"A sculler's notch in the stern he made,
An oar he shaped of the bottle blade;
Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap
And launched afar on the calm, blue deep."
_The Culprit Fay._
Roswell was hardly on the ice before a sound of a most portentous sort
reached his ear. He knew at once that the field had been rent in twain by
outward pressure, and that some new change was to occur that might release
or might destroy the schooner. He was on the point of springing forward in
order to join Daggett, when a call from the boat arrested his steps.
"These here fields are coming together, Captain Gar'ner, and our boat will
soon be crushed unless we get it out of the water."
Sure enough, a single glance behind him sufficed to assure the young
master of the truth of this statement. The field he was on was slowly
swinging, bringing its western margin in closer contact with the eastern
edge of the floe that lay within it. The movement could be seen merely by
the closing of the channel through which the boat had come, and by the
cracking and crushing of the ice on the edges of the two fields. So
tremendous was the pressure, however, that cakes as large as a small house
were broken off, and forced upward on the surface of the field, or ground
into small fragments, as it might be under the vice of a power hitherto
unknown to the spectators. Slow as was the movement of the floe, it was
too fast to allow of delay; and, finding a suitable place, the boat was
hauled up, and put in security on the floe that lay nearest the schooner.
"This may give us a long drag to get back into the water, Stimson, and a
night out of our bunks," said Roswell, looking about him, as soon as the
task was achieved.
"I do not know that, sir," was the answer. "It seems to me that the floe
has parted alongside of them rocks, and if-so-be that should turn out to
be the case, the whull on us, schooner, boat, and all hands, may drift
into the bay; for that there is a current setting from this quarter up
towards our island, I'm sartain of, by the feel of my oar, as we come
along."
"It may be so--the currents run all manner of ways, and field-ice may pass
the shoals, though a berg never can. I do not remember, nevertheless, to
have ever seen even a floe within the group--nothing beyond large cakes
that have got adrift by some means or other."
"I have, sir, though only once. A few days a'ter we got in, when I was
ship-keeper, and all hands was down under the rocks of the north eend, a
field come in at the northern entrance of the bay, and went out at the
southern. It might have been a league athwart it, and it drifted, as a
body might say, as if it had some one aboard to give it the right sheer.
Touch it did at the south cape, but just winding as handy as a craft could
have done it, in a good tide's way, out to sea it went ag'in, bound to the
south pole for-ti-'now."
"Well, this is good news, and may be the means of saving the Vineyard
craft in the end. We do seem to be setting bodily into the bay, and if we
can only get clear of that island, I do not see what is to hinder it. Here
is a famous fellow of a mountain to the northward, coming down before the
wind, as one might say, and giving us a cant into the passage. I should
think that chap must produce some sort of a change, whether it be for
better or worse."
"Ay, ay, sir," put in Thompson, who acted as a boat-steerer at need, "he
may do just that, but it is all he can do. Mr. Green and I sounded out
from the cove for a league or more, a few days since, and we found less
than twenty fathoms, as far as we went. That chap up to the nor'ard
there, draws something like a hundred fathoms, if he draws an inch. He
shows more above water than a first-rate's truck."
"That does he, and a good deal to spare. Thompson, do you and Todd remain
here, and look after the boat, while the rest of us will shape our course
for the schooner. She seems to be in a wicked berth, and 'twill be no more
than neighbourly to try to get her out of it."
Truly enough might Roswell call the berth of the Sea Lion, of the
Vineyard, by any expressive name that implied danger. When the party
reached her, they found the situation of that vessel to be as follows. She
had been endeavouring to work her way through a passage between two large
fields, when she found the ice closing, and that she was in great danger
of being 'nipped.' Daggett was a man of fertile resources, and great
decision of character. Perceiving that escape was impossible, all means of
getting clear being rendered useless by the floes soon touching, both
before and behind him, he set about adopting the means most likely to save
his vessel. Selecting a spot where a curve, in the margin of the field to
leeward, promised temporary security, at least, he got his vessel into it,
anchored fast to the floe. Then he commenced cutting away the ice, by
means of axes first, and of saws afterwards, in the hope that he might
make such a cavity as, by its size and shape, would receive the schooner's
hull, and prevent her destruction. For several hours had he and his people
been at this work, when, to their joy, as well as to their great
astonishment, they were suddenly joined by Roswell and his party. The fact
was, that so intently had every one of the Vineyard men's faculties been
absorbed by their own danger, and so much was each individual occupied by
his own duty, that not a man among them had seen the boat, or even any of
the crew, until Gardiner called out to Daggett as he approached,
announcing his presence by his voice.
