The English at the North Pole

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER XV

  THE "FORWARD" DRIVEN BACK SOUTH

  The weather cleared up towards evening, and land was clearlydistinguished between Cape Sepping and Cape Clarence, which runs east,then south, and is joined to the coast on the west by a rather lowneck of land. The sea at the entrance to Regent Strait was free fromice, with the exception of an impenetrable ice-bank, a little furtherthan Port Leopold, which threatened to stop the _Forward_ in hernorth-westerly course. Hatteras was greatly vexed, but he did notshow it; he was obliged to have recourse to petards in order to forcean entrance to Port Leopold; he reached it on Sunday, the 27th ofMay; the brig was solidly anchored to the enormous icebergs, whichwere as upright, hard, and solid as rocks.

  The captain, followed by the doctor, Johnson, and his dog Dick,immediately leaped upon the ice, and soon reached land. Dick leapedwith joy, for since he had recognised the captain he had become moresociable, keeping his grudge against certain men of the crew for whomhis master had no more friendship than he. The port was not thenblocked up with ice that the east winds generally heaped up there;the earth, intersected with peaks, offered at their summits gracefulundulations of snow. The house and lantern erected by James Ross werestill in a tolerable state of preservation; but the provisions seemedto have been ransacked by foxes and bears, the recent traces of whichwere easily distinguished. Men, too, had had something to do withthe devastation, for a few remains of Esquimaux huts remained uponthe shores of the Bay. The six graves inclosing the remains of thesix sailors of the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_ wererecognisable by a slight swelling of the ground; they had beenrespected both by men and animals. In placing his foot for the firsttime on boreal land, the doctor experienced much emotion. It isimpossible to imagine the feelings with which the heart is assailedat the sight of the remains of houses, tents, huts, and magazinesthat Nature so marvellously preserves in those cold countries.

  "There is that residence," he said to his companions, "which JamesRoss himself called the Camp of Refuge; if Franklin's expedition hadreached this spot, it would have been saved. There is the engine whichwas abandoned here, and the stove at which the crew of the _PrinceAlbert_ warmed themselves in 1851. Things have remained just as theywere, and any one would think that Captain Kennedy had only leftyesterday. Here is the long boat which sheltered him and his for afew days, for this Kennedy, separated from his ship, was in realitysaved by Lieutenant Bellot, who braved the October temperature inorder to go to his assistance."

  "I knew that brave and worthy officer," said Johnson.

  Whilst the doctor was examining with all an antiquarian's enthusiasmthe vestiges of previous winterings, Hatteras was occupied in pilingtogether the various provisions and articles of fuel, which were onlyto be found in very small quantities. The following day was employedin transporting them on board. The doctor, without going too far fromthe ship, surveyed the country, and took sketches of the mostremarkable points of view. The temperature rose by degrees, and theheaped-up snow began to melt. The doctor made an almost completecollection of northern birds, such as gulls, divers, eider-down ducks,which are very much like common ducks, with white breasts and backs,blue bellies, the top of the head blue, and the remainder of theplumage white, shaded with green; several of them had already theirbreasts stripped of that beautiful down with which the male and femaleline their nests. The doctor also perceived large seals taking breathon the surface of the ice, but could not shoot one. In his excursionshe discovered the high water mark, a stone upon which the followingsigns are engraved:

  (E. I.) 1849,

  and which indicate the passage of the _Enterprise_ and_Investigator_; he pushed forward as far as Cape Clarence to the spotwhere John and James Ross, in 1833, waited with so much impatiencefor the breaking up of the ice. The land was strewn with skulls andbones of animals, and traces of Esquimaux habitations could be stilldistinguished.

  The doctor wanted to raise up a cairn on Port Leopold, and depositin it a note indicating the passage of the _Forward_, and the aimof the expedition. But Hatteras would not hear of it; he did not wantto leave traces behind of which a competitor might take advantage.In spite of his good motives the doctor was forced to yield to thecaptain's will. Shandon blamed the captain's obstinacy, whichprevented any ships following the trace of the _Forward_ in case ofaccident. Hatteras would not give way. His lading was finished onMonday night, and he attempted once more to gain the north by breakingopen the ice-bank; but after dangerous efforts he was forced to resignhimself, and to go down Regent's Channel again; he would not stopat Port Leopold, which, open to-day, might be closed again to-morrowby an unexpected displacement of ice-fields, a very frequentphenomenon in these seas, and which navigators ought particularlyto take into consideration.

  If Hatteras did not allow his uneasiness to be outwardly perceived,it did not prevent him feeling it inwardly. His desire was to pushnorthward, whilst, on the contrary, he found himself constrained toput back southward. Where should he get to in that case? Should hebe obliged to put back to Victoria Harbour, in Boothia Gulf, whereSir John Ross wintered in 1833? Would he find Bellot Strait open atthat epoch, and could he ascend Peel Strait by rounding NorthSomerset? Or, again, should he, like his predecessors, find himselfcaptured during several winters, and be compelled to exhaust hisstrength and provisions? These fears were fermenting in his brain;he must decide one way or other. He heaved about, and struck out south.The width of Prince Regent's Channel is about the same from PortLeopold to Adelaide Bay. The _Forward_, more favoured than the shipswhich had preceded her, and of which the greater number had requiredmore than a month to descend the channel, even in a more favourableseason, made her way rapidly amongst the icebergs; it is true thatother ships, with the exception of the _Fox_, had no steam at theirdisposal, and had to endure the caprices of an uncertain and oftenfoul wind.

