Fast in the Ice: Adventures in the Polar Regions

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  DIFFICULTIES, TROUBLES, AND DANGERS.

  For some hours the brig proceeded onward with a freshening breeze,winding and turning in order to avoid the lumps of ice. Many of thesmaller pieces were not worth turning out of the way of, the mere weightof the vessel being sufficient to push them aside.

  Up to this time they had succeeded in steering clear of everythingwithout getting a thump; but they got one at last, which astonishedthose among the crew who had not been in the ice before. The captain,Gregory, and Dicey were seated in the cabin at the time taking tea. NedDawkins, the steward, an active little man, was bringing in a tea-potwith a second supply of tea. In his left hand he carried a tray ofbiscuit. The captain sat at the head of the table, Dicey at the foot,and the doctor at the side.

  Suddenly a tremendous shock was felt! The captain's cup of tea leapedaway from him and flooded the centre of the table. The doctor's cup wasempty; he seized the table with both hands and remained steady; butDicey's cup happened to be at his lips at the moment, and was quitefull. The effect on him was unfortunate. He was thrown violently onhis back, and the tea poured over his face and drenched his hair as helay sprawling on the floor. The steward saved himself by dropping thebread-tray and grasping the handle of the cabin door. So violent wasthe shock that the ship's bell was set a-ringing.

  "Beg pardon, gentlemen," cried the first mate, looking down theskylight. "I forgot to warn you. The ice is getting rather thickaround us, and I had to charge a lump of it."

  "It's all very well to beg pardon," said the captain, "but that won'tmend my crockery!"

  "Or dry my head," growled Mr Dicey; "it's as bad as if I'd been dippedoverboard, it is."

  Before Mr Dicey's grumbling remarks were finished all three of them hadreached the deck. The wind had freshened considerably, and the brig wasrushing in a somewhat alarming manner among the floes. It required themost careful attention to prevent her striking heavily.

  "If it goes on like this, we shall have to reduce sail," observed thecaptain. "See, there is a neck of ice ahead that will stop us."

  This seemed to be probable, for the lane of water along which they weresteering was, just ahead of them, stopped by a neck of ice thatconnected two floe-pieces. The water beyond was pretty free from ice,but this neck or mass seemed so thick that it became a question whetherthey should venture to charge it or shorten sail.

  "Stand by the fore- and main-topsail braces!" shouted the captain.

  "Aye, aye, sir!"

  "Now, Mr Mansell," said he, with a smile, "we have come to our firstreal difficulty. What do you advise; shall we back the topsails, or trywhat our little _Hope_ is made of, and charge the enemy?"

  "Charge!" answered the mate.

  "Just so," said the captain, hastening to the bow to direct thesteersman. "Port your helm."

  "Steady."

  The brig was now about fifty yards from the neck of ice, tearing throughthe water like a race-horse. In another moment she was up to it andstruck it fair in the middle. The stout little vessel quivered to herkeel under the shock, but she did not recoil. She split the mass intofragments, and, bearing down all before her, sailed like a conquerorinto the clear water beyond.

  "Well done the _Hope_!" said the captain, as he walked aft, while acheer burst from the men.

  "I think she ought to be called the _Good Hope_ ever after this," saidTom Gregory. "If she cuts her way through everything as easily as shehas cut through that neck of ice, we shall reach the North Pole itselfbefore winter."

  "If we reach the North Pole _at all_," observed Mr Dicey, "I'll climbup to the top of it and stand on my head, I will!"

  The second mate evidently had no expectation of reaching that mysteriouspole, which men have so long and so often tried to find, in vain.

  "Heavy ice ahead, sir," shouted Mr Mansell, who was at the mastheadwith a telescope.

  "Where away?"

  "On the weather bow, sir, the pack seems open enough to push through,but the large bergs are numerous."

  The _Hope_ was now indeed getting into the heart of those icy regionswhere ships are in constant danger from the floating masses that comedown with the ocean-currents from the far north. In sailing along shewas often obliged to run with great violence against lumps so large thatthey caused her whole frame to tremble, stout though it was. "Shall wesmash the lump, or will it stave in our bows?" was a question thatfrequently ran in the captain's mind. Sometimes ice closed round herand squeezed the sides so that her beams cracked. At other times, whena large field was holding her fast, the smaller pieces would grind andrasp against her as they went past, until the crew fancied the whole ofthe outer sheathing of planks had been scraped off. Often she had topress close to ice-bergs of great size, and more than once a lump aslarge as a good-sized house fell off the ice-fields and plunged into thesea close to her side, causing her to rock violently on the waves thatwere raised by it.

  Indeed the bergs are dangerous neighbours, not only from this cause, butalso on account of their turning upside down at times, and even fallingto pieces, so that Captain Harvey always kept well out of their way whenhe could; but this was not always possible. The little brig had anarrow escape one day from the falling of a berg.

  It was a short time after that day on which they had the game offootball. They passed in safety through the floes and bergs that hadbeen seen that evening, and got into open water beyond, where they mademade good progress before falling in with ice; but at last they came toa part of Baffin's Bay where a great deal of ice is always found. Herethe pack surrounded them, and compelled them to pass close to a bergwhich was the largest they had fallen in with up to that time. It wasjagged in form, and high rather than broad. Great peaks rose up from itlike the mountain tops of some wild highland region. It was severalhundred yards off the weather-beam when the brig passed, but it toweredso high over the masts that it seemed to be much nearer than it was.There was no apparent motion in this berg, and the waves beat and rolledupon its base just as they do on the shore of an island. In fact it wasas like an island as possible, or, rather, like a mountain planted inthe sea, only it was white instead of green. There were cracks andrents and caverns in it, just as there are on a rugged mountain side,all of which were of a beautiful blue colour. There were also slopesand crags and precipices, down which the water of the melted iceconstantly flowed in wild torrents. Many of these were equal to smallrivulets, and some of the waterfalls were beautiful. The berg could nothave measured less than a mile round the base, and it was probably twohundred feet high. It is well known that floating ice sinks deep, andthat there is about eight or ten times as much of it below as there isabove water. The reader may therefore form some idea of what anenormous mass of ice this berg was.