"This is good fortune, truly, Captain Gar'ner," said Daggett, shaking his
brother master most cordially by the hand; "good fortune, do I call it! I
was satisfied that I should fall in with you, somewhere about this group
of islands, for they lie just about where my late uncle had given us
reason to suppose some good sealing ground might be met with; but I did
not hope to see you this morning. You observe our position, Captain
Gar'ner; there is every prospect of a most awful nip!"
"There is, indeed, though I see you have been making some provision for
it. What luck have you had in digging a slip to let the schooner into?"
"Well, we might have had worse, though better would have been more
agreeable. It's plain sailing, so long as we can work above water, and you
see we've cleared a fine berth for the craft, down to the water's edge;
but, below that, 'tis blind work and slow. The field is some thirty feet
thick, and sawing through it is out of the question. The most we can do is
to get off pieces diagonally. I am not without hopes that we have done
enough of this to make a wedge, on which the schooner will rise, if
pressed hard on her off-side. I have heard of such things, Captain
Gar'ner, though I cannot say I ever saw it."
"It's a ticklish business to trust to such a protector; still, a great
deal must be gained by cutting away so much of this upper ice, and it is
possible your schooner may be lifted, as you seem to expect. Has anything
been done to strengthen the craft in-board?"
"Not as yet; though I've thought of that, too. But what is the stoutest
ship that ever floated, against the pressure of such an enormous field of
ice? Had we not better keep cutting away?"
"You can continue to work the saw and the axes, but I will give an eye to
strengthening the craft in-board. Just point out the spars and plank you
can spare, and we'll see what can be done. At any rate, my lads, you can
now work with the certainty that your lives are safe. My schooner lies
about six leagues from you, as safely moored as if she lay in a dock.
Come, Captain Daggett, let me see your spare spars and plank."
Great encouragement it certainly was to these mariners, so far from home,
and in their imminently perilous condition, to know that a countryman and
a friend was so near them, to afford shelter and protection. The American
sailor is not a cheering animal, like his English relative, but he quite
as clearly understands what ought to be received with congratulation, as
those who are apt to make more noise. The Vineyard men, in particular,
were habitually quiet and thoughtful, there being but one seaman in the
craft who did not husband his lay, and look forward to meet the wants of a
future day. This is the result of education, men usually becoming quiet as
they gain ideas, and feel that the tongue has been given to us in order to
communicate them to our fellows. Still, the joy at receiving this
unlooked-for assistance was great among the Vineyard men, and each party
went to work with activity and zeal.
The task of Roswell Gardiner was in-board, while that of Daggett and his
men continued to be on the ice. The latter resumed the labour of cutting
and sawing the field, and of getting up fenders, or skids, to protect the
inner side of their vessel from the effects of a 'nip.' As for Gardiner,
he set about his self-assumed duty with great readiness and intelligence.
His business was to strengthen the craft, by getting supports up in her
hold. This was done without much difficulty, all the upper part of the
hold being clear and easily come at. Spars were cut to the proper length,
plank were placed in the broadest part of the vessel, opposite to each
other, and the spars were wedged in carefully, extending from side to
side, so as to form a great additional support to the regular construction
of the schooner. In little more than an hour, Roswell had his task
accomplished, while Daggett did not see that he could achieve much more
himself. They met on the ice to consult, and to survey the condition of
things around them.
