Fast in the Ice: Adventures in the Polar Regions

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THREE.

  IN THE ICE--DANGERS OF ARCTIC VOYAGING.

  Next morning the _Hope_ was becalmed in the midst of a scene morebeautiful than the tongue or the pen of man can describe.

  When the sun rose that day, it shone upon what appeared to be a field ofglass and a city of crystal. Every trace of the recent storm was goneexcept a long swell, which caused the brig to roll considerably, butwhich did not break the surface of the sea.

  Ice was to be seen all round as far as the eye could reach. Ice inevery form and size imaginable. And the wonderful thing about it wasthat many of the masses resembled the buildings of a city. There werehouses, and churches, and monuments, and spires, and ruins. There werealso islands and mountains! Some of the pieces were low and flat, nobigger than a boat; others were tall, with jagged tops; some of thefields, as they are called, were a mile and more in extent, and therewere a number of bergs, or ice-mountains, higher than the brig'stopmasts. These last were almost white, but they had, in many places, agreenish-blue colour that was soft and beautiful. The whole scene shoneand sparkled so brilliantly in the morning sun, that one could almostfancy it was one of the regions of fairyland!

  When young Gregory came on the quarter-deck, no one was there except JimCroft, a short, thick-set man, with the legs of a dwarf and theshoulders of a giant. He stood at the helm, and although no steeringwas required, as there was no wind, he kept his hands on the spokes ofthe wheel, and glanced occasionally at the compass. The first mate, whohad the watch on deck, was up at the masthead, observing the state ofthe ice.

  "How glorious!" exclaimed the youth, as he swept his sparkling eye roundthe horizon. "Ah, Croft! is not this splendid?"

  "So it is, sir," said the seaman, turning the large quid of tobacco thatbulged out his left cheek. "It's very beautiful, no doubt, but it'scomin' rather thick for my taste."

  "How so?" inquired Gregory. "There seems to me plenty of open water toenable us to steer clear of these masses. Besides, as we have no wind,it matters little, I should think, whether we have room to sail or not."

  "You've not seed much o' the ice yet, that's plain," said Croft, "elseyou'd know that the floes are closin' round us, an' we'll soon be fastin the pack, if a breeze don't spring up to help us."

  As the reader may not, perhaps, understand the terms used by Arcticvoyagers in regard to the ice in its various forms, it may be as wellhere to explain the meaning of those most commonly used.

  When ice is seen floating in small detached pieces and scattered masses,it is called "floe" ice, and men speak of getting among the floes. Whenthese floes close up, so that the whole sea seems to be covered withthem, and little water can be seen, it is called "pack" ice. When thepack is squeezed together, so that lumps of it are forced up in the formof rugged mounds, these mounds are called "hummocks." A large mass offlat ice, varying from one mile to many miles in extent, is called a"field," and a mountain of ice is called a "berg."

  All the ice here spoken of, except the berg, is sea-ice; formed by thefreezing of the ocean in winter. The berg is formed in a very differentmanner. Of this more shall be said in a future chapter.

  "Well, my lad," said Gregory, in reply to Jim Croft's last observation,"I have not seen much of the ice yet, as you truly remark, so I hopethat the wind will not come to help us out of it for some time. Youdon't think it dangerous to get into the pack, do you?"

  "Well, not exactly dangerous, sir," replied Croft, "but I must say thatit aint safe, 'specially when there's a swell on like this. But that'llgo down soon. D'ye know what a nip is, Dr Gregory?"

  "I think I do; at least I have read of such a thing. But I should bevery glad to hear what you have to say about it. No doubt you have feltone."

  "Felt one!" cried Jim, screwing up his face and drawing his limbstogether, as if he were suffering horrible pain, "no, I've never feltone. The man what _feels_ a nip aint likely to live to tell what hisfeelin's was. But I've _seed_ one."

  "You've seen one, have you? That must have been interesting. Where wasit?"

