by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XXI
THE DEATH OF BELLOT
The temperature during the days of the 3rd and 4th of July kept upto 57 degrees; this was the highest thermometric point observed duringthe campaign. But on Thursday, the 5th, the wind turned to thesouth-east, and was accompanied by violent snow-storms. Thethermometer fell during the preceding night to 23 degrees. Hatterastook no notice of the murmurs of the crew, and gave orders to getunder way. For the last thirteen days, from Cape Dundas, the _Forward_had not been able to gain one more degree north, so the partyrepresented by Clifton was no longer satisfied, but wished likeHatteras to get into Wellington Channel, and worked away with a will.The brig had some difficulty in getting under sail; but Hatterashaving set his mizensail, his topsails, and his gallantsails duringthe night, advanced boldly in the midst of fields of ice which thecurrent was drifting south. The crew were tired out with this windingnavigation, which kept them constantly at work at the sails.Wellington Channel is not very wide; it is bounded by North Devonon the east and Cornwallis Island on the west; this island was longbelieved to be a peninsula. It was Sir John Franklin who first sailedround it in 1846, starting west, and coming back to the same pointto the north of the channel. The exploration of Wellington Channelwas made in 1851 by Captain Penny in the whalers _Lady Franklin_ and_Sophia_; one of his lieutenants, Stewart, reached Cape Beecher inlatitude 76 degrees 20 minutes, and discovered the open sea--thatopen sea which was Hatteras's dream!
"What Stewart found I shall find," said he to the doctor; "then Ishall be able to set sail to the Pole."
"But aren't you afraid that your crew----"
"My crew!" said Hatteras severely. Then in a low tone--"Poor fellows!"murmured he, to the great astonishment of the doctor. It was the firstexpression of feeling he had heard the captain deliver.
"No," he repeated with energy, "they must follow me! They shall followme!"
However, although the _Forward_ had nothing to fear from the collisionof the ice-streams, which were still pretty far apart, they made verylittle progress northward, for contrary winds often forced them tostop. They passed Capes Spencer and Innis slowly, and on Tuesday,the 10th, cleared 75 degrees to the great delight of Clifton. The_Forward_ was then at the very place where the American ships, the_Rescue_ and the _Advance_, encountered such terrible dangers.Doctor Kane formed part of this expedition; towards the end ofSeptember, 1850, these ships got caught in an ice-bank, and wereforcibly driven into Lancaster Strait. It was Shandon who relatedthis catastrophe to James Wall before some of the brig's crew.
"The _Advance_ and the _Rescue_," he said to them, "were so knockedabout by the ice, that they were obliged to leave off fires on board;but that did not prevent the temperature sinking 18 degrees belowzero. During the whole winter the unfortunate crews were keptprisoners in the ice-bank, ready to abandon their ships at any moment;for three weeks they did not even change their clothes. They floatedalong in that dreadful situation for more than a thousand miles, whenat last they were thrown into the middle of Baffin's Sea."
The effect of this speech upon a crew already badly disposed can bewell imagined. During this conversation Johnson was talking to thedoctor about an event that had taken place in those very quarters;he asked the doctor to tell him when the brig was in latitude 75 degrees30 minutes, and when they passed it he cried:
"Yes, it was just there!" in saying which tears filled his eyes.
"You mean that Lieutenant Bellot died there?" said the doctor.
"Yes, Mr. Clawbonny. He was as good and brave a fellow as ever lived!It was upon this very North Devon coast! It was to be, I suppose,but if Captain Pullen had returned on board sooner it would not havehappened."
"What do you mean, Johnson?"
"Listen to me, Mr. Clawbonny, and you will see on what a slight threadexistence often hangs. You know that Lieutenant Bellot went his firstcampaign in search of Franklin in 1850?"
"Yes, on the _Prince Albert_."
"Well, when he got back to France he obtained permission to embarkon board the _Phoenix_ under Captain Inglefield; I was a sailor onboard. We came with the _Breadalbane_ to transport provisions toBeechey Island!"
"Those provisions we, unfortunately, did not find. Well?"
"We reached Beechey Island in the beginning of August; on the 10thCaptain Inglefield left the _Phoenix_ to rejoin Captain Pullen, whohad been separated from his ship, the _North Star_, for a month. Whenhe came back he thought of sending his Admiralty despatches to SirEdward Belcher, who was wintering in Wellington Channel. A littlewhile after the departure of our captain, Captain Pullen got backto his ship. Why did he not arrive before the departure of CaptainInglefield? Lieutenant Bellot, fearing that our captain would be longaway, and knowing that the Admiralty despatches ought to be sent atonce, offered to take them himself. He left the command of the twoships to Captain Pullen, and set out on the 12th of August with asledge and an indiarubber boat. He took the boatswain of the _NorthStar_ (Harvey) with him, and three sailors, Madden, David Hook, andme. We supposed that Sir Edward Belcher was to be found in theneighbourhood of Beecher Cape, to the north of the channel; we madefor it with our sledge along the eastern coast. The first day weencamped about three miles from Cape Innis; the next day we stoppedon a block of ice about three miles from Cape Bowden. As land layat about three miles' distance, Lieutenant Bellot resolved to go andencamp there during the night, which was as light as the day; he triedto get to it in his indiarubber canoe; he was twice repulsed by aviolent breeze from the south-east; Harvey and Madden attempted thepassage in their turn, and were more fortunate; they took a cord withthem, and established a communication between the coast and thesledge; three objects were transported by means of the cord, but atthe fourth attempt we felt our block of ice move; Mr. Bellot calledout to his companions to drop the cord, and we were dragged to a greatdistance from the coast. The wind blew from the south-east, and itwas snowing; but we were not in much danger, and the lieutenant mighthave come back as we did."