The outer field had been steadily encroaching upon the inner, breaking the
edges of both, until the points of junction were to be traced by a long
line of fragments forced upward, and piled high in the air. Open spaces,
however, still existed, owing to irregularities in the outlines of the two
floes; and Daggett hoped that the little bay into which he had got his
schooner might not be entirely closed, ere a shift of wind, or a change in
the tides, might carry away the causes of the tremendous pressure that
menaced his security. It is not easy for those who are accustomed to look
at natural objects in their more familiar aspects, fully to appreciate the
vast momentum of the weight that was now drifting slowly down upon the
schooner. The only ray of hope was to be found in the deficiency in one
of the two great requisites of such a force. Momentum being _weight_,
multiplied into _velocity_, there were some glimpses visible, of a nature
to produce a slight degree of expectation that the last might yet be
resisted. The movement was slow, but it was absolutely grand, by its
steadiness and power. Any one who has ever stood on a lake or river shore,
and beheld the undeviating force with which a small cake of ice crumbles
and advances before a breeze, or in a current, may form some idea of the
majesty of the movement of a field of leagues in diameter, and which was
borne upon by a gale of the ocean, as well as by currents, and by the
weight of drifting ice-bergs from without. It is true that the impetus
came principally from a great distance, and could scarcely be detected or
observed by those around the schooner; still, these last were fully aware
of the whole character of the danger, which each minute appeared to render
more and more imminent and imposing. The two fields were obviously closing
still, and that with a resistless power that boded destruction to the
unfortunate vessel. The open water near her was already narrowed to a
space that half an hour might suffice to close entirely.
"Have you set that nearest island by compass, Daggett?" asked Roswell
Gardiner, as soon as he had taken a good look around him. "To me it seems
that it bears more to the eastward than it did an hour since. If this
should be true, our inner field here must have a very considerable
westerly set."
"In which case we may still hope to drift clear," returned Daggett,
springing on board the schooner, and running aft to the binnacle, Roswell
keeping close at his side. "By George! it is as you say; the bearings of
that island are altered at least two points!"
"In which case our drift has exceeded a league--Ha! what noise is that?
Can it be an eruption of the volcano?"
Daggett, at first, was inclined to believe it was a sound produced by some
of the internal convulsions of the earth, which within, as if in mockery
of the chill scene that prevailed without, was a raging volcano, the
fierce heats of which found vent at the natural chimneys produced by its
own efforts. This opinion, however, did not last long, and he gave
expression to his new thoughts in his answer.
"'Tis the ice," he said. "I do believe the pressure has caused the fields
to part on the rocks of that island. If so, our leeward floe may float
away, as fast as the weather field approaches."
"Hardly," said Roswell, gazing intently towards the nearest island;
"hardly; for the most weatherly of the two will necessarily get the force
of the wind and the impetus of those bergs first, and make the fastest
drift. It may lessen the violence of the nip, but I do not think it will
avert it altogether."
This opinion of Gardiner's fully described all that subsequently occurred.
The outer floe continued its inroads on the inner, breaking up the margins
of both, until the channel was so nearly closed as to bring the field from
which the danger was most apprehended in absolute contact with the side of
the schooner. When the margin of the outer floe first touched the bilge of
the schooner, it was at the precise spot where the vessel had just been
fortified within. Fenders had also been provided without, and there was
just a quarter of a minute, during which the two captains hoped that these
united means of defence might enable the craft to withstand the pressure.
This delusion lasted but a moment, however, the cracking of timbers
letting it be plainly seen that the force was too great to be resisted.