  "Not very far from the Greenland coast," said Croft, giving his quidanother turn. "This was the way of it. You must know that there wastwo ships of us in company at the time. Whalers we was. We got intothe heart of the pack somehow, and we thought we'd never get out of itagain. There was nothin' but ice all round us as far as the eye couldsee. The name of our ship was the _Nancy_. Our comrade was the_Bullfinch_. One mornin' early we heard a loud noise of ice rubbin'agin the sides o' the ship, so we all jumped up, an' on deck as fast aswe could, for there's short time given to save ourselves in them seassometimes. The whole pack, we found, was in motion, and a wide lead ofwater opened up before us, for all the world like a smooth river orcanal windin' through the pack. Into this we warped the ship, andhoistin' sail, steered away cheerily. We passed close to the_Bullfinch_, which was still hard and fast in the pack, and we saw thather crew were sawin' and cuttin' away at the ice, tryin' to get into thelead that we'd got into. So we hailed them, and said we would wait for'em outside the pack, if we got through. But the words were no soonerspoken, when the wind it died away, and we were becalmed about half amile from the _Bullfinch_.

  "`You'd better go down to breakfast, boys,' says our captain, says he,`the breeze won't be long o' comin' again.'

  "So down the men went, and soon after that the steward comes on deck,and, says he to the captain, `Breakfast, sir.' `Very good,' says thecaptain, and down he went too, leavin' me at the wheel and the mate incharge of the deck. He'd not been gone three minutes when I noticedthat the great field of ice on our right was closin' in on the field onour left, and the channel we was floatin' in was closin' up. The matenoticed it, too, but he wouldn't call the captain 'cause the ice came soslowly and quietly on that for a few minutes we could hardly believe itwas movin' and everything around us looked so calm and peaceful likethat it was difficult to believe our danger was so great. But this wasonly a momentary feelin', d'ye see. A minute after that the mate hecries down to the captain:--

  "`Ice closin' up, sir!'

  "And the captain he runs on deck. By this time there was no mistakeabout it; the ice was close upon us. It was clear that we were to havea nip. So the captain roars down the hatchway, `Tumble up there! tumbleup! every man alive! for your lives!' And sure enough they did tumbleup, as I never seed 'em do it before--two or three of 'em was sick; theycame up with their clothes in their hands. The ice was now almosttouchin' our sides, and I tell _you_, sir, I never did feel so queerishin all my life before as when I looked over the side at the edge of thatgreat field of ice which rose three foot out o' the water, and was, Isuppose, six foot more below the surface. It came on so slow that wecould hardly see the motion. Inch by inch the water narrowed between itand our sides. At last it touched on the left side, and that shoved usquicker on to the field on our right. Every eye was fixed on it--everyman held his breath. You might have heard a pin fall on the deck. Ittouched gently at first, then there was a low grindin' and crunchin'sound. The ship trembled as if it had been a livin' creetur, and thebeams began to crack. Now, you must know, sir, that when a nip o' thissort takes a ship the ice usually eases off, after giving her a goodsqueeze, or when the pressure is too much for her, the ice slips underher bottom and lifts her right out o' the water. But our _Nancy_ waswhat we call wall-sided. She was never fit to sail in them seas. Theconsequence was that the ice crushed her sides in. The moment thecaptain heard the beams begin to go he knew it was all up with the ship;so he roared to take to the ice for our lives! You may be sure we tookhis advice. Over the side we went, every man Jack of us, and got on theice. We did not take time to save an article belongin' to us; and itwas as well we did not, for the ice closed up with a crash, and we heardthe beams and timbers rending like a fire of musketry in the hold. Herbottom must have been cut clean away, for she stood on the ice just asshe had floated on the sea. Then the noise stopped, the ice eased off,and the ship began to settle. The lea
d of water opened up again; in tenminutes after that the _Nancy_ went to the bottom and left us standingthere on the ice.

  "It was the mercy of God that let it happen so near the _Bullfinch_. Wemight have been out o' sight o' that ship at the time, and then everyman of us would have bin lost. As it was, we had a hard scramble over agood deal of loose ice, jumpin' from lump to lump, and some of usfallin' into the water several times, before we got aboard. Now thatwas a bad nip, sir, warn't it?"

