The English at the North Pole

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER XXIV

  PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING

  The southern hemisphere is colder in parallel latitudes than thenorthern hemisphere; but the temperature of the new continent is still15 degrees below that of the other parts of the world; and in Americathe countries known under the name of the Frozen Pole are the mostformidable. The average temperature of the year is 2 degrees belowzero. Scientific men, and Dr. Clawbonny amongst them, explain thefact in the following way. According to them, the prevailing windsof the northern regions of America blow from the south-west; theycome from the Pacific Ocean with an equal and bearable temperature;but in order to reach the Arctic Seas they have to cross the immenseAmerican territory, covered with snow, they get cold by contact withit, and then cover the hyperborean regions with their frigid violence.Hatteras found himself at the Frozen Pole beyond the countries seenby his predecessors; he, therefore, expected a terrible winter ona ship lost in the midst of the ice with a crew nearly in revolt.He resolved to face these dangers with his accustomed energy. He beganby taking, with the help of Johnson's experience, all the measuresnecessary for wintering. According to his calculations he had beendragged two hundred and fifty miles beyond New Cornwall, the lastcountry discovered; he was clasped in an ice-field as securely asin a bed of granite, and no power on earth could extricate him.

  There no longer existed a drop of water in the vast seas over whichthe Arctic winter reigned. Ice-fields extended as far as the eye couldreach, bristling with icebergs, and the _Forward_ was sheltered bythree of the highest on three points of the compass; the south-eastwind alone could reach her. If instead of icebergs there had beenrocks, verdure instead of snow, and the sea in its liquid state again,the brig would have been safely anchored in a pretty bay shelteredfrom the worst winds. But in such a latitude it was a miserable stateof things. They were obliged to fasten the brig by means of her anchors,notwithstanding her immovability; they were obliged to prepare forthe submarine currents and the breaking up of the ice. When Johnsonheard where they were, he took the greatest precautions in gettingeverything ready for wintering.

  "It's the captain's usual luck," said he to the doctor; "we've gotnipped in the most disagreeable point of the whole glove! Never mind;we'll get out of it!"

  As to the doctor, he was delighted at the situation. He would nothave changed it for any other! A winter at the Frozen Pole seemedto him desirable. The crew were set to work at the sails, which werenot taken down, and put into the hold, as the first people who winteredin these regions had thought prudent; they were folded up in theircases, and the ice soon made them an impervious envelope. The crow'snest, too, remained in its place, serving as a nautical observatory;the rigging alone was taken away. It became necessary to cut awaythe part of the field that surrounded the brig, which began to sufferfrom the pressure. It was a long and painful work. In a few days thekeel was cleared, and on examination was found to have suffered little,thanks to the solidity of its construction, only its copper platingwas almost all torn off. When the ship was once liberated she roseat least nine inches; the crew then bevelled the ice in the shapeof the keel, and the field formed again under the brig, and offeredsufficient opposition to pressure from without. The doctor helpedin all this work; he used the ice-knife skilfully; he incited thesailors by his happy disposition. He instructed himself and others,and was delighted to find the ice under the ship.

  "It's a very good precaution!" said he.

  "We couldn't do without it, Mr. Clawbonny," said Johnson. "Now wecan raise a snow-wall as high as the gunwale, and if we like we canmake it ten feet thick, for we've plenty of materials."

  "That's an excellent idea," answered the doctor. "Snow is a badconductor of heat; it reflects it instead of absorbing it, and theheat of the interior does not escape."

  "That's true," said Johnson. "We shall raise a fortification againstthe cold, and against animals too, if they take it into their headsto pay us a visit; when the work is done it will answer, I can tellyou. We shall make two flights of steps in the snow, one from theship and the other from outside; when once we've cut out the stepswe shall pour water over them, and it will make them as hard as rock.We shall have a royal staircase."

  "It's a good thing that cold makes ice and snow, and so gives us themeans of protecting ourselves against it. I don't know what we shoulddo if it did not."