For another quarter of a minute, the two masters held their breath,
expecting to see the deck rise beneath their feet, as the ice rose along
the points of contact between the floes. Such, in all probability, would
have been the result, had not the pressure brought about another change,
that was quite as much within the influence of the laws of mechanical
forces, though not so much expected. Owing to the wedge-like form of the
vessel's bottom, as well as to the circumstance that the ice of the outer
floe had a similar shape, projecting beneath the schooner's keel, the
craft was lifted bodily, with an upward jerk, as if she were suddenly
released from some imprisoning power. Released she was, indeed, and that
most opportunely, for another half-minute would have seen her ribs broken
in, and the schooner a mangled wreck. As she now rose, Roswell gave vent
to his delight in a loud cry, and all hands felt that the occurrence might
possibly save them. The surge upward was fearful, and several of the men
were thrown off their feet; but it effectually released the schooner from
the nip, laying her gradually up in the sort of dock that her people had
been so many hours preparing for her reception. There she lay, inclining a
little, partly on her bilge, or sewed, as seamen term it, when a vessel
gets a list from touching the ground and being left by the tide, neither
quite upright, nor absolutely on her beam-ends.
No sooner was the vessel thus docked, than all apprehension of receiving
further injury from the outer floe ceased. It might force the schooner
altogether on the inner field, driving the vessel before it, as an
avalanche of mud in the Alps is known to force cottages and hamlets in its
front; but it could no longer 'nip' it. It did not appear probable to the
two masters, however, that the vessel would be forced from its present
berth, the rending and cracking of the ice sensibly diminishing, as the
two floes came closer and closer together. Nor was this all: it was soon
very obvious that the inner field was drifting, with an increased motion,
into the bay, while the larger, or outer floe, seemed to hang, from some
cause or other. Of the fact there was soon no doubt, the fissure beginning
to open, as slowly and steadily as it had closed, but noiselessly, and
without any rending of the ice.
"We shall get you clear, Daggett! we shall get you clear!" cried Roswell,
with hearty good-will, forgetting, in that moment of generous effort, all
feelings of competition and rivalry. "I know what you are after, my good
fellow--have understood it from the first. Yonder high land is the spot
you seek; and along the north shore of that island are elephants, lions,
dogs, bears, and other animals, to fill up all the craft that ever came
out of the Vineyard!"
"This is hearty, Gar'ner," returned the other, giving his brother master a
most cordial shake of the hand, "and it's just what I like. Sealing is a
sociable business, and a craft should never come alone into these high
latitudes. Accidents will happen to the most prudent man living, as you
see by what has just befallen me; for, to own the truth, we've had a
narrow chance of it!"
The reader will remember that all which Daggett now said, was uttered by
a man who saw his vessel lying on the ice, with a list that rendered it
somewhat difficult to move about on her deck, and still in circumstances
that would have caused half the navigators of this world to despair. Such
was not the fact with Daggett, however. Seven thousand miles from home,
alone, in an unknown sea, and uncertain of ever finding the place he
sought, this man had picked his way among mountains and fields of ice,
with perhaps less hesitation and reluctance than a dandy would encounter
the perils of a crossing, when the streets were a little moistened by
rain. Even then, with his vessel literally shelfed on the ice, certain
that she had been violently nipped, he was congratulating himself on
reaching a sealing ground, from which he could never return without
encountering all the same dangers over again. As for Roswell, he laughed a
little at the other's opinion of the sealing business, for he was morally
certain the Vineyard-man would have kept the secret, had it been in his
possession alone.
"Well, well, we'll forget the past," he said, "all but what we've done to
help one another. You stood by me off Hatteras, and I've been of some
service to you here. You know how it is in our calling, Daggett; first
come, first served. I got here first, and have had the cream of the
business for this season; though I do not by any means wish to be
understood as saying that you are too late."
"I hope not, Gar'ner. 'Twould be vexatious to have all this risk and
trouble for nothing. How much ile have you stowed?"
"All my ground-tier, and a few riders. It is with the skins that we are
doing the best business."
Daggett's eyes fairly snapped at this announcement, which aroused all his
professional ambition, to say nothing of that propensity to the "root of
all evil," which had become pretty thoroughly incorporated with his moral
being, by dint of example, theory, and association. We have frequently had
occasion to remark how much more 'enjoyable,' for the intellectual and
independent, is a country on the decline, than a country on the advance.
