The English at the North Pole

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER XXII

  BEGINNING OF REVOLT

  At this unexpected command, the surprise was great on board the_Forward_.

  "Light the fires!" exclaimed some.

  "What with?" asked others.

  "When we've only two months' coal in the hold!" said Pen.

  "What shall we warm ourselves with in the winter?" asked Clifton.

  "We shall be obliged to burn the brig down to her water-line," answeredGripper.

  "And stuff the stove with the masts," added Warren. Shandon lookedat Wall. The stupefied engineers hesitated to go down to themachine-room.

  "Did you hear me?" cried the captain in an irritated tone.

  Brunton made for the hatchway, but before going down he stopped.

  "Don't go, Brunton!" called out a voice.

  "Who spoke?" cried Hatteras.

  "I did," said Pen, advancing towards the captain.

  "And what did you say?" asked Hatteras.

  "I say," answered Pen with an oath--"I say, we've had enough of it,and we won't go any further. You shan't kill us with hunger and workin the winter, and they shan't light the fires!"

  "Mr. Shandon," answered Hatteras calmly, "have that man put in irons!"

  "But, captain," replied Shandon, "what the man says----"

  "If you repeat what the man says," answered Hatteras, "I'll have youshut up in your cabin and guarded! Seize that man! Do you hear?"Johnson, Bell, and Simpson advanced towards the sailor, who was ina terrible passion.

  "The first who touches me----" he said, brandishing a handspike.Hatteras approached him.

  "Pen," said he tranquilly, "if you move, I shall blow out your brains!"So speaking, he cocked a pistol and aimed it at the sailor. A murmurwas heard.

  "Not a word, men," said Hatteras, "or that man falls dead!" Johnsonand Bell disarmed Pen, who no longer made any resistance, and placedhim in the hold.

  "Go, Brunton," said Hatteras. The engineer, followed by Plover andWarren, went down to his post. Hatteras returned to the poop.

  "That Pen is a wretched fellow!" said the doctor.

  "No man has ever been nearer death!" answered the captain, simply.

  The steam was soon got up, the anchors were weighed, and the _Forward_veered away east, cutting the young ice with her steel prow. BetweenBaring Island and Beecher Point there are a considerable quantityof islands in the midst of ice-fields; the streams crowd togetherin the little channels which cut up this part of the sea; they hada tendency to agglomerate under the relatively low temperature;hummocks were formed here and there, and these masses, already morecompact, denser, and closer together, would soon form an impenetrablemass. The _Forward_ made its way with great difficulty amidst thesnowstorms. However, with the mobility that characterises theclimate of these regions, the sun appeared from time to time, thetemperature went up several degrees, obstacles melted as if by magic,and a fine sheet of water lay where icebergs bristled all the passes.The horizon glowed with those magnificent orange shades which restthe eye, tired with the eternal white of the snow.

  On the 26th of July the _Forward_ passed Dundas Island, and veeredafterwards more to the north; but there Hatteras found himselfopposite an ice-bank eight or nine feet high, formed of littleicebergs detached from the coast; he was obliged to turn west. Theuninterrupted cracking of the ice, added to the noise of the steamer,was like sighs or groans. At last the brig found a channel, andadvanced painfully along it; often an enormous iceberg hindered hercourse for hours; the fog hindered the pilot's look-out; as long ashe can see for a mile in front of him, he can easily avoid obstacles;but in the midst of the fog it was often impossible to see a cable'slength, and the swell was very strong. Sometimes the clouds lookedsmooth and white as though they were reflections of the ice-banks;but there were entire days when the yellow rays of the sun could notpierce the tenacious fog. Birds were still very numerous, and theircries were deafening; seals, lying idle on the floating ice, raisedtheir heads, very little frightened, and moved their long necks asthe brig passed. Pieces from the ship's sheathing were often rubbedoff in her contact with the ice. At last, after six days of slownavigation, Point Beecher was sighted to the north on the 1st of August.Hatteras passed the last few hours at his masthead; the open sea thatStewart had perceived on May 30th, 1851, about latitude 76 degrees20 minutes, could not be far off; but as far as the eye could reach,Hatteras saw no indication of it. He came down without saying a word.

  "Do you believe in an open sea?" asked Shandon of the lieutenant.

  "I am beginning not to," answered Wall.

  "Wasn't I right to say the pretended discovery was purely imagination?But they would not believe me, and even you were against me, Wall."

  "We shall believe in you for the future, Shandon."

  "Yes," said he, "when it's too late," and so saying he went back tohis cabin, where he had stopped almost ever since his dispute withthe captain. The wind veered round south towards evening; Hatterasordered the brig to be put under sail and the fires to be put out;the crew had to work very hard for the next few days; they were morethan a week getting to Barrow Point. The _Forward_ had only made thirtymiles in ten days. There the wind turned north again, and the screwwas set to work. Hatteras still hoped to find an open sea beyond the77th parallel, as Sir Edward Belcher had done. Ought he to treat theseaccounts as apocryphal? or had the winter come upon him earlier? Onthe 15th of August Mount Percy raised its peak, covered with eternalsnow, through the mist. The next day the sun set for the first time,ending thus the long series of days with twenty-four hours in them.The men had ended by getting accustomed to the continual daylight,but it had never made any difference to the animals; the Greenlanddogs went to their rest at their accustomed hour, and Dick slept asregularly every evening as though darkness had covered the sky. Still,during the nights which followed the 15th of August, darkness wasnever profound; although the sun set, he still gave sufficient lightby refraction. On the 19th of August, after a pretty good observation,they sighted Cape Franklin on the east coast and Cape Lady Franklinon the west coast; the gratitude of the English people had given thesenames to the two opposite points--probably the last reached byFranklin: the name of the devoted wife, opposite to that of her husband,is a touching emblem of the sympathy which always united them.

  The doctor, by following Johnson's advice, accustomed himself tosupport the low temperature; he almost always stayed on deck bravingthe cold, the wind, and the snow. He got rather thinner, but hisconstitution did not suffer. Besides, he expected to be much worseoff, and joyfully prepared for the approaching winter.

  "Look at those birds," he said to Johnson one day; "they are emigratingsouth in flocks! They are shrieking out their good-byes!"

  "Yes, Mr. Clawbonny, some instinct tells them they must go, and theyset out."

  "There's more than one amongst us who would like to imitate them,I think."

  "They are cowards, Mr. Clawbonny; those animals have no provisionsas we have, and are obliged to seek their food where it is to be found.But sailors, with a good ship under their feet, ought to go to theworld's end."

  "You hope that Hatteras will succeed, then?"

  "He certainly will, Mr. Clawbonny."

  "I am of the same opinion as you, Johnson, and if he only wanted onefaithful companion----"

  "He'll have two!"

  "Yes, Johnson," answered the doctor, shaking hands with the bravesailor.

  Prince Albert Land, which the _Forward_ was then coasting, bears alsothe name of Grinnell Land, and though Hatteras, from his hatred tothe Yankees, would never call it by its American name, it is the oneit generally goes by. It owes its double appellation to the followingcircumstances: At the same time that Penny, an Englishman, gave itthe name of Prince Albert, Lieutenant Haven, commander of the _Rescue_,called it Grinnell Land in honour of the American merchant who hadfitted out the expedition from New York at his own expense. Whilstthe brig was coasting it, she experienced a series of unheard-ofdifficulties, navigating sometimes under
sail, sometimes by steam.On the 18th of August they sighted Britannia Mountain, scarcelyvisible through the mist, and the _Forward_ weighed anchor the nextday in Northumberland Bay. She was hemmed in on all sides.