do the absolute need wehave of the blessing and guidance of the Almighty, and I am persuadedthat it is our duty as well as our interest to begin, not only theSabbath, but _every_ day with prayer.

  "Second. The ordinary duties of the ship shall be carried on, thewatches regularly set and relieved, regular hours observed, and thedetails of duty attended to in the usual way, as when in harbour.

  "Third. The officers shall take watch and watch about as heretofore,except when required to do otherwise; the log-books, and meteorologicalobservations, etcetera, shall be carried on as usual.

  "Fourth. The captain shall have supreme and absolute command as when atsea, but he, on his part, promises that, should any peculiarcircumstance arise, in which the safety of the crew or ship shall beimplicated, he will, if the men are so disposed, call a council of thewhole crew, in which case the decision of the majority shall become law,but the minority in that event shall have it in their option to separatefrom the majority and carry along with them their share of the generalprovisions.

  "Fifth. Disobedience to orders shall be punishable according to thedecision of a council, to be appointed specially for the purpose offraming a criminal code, hereafter to be submitted for the approval ofthe crew."

  The rules above laid down were signed by every man in the ship. Severalof them could not write, but these affixed a cross (x) at the foot ofthe page, against which their names were written by the captain inpresence of witnesses, which answered the same purpose. And from thattime, until events occurred which rendered all such rules unnecessary,the work of the ship went on pleasantly and well.