Here Johnson stopped an instant to take a glance at the fatal coast,and continued:
"After our companions were lost to sight we tried to shelter ourselvesunder the tent of our sledge, but in vain; then, with our knives,we began to cut out a house in the ice. Mr. Bellot helped us for halfan hour, and talked to us about the danger of our situation. I toldhim I was not afraid. 'By God's help,' he answered, 'we shall notlose a hair of our heads.' I asked him what o'clock it was, and heanswered, 'About a quarter-past six.' It was a quarter-past six inthe morning of Thursday, August 18th. Then Mr. Bellot tied up hisbooks, and said he would go and see how the ice floated; he had onlybeen gone four minutes when I went round the block of ice to lookfor him; I saw his stick on the opposite side of a crevice, aboutfive fathoms wide, where the ice was broken, but I could not see himanywhere. I called out, but no one answered. The wind was blowinggreat guns. I looked all round the block of ice, but found no traceof the poor lieutenant."
"What do you think had become of him?" said the doctor, much moved.
"I think that when Mr. Bellot got out of shelter the wind blew himinto the crevice, and, as his greatcoat was buttoned up he could notswim. Oh! Mr. Clawbonny, I never was more grieved in my life! I couldnot believe it! He was a victim to duty, for it was in order to obeyCaptain Pullen's instructions that he tried to get to land. He wasa good fellow, everybody liked him; even the Esquimaux, when theylearnt his fate from Captain Inglefield on his return from Pound Bay,cried while they wept, as I am doing now, 'Poor Bellot! poor Bellot!'"
"But you and your companion, Johnson," said the doctor, "how did youmanage to reach land?"
"Oh! we stayed twenty-four hours more on the block of ice, withoutfood or firing; but at last we met with an ice-field; we jumped onto it, and with the help of an oar we fastened ourselves to an icebergthat we could guide like a raft, and we got to land, but without ourbrave officer."
By the time Johnson had finished his story the _Forward_ had passedthe fatal coast, and Johnson lost sight of
the place of the painfulcatastrophe. The next day they left Griffin Bay to the starboard,and, two days after, Capes Grinnell and Helpmann; at last, on the14th of July, they doubled Osborn Point, and on the 15th the briganchored in Baring Bay, at the extremity of the channel. Navigationhad not been very difficult; Hatteras met with a sea almost as freeas that of which Belcher profited to go and winter with the _Pioneer_and the _Assistance_ as far north as 77 degrees. It was in 1852 and1853, during his first wintering, for he passed the winter of 1853to 1854 in Baring Bay, where the _Forward_ was now at anchor. Hesuffered so much that he was obliged to leave the _Assistance_ inthe midst of the ice. Shandon told all these details to the alreadydiscontented sailors. Did Hatteras know how he was betrayed by hisfirst officer? It is impossible to say; if he did, he said nothingabout it.
At the top of Baring Bay there is a narrow channel which putsWellington and Queen's Channel into communication with each other.There the rafts of ice lie closely packed. Hatteras tried, in vain,to clear the passes to the north of Hamilton Island; the wind wascontrary; five precious days were lost in useless efforts. Thetemperature still lowered, and, on the 19th of July, fell to 26degrees; it got higher the following day; but this foretaste of wintermade Hatteras afraid of waiting any longer. The wind seemed to begoing to keep in the west, and to stop the progress of the ship. However,he was in a hurry to gain the point where Stewart had met with theopen sea. On the 19th he resolved to get into the Channel at any price;the wind blew right on the brig, which might, with her screw, havestood against it, had not Hatteras been obliged to economise his fuel;on the other hand, the Channel was too wide to allow the men to haulthe brig along. Hatteras, not considering the men's fatigue, resolvedto have recourse to means often employed by whalers under similarcircumstances. The men took it in turns to row, so as to push thebrig on against the wind. The _Forward_ advanced slowly up the Channel.The men were worn out and murmured loudly. They went on in that mannertill the 23rd of July, when they reached Baring Island in Queen'sChannel. The wind was still against them. The doctor thought thehealth of the men much shaken, and perceived the first symptoms ofscurvy amongst them; he did all he could to prevent the spread ofthe wretched malady, and distributed lime-juice to the men.
Hatteras saw that he could no longer count upon his crew; reasoningand kindness were ineffectual, so he resolved to employ severity forthe future; he suspected Shandon and Wall, though they dare not speakout openly. Hatteras had the doctor, Johnson, Bell, and Simpson forhim; they were devoted to him body and soul; amongst the undecidedwere Foker, Bolton, Wolsten the gunsmith, and Brunton the firstengineer; and they might turn against the captain at any moment; asto Pen, Gripper, Clifton, and Warren, they were in open revolt; theywished to persuade their comrades to force the captain to return toEngland. Hatteras soon saw that he could not continue to work hisship with such a crew. He remained twenty-four hours at Baring Islandwithout taking a step forward. The weather grew cooler still, forwinter begins to be felt in July in these high latitudes. On the 24ththe thermometer fell to 22 degrees. Young ice formed during the night,and if snow fell it would soon be thick enough to bear the weightof a man. The sea began already to have that dirty colour whichprecedes the formation of the first crystals. Hatteras could notmistake these alarming symptoms; if the channels got blocked up, heshould be obliged to winter there at a great distance from the pointhe had undertaken the voyage in order to reach, without having caughta glimpse of that open sea which his predecessors made out was sonear. He resolved, then, to gain several degrees further north, atwhatever cost; seeing that he could not employ oars without the rowerswere willing, nor sail in a contrary wind, he gave orders to put steamon again.