  In general the crew showed little wish to push on with the enterprisingHatteras; the men were only too glad to perceive that the vessel wastaking a southerly direction. Hatteras would have liked to go onregardless of consequences.

  The _Forward_ rushed along under the pressure of her engines, thesmoke from which twisted round the shining points of the icebergs;the weather was constantly changing from dry cold to snowy fogs. Thebrig, which drew little water, sailed along the west coast; Hatterasdid not wish to miss the entrance to Bellot Strait, as the only outletto the Gulf of Boothia on the south was the strait, only partiallyknown to the _Fury_ and the _Hecla_; if he missed the Bellot Strait,he might be shut up without possibility of egress.

  In the evening the _Forward_ was in sight of Elwin Bay, known by itshigh perpendicular rocks; on the Tuesday morning Batty Bay was sighted,where the _Prince Albert_ anchored for its long wintering on the 10thof September, 1851. The doctor swept the whole coast with histelescope. It was from this point that the expeditions radiated thatestablished the geographical configuration of North Somerset. Theweather was clear, and the profound ravines by which the bay issurrounded could be clearly distinguished.

  The doctor and Johnson were perhaps the only beings on board who tookany interest in these deserted countries. Hatteras was always intentupon his maps, and said little; his taciturnity increased as the briggot more and more south; he often mounted the poop, and there withfolded arms, and eyes lost in vacancy, he stood for hours. His orders,when he gave any, were curt and rough. Shandon kept a cold silence,and kept himself so much aloof by degrees that at last he had norelations with Hatteras except those exacted by the service; JamesWall remained devoted to Shandon, and regulated his conductaccordingly. The remainder of the crew waited for something to turnup, ready to take any advantage in their own interest. There was nolonger that unity of thought and communion of ideas on board whichare so necessary for the accomplishment of anything great, and thisHatteras knew to his sorrow.

  During the day two whales were perceived rushing towards the south;a white bear was also seen, and was shot at withou
t any apparentsuccess. The captain knew the value of an hour under the circumstances,and would not allow the animal to be chased.

  On Wednesday morning the extremity of Regent's Channel was passed;the angle on the west coast was followed by a deep curve in the land.By consulting his map the doctor recognised the point of SomersetHouse, or Fury Point.

  "There," said he to his habitual companion--"there is the very spotwhere the first English ship, sent into these seas in 1815, was lost,during the third of Parry's voyages to the Pole; the _Fury_ was sodamaged by the ice on her second wintering, that her crew were obligedto desert her and return to England on board her companion ship the_Hecla_."

  "That shows the advantage of having a second ship," answered Johnson."It is a precaution that Polar navigators ought not to neglect, butCaptain Hatteras wasn't the sort of man to trouble himself withanother ship."

  "Do you think he is imprudent, Johnson?" asked the doctor.

  "I? I think nothing, Mr. Clawbonny. Do you see those stakes over therewith some rotten tent-rags still hanging to them?"

  "Yes; that's where Parry disembarked his provisions from his ship,and, if I remember rightly, the roof of his tent was a topsail."

  "Everything must be greatly changed since 1825!"

  "Not so much as any one might think. John Ross owed the health andsafety of his crew to that fragile habitation in 1829. When the _PrinceAlbert_ sent an expedition there in 1851, it was still existing;Captain Kennedy had it repaired, nine years ago now. It would beinteresting to visit it, but Hatteras isn't in the humour to stop!"

  "I daresay he is right, Mr. Clawbonny; if time is money in England,here it is life, and a day's or even an hour's delay might make allthe difference."

  During the day of Thursday, the 1st of June, the _Forward_ cut acrossCreswell Bay; from Fury Point the coast rose towards the north inperpendicular rocks three hundred feet high; it began to get lowertowards the south; some snow summits looked like neatly-cut tables,whilst others were shaped like pyramids, and had other strange forms.

  The weather grew milder during that day, but was not so clear; landwas lost to sight, and the thermometer went up to thirty-two degrees;seafowl fluttered about, the flocks of wild ducks were seen flyingnorth; the crew could divest themselves of some of their garments,and the influence of the Arctic summer began to be felt. Towardsevening the _Forward_ doubled Cape Garry at a quarter of a mile fromthe shore, where the soundings gave from ten to twelve fathoms; fromthence she kept near the coast as far as Brentford Bay. It was underthis latitude that Bellot Strait was to be met with; a strait theexistence of which Sir John Ross did not even guess at during hisexpedition in 1828; his maps indicated an uninterrupted coast-line,whose irregularities he noted with the utmost care; the entrance tothe strait must therefore have been blocked up by ice at the time.It was really discovered by Kennedy in April, 1852, and he gave itthe name of his lieutenant, Bellot, as "a just tribute," he said,"to the important services rendered to our expedition by the Frenchofficer."