  The crew of the _Hope_ observed, in passing, that lumps were continuallyfalling from the cliffs into the sea. The berg was evidently in a veryrotten and dangerous state, and the captain ran the brig as close to thepack on the other side as possible, in order to keep out of its way.Just as this was done, some great rents occurred, and suddenly a mass ofice larger than the brig fell from the top of a cliff into the sea. Nodanger flowed from this, but the mass thus thrown off was so large as todestroy the balance of the berg, and, to the horror of the sailors, thehuge mountain began to roll over. Fortunately it fell in a directionaway from the brig. Had it rolled toward her, no human power could havesaved our voyagers. The mighty mass went over with a wild hollow roar,and new peaks and cliffs rose out of the sea, as the old onesdisappeared, with great cataracts of uplifted brine pouring furiouslydown their sides.

  Apart from its danger, this was an awful sight. Those who witnessed itcould only gaze in solemn silence. Even the most careless among themmust have been forced to recognise the might and majesty of God in theevent, as well as His mercy in having led them to the _right_ side ofthe berg at such a dangerous moment.

  But the scene had not yet closed. For some time the ice mountain ro
ckedgrandly to and fro, raising a considerable swell on the sea, which, allround, was covered with the foam caused by this tremendous commotion.In a few minutes several rents took place, sounding like the reports ofgreat guns. Rotten as it was, the berg could not stand the shock of itschange of position, for it had turned fairly upside down. Crack aftercrack took place, with deafening reports. Lumps of all sizes fell fromits sides. Then there was a roar, long continued like thunder; a momentafter, the whole berg sank down in ruins, and, with a mighty crash, fellflat upon the sea!

  The _Hope_ was beyond the reach of danger, but she rose and sank on theswell, caused by the ruin of this berg, for some time after.

  It was on the afternoon of the same day that the brig received her firstreally severe "nip" from the ice.

  She had got deep into the pack, and was surrounded on all sides by largebergs, some of these being high, like the one that has just beendescribed, others low and flat but of great extent. One, not far off,was two miles long, and its glittering walls rose about fifteen feetabove the sea. The sky was brighter than usual at the time. This wasowing to one of those strange appearances which one sees more of in theArctic regions than in any other part of the world. The sun shone withunclouded splendour, and around it there were three mock suns almost asbright as the sun itself, one on each side and one directly above it.Learned men call these bright spots _parhelia_. Sailors call themsun-dogs. They were connected together with a ring of light whichentirely encircled the sun, but the lower edge of it was partly lost onthe horizon.

  Although this was the first time that these mock suns had been seen byGregory and some others of the crew of the _Hope_, little attention waspaid to them at the time, because of the dangerous position into whichthe brig had been forced. The pack had again closed all around her,obliging her to take shelter in the lee of a small berg, which, from itsshape, did not seem likely to be a dangerous protector.

  There was a small bay in the berg. Into this the brig was warped, andfor some time she lay safely here. It was just large enough to holdher, and a long tongue of ice, projecting from the foot of it, kept offthe pressure of the sea-ice. Nevertheless a look of anxiety rested onthe captain's face after the ice-anchors had been made fast.

  "You don't seem to like our position, captain," said young Gregory, whohad been watching the doings of the men and now and then lent them ahand.

  "I don't, Tom. The pack is closing tight up, and this berg may prove anenemy instead of a friend, if it forces into our harbour here. Let ushear what our mate thinks of it. What say you, Mr Mansell, shall wehold on here, or warp out and take our chance in the pack?"

  "Better hold on, sir," answered the mate gravely. "The pack isbeginning to grind; we should get a tight embrace, I fear, if we wentout. Here we may do well enough; but everything depends on thattongue."

  He looked as he spoke toward the point of ice which extended in front ofthe brig's stern, and guarded the harbour from the outer ice in thatdirection. The tongue was not a large one, and it was doubtful whetherit could stand the pressure that was increasing every minute.

  The pack was indeed beginning to "grind," as the mate had said, for,while they were looking at it, the edges of two floes came together witha crash about fifty yards from the berg. They ground together for amoment with a harsh growling sound, and then the two edges were suddenlyforced up to a height of about fifteen or twenty feet. Next moment theyfell on the closed-up ice, and lay there in a mound, or _hummock_, ofbroken masses.

  "That's how a 'ummuck is formed, Dr Gregory," said Mr Dicey, lookinguncommonly wise. "You'll see more things here in five minutes, by meansof your own eyes, than ye could learn from books in a year. There'snothin' like seein'. Seein' is believin', you know. I wouldn't give anounce of experience for a ton of hearsay."

  "Come, Mr Dicey, don't run down book-learning," said Gregory. "If aman only knew about things that he had seen, he would know very little."

  Before the second mate could reply the captain shouted to the men to"Bear a hand with the ice-poles." The whole crew answered to the call,and each man, seizing a long pole, stood ready for action.

  The tongue to which I have referred more than once had broken off, andthe ice was rushing in. The bay was full in a minute, and although themen used their ice-poles actively, and worked with a will, they couldnot shove the pieces past them. The _Hope_ was driven bow on to theberg. Then there was a strain, a terrible creaking and groaning of thetimbers, as if the good little vessel were complaining of the pressure.All at once there was a loud crack, the bow of the brig lifted a little,and she was forced violently up the sloping side of the berg. Twicethis happened, and then she remained stationary--high and dry out of thewater!