  "It certainly was," replied Gregory; "and although I delight in beingamong the ice, I sincerely hope that our tight little brig may not betried in the same way. But she is better able to stand it, I shouldthink."

  "That she is, sir," replied Croft, with much confidence. "I seed her indock, sir, when they was a-puttin' of extra timbers on the bow, and I dobelieve she would stand twice as much bad usage as the _Nancy_ got,though she is only half the size."

  Jim Croft's opinion on this point was well founded, for the _Hope_ hadindeed been strengthened and prepared for her ice battles with thegreatest care, by men of experience and ability. As some readers may beinterested in this subject, I shall give a brief account of theadditions that were made to her hull.

  The vessel was nearly two hundred tons burden. She had originally beenbuilt very strongly, and might even have ventured on a voyage to thePolar seas just as she was. But Captain Harvey resolved to take everyprecaution to insure the success of his voyage, and the safety andcomfort of his men. He, therefore, had the whole of the ship's bottomsheathed with thick hardwood planking, which was carried up above herwater-line, as high as the ordinary floe-ice would be likely to reach.The hull inside was strengthened with stout cross-beams, as well as withbeams running along the length of the vessel, and in every part that waslikely to be subjected to pressure iron stanchions were fastened. Butthe bow of the vessel was the point where the utmost strength was aimedat. Inside, just behind the cutwater, the whole space was so traversedby cross-beams of oak that it almost became a solid mass, and outsidethe sharp stem was cased in iron so as to resemble a giant's chisel.The false keel was taken off, the whole vessel, in short, was renderedas strong, outside and in, as wood and iron and skill could make her.It need scarcely be said that all the other arrangements about her weremade with the greatest care and without regard to expense, for althoughthe owners of the brig did not wish to waste their money, they set toohigh a value on human life to risk it for the sake of saving a fewpounds. She was provisioned for a cruise of two years and a half. Butthis was in case of accidents, for Captain Harvey did not intend to beabsent much longer than one year.

  But, to return to our story:

  Jim Croft's fear that they would be set fast was realised sooner than heexpected. The floes began to close in, from no cause that could beseen, for the wind was quite still, and in a short time the loose icepressed against the _Hope_ on all sides. It seemed to young Gregory asif the story that the seaman had just related was about to be enactedover again; and, being a stranger to ice, he could not help feeling alittle uneasy for some time. But there was in reality little or nodanger, for the pressure was light, and the brig had got into a smallbay in the edge of an ice-field, which lay in the midst of the smallermasses.

  Seeing that there was little prospect of the pack opening up just then,the captain ordered the ice-anchors to be got out and fixed.

  The appearance of the sea from the brig's deck was now extremely wintry,but very bright and cheerful. Not a spot of blue water was to be seenin any direction. The whole ocean appeared as if it had been frozenover.

  It was now past noon, and the sun's rays were warm, although thequantity of ice around rendered the air cold. As the men were returningfrom fixing the anchors, the captain looked over the side, and said:

  "It's not likely that we shall move out of this for some hours. Whatsay you, lads, to a game of football?"

  The proposal was received with a loud cheer. The ball had been preparedby the sail-maker, in expectation of some such opportunity as this. Itwas at once tossed over the side; those men who were not already on thefield scrambled out of the brig, and the entire crew went leaping andyelling over the ice with the wild delight of schoolboys let loose foran unexpected holiday.

  They were in the middle of the game when a loud shout came from thebrig, and the captain's voice was heard singing out:

  "All hands ahoy! come aboard. Look alive!"

  Instantly the men turned, and there was a general race toward the brig,which lay nearly a quarter of a mile distant from them.

  In summer, changes in the motions of the ice take place in the mostunexpected manner. Currents in the ocean are, no doubt, the chief causeof these; the action of winds has also something to do with them. Oneof these changes was now taking place. Almost before the men got onboard the ice had separated, and long canals of water were seen openingup here and there. Soon after that a light breeze sprang up, theice-anchors were taken aboard, the sails trimmed, and soon the _Hope_was again making her way slowly but steadily to the north.