  A roofing of tarred cloth was spread over the deck and descended tothe sides of the brig. It was thus sheltered from all outsideimpression, and made a capital promenade; it was covered with twofeet and a-half of snow, which was beaten down till it became veryhard, and above that they put a layer of sand, completely macadamisingit.

  "With a few trees I should imagine myself in Hyde Park," said thedoctor, "or in one of the hanging gardens of Babylon."

  They made a hole at a short distance from the brig; it was round,like a well; they broke the ice every morning. This well was usefulin case of fire or for the frequent baths ordered to keep the crewin health. In order to spare their fuel, they drew the water froma greater depth by means of an apparatus invented by a Frenchman,Francois Arago. Generally, when a ship is wintering, all the objectswhich encumber her are placed in magazines on the coast, but it wasimpossible to do this in the midst of an ice-field. Every precautionwas taken against cold and damp; men have been known to resist thecold and succumb to damp; therefore both had to be guarded against.The _Forward_ had been built expressly for these regions, and thecommon room was wisely arranged. They had made war on the corners,where damp takes refuge at first. If it had been quite circular itwould have done better, but warmed by a vast stove and well ventilated,it was very comfortable; the walls were lined with buckskins and notwith woollen materials, for wool condenses the vapours andimpregnates the atmosphere with damp. The partitions were taken downin the poop, and the officers had a large comfortable room, warmedby a stove. Both this room and that of the crew had a sort of antechamber,which prevented all direct communication with the exterior, andprevented the heat going out; it also made the crew pass more graduallyfrom one temperature to another. They left their snow-coveredgarments in these antechambers, and scraped their feet on scrapersput there on purpose to prevent any unhealthy element getting in.

  Canvas hose let in the air necessary to make the stoves draw; otherhose served for escape-pipes for the steam. Two condensers were fixedin the two rooms; they gathered the vapour instead of letting it escape,and were emptied twice a week; sometimes they contained severalbushels of ice. By means of the air-pipes the fires could be easilyregulated, and it was found that very little fuel was necessary tokeep up a temperature of 50 degrees in the rooms. But Hatteras sawwith grief that he had only enough coal left for two months' firing.A drying-room was prepared for the garments that were obliged to bewashed, as they could not be hung in the air or they would have beenfrozen and spoiled. The delicate parts of the machine were taken topieces carefully, and the room where they were placed was closed uphermetically. The rules for life on board were drawn up by Hatterasand hung up in the common room. The men got up at six in the morning,and their hammocks were exposed to the air three times a week; thefloors of the two rooms were rubbed with warm sand every morning;boiling tea was served out at every meal, and the food varied as muchas possible, according to the different days of the week; it consistedof bread, flour, beef suet and raisins for puddings, sugar, cocoa,tea, rice, lemon-juice, preserved meat, salted beef and pork, pickledcabbage and other vegetables; the kitchen was outside the common rooms,and the men were thus deprived of its heat, but cooking is a constantsource of evaporation and humidity.

  The health of men depends a great deal on the food they eat; underthese high latitudes it is of great importance to consume as muchanimal food as possible. The doctor presided at the drawing up ofthe bill of fare.

  "We must take example from the Esquimaux," said he; "they havereceived their lessons from nature, and are our teachers here;although Arabians and Africans can live on a few dates and a handfulof rice, it is very
different here, where we must eat a great dealand often. The Esquimaux absorb as much as ten and fifteen poundsof oil in a day. If you do not like oil, you must have recourse tothings rich in sugar and fat. In a word, you want carbon in the stoveinside you as much as the stove there wants coal."

  Every man was forced to take a bath in the half-frozen water condensedfrom the fire. The doctor set the example; he did it at first as wedo all disagreeable things that we feel obliged to do, but he soonbegan to take extreme pleasure in it. When the men had to go out eitherto hunt or work they had to take great care not to get frost-bitten;and if by accident it happened, they made haste to rub the partattacked with snow to bring back the circulation of the blood. Besidesbeing carefully clothed in wool from head to foot, the men wore hoodsof buckskin and sealskin trousers, through which it is impossiblefor the wind to penetrate. All these preparations took about threeweeks, and the 10th of October came round without anything remarkablehappening.