The one is accumulating that wealth which the other has already possessed
and improved; and men cease to dwell so much on riches in their inmost
souls, when the means of obtaining them would seem to have got beyond
their reach. This is one of the secrets of the universal popularity of
Italy with the idle and educated; though the climate, and the monuments,
and the recollections, out of doubt, contribute largely to its charms.
Nevertheless, man, as a rule, is far more removed from the money-getting
mania in Italy, than in almost any other portion of the Christian world;
and this merely because the time of her wealth and power has gone by,
leaving in its train a thousand fruits, that would seem to be the most
savoury, as the stem on which they grew would appear to be approaching its
decay. On Martha's Vineyard, however, and in no part of the Great
Republic, indeed, has this waning season yet commenced, and the heart of
man is still engrossed with those desires that are to produce the means
which are to lay the foundations for the enjoyment of generations to come.
"That's luck, indeed, for a craft so early in the season," returned
Daggett, when his eyes had done snapping. "Are the critturs getting to be
wild and skeary?"
"Not more so than the day we began upon them. I have taken the greatest
care to send none but my most experienced hands out to kill and skin, and
their orders have been rigid to give as little alarm as possible. If you
wish to fill up, I would advise you to take the same precautions, for the
heel of the season is beginning to show itself."
"I will winter here, but I get a full craft," said Daggett, with a
resolute manner, if not absolutely serious in what he said. "Trouble
enough have I had to find the group, and we Vineyard-men don't relish the
idee of being outdone."
"You would be done up, my fine fellow," answered Roswell, laughing, "did
you attempt to pass a winter here. The Sea Lion of Humse's Hull would not
herself keep you in fuel, and you would have to raft it off next summer on
your casks, or remain here for ever."
"I suppose a body might expect to see you back again, another season,"
observed Daggett, glancing meaningly towards his companion, as if he had
seriously revolved so desperate a plan in his mind. "'Tisn't often that a
sealer lets a station like that you've described drop out of his
recollection in a single v'y'ge."
"I may be back or I may not"--said Roswell, just then remembering Mary,
and wondering if she would continue to keep him any longer in suspense,
should he return successful from his present adventure--"That will depend
on others more than on myself. I wish, however, now we are both here, and
there can no longer be any 'hide and go seek' between us, that you would
tell me how you came to know anything about this cluster of islands, or of
the seals then and there to be found?"
"You forget my uncle, who died on Oyster Pond, and whose effects I crossed
over to claim?"
"I remember him very well--saw him often while living, and helped to bury
him when dead."
"Well, our information came from him. He threw out several hints
consarning sealing-grounds aboard the brig in which he came home; and you
needn't be told, Gar'ner, that a hint of that kind is sartain to find its
way through all the ports down east. But hearing that there was new
sealing-ground wasn't knowing where to find it. I should have been at a
loss, wasn't it for the spot on my uncle's chart that had been rubbed over
lately, as I concluded, to get rid of some of his notes. You know, as well
as I do, that the spot was in this very latitude and longitude, and so I
came here to look for the much-desired land."
"And you have undertaken such an outfit, and come this long distance into
an icy sea, on information as slight as this!" exclaimed Roswell,
astonished at this proof of sagacity and enterprise, even in men who are
renowned for scenting dollars from pole to pole.
"On this, with a few hints picked up, here and there, among some of the
old gentleman's papers. He was fond of scribbling, and I have got a sort
of a chart that he scratched on a leaf of his bible, that was made to
represent this very group, as I can now see."
"Then you could have had no occasion for the printed chart, with the mark
of obliteration on it, and did not come here on that authority after all."
"There you 're wrong, Captain Gar'ner. The chart of the group had no
latitude or longitude, but just placed each island with its bearings and
distances from the other islands. It was no help in finding the place,
which might be in one hemisphere as well as in the other."
"It was, then, the mark of the obliteration--"
"_Marks_, if you please, Captain Gar'ner," interrupted the other,
significantly. "My uncle talked a good deal aboard of that brig about
other matters besides sealing. We think several matters have been
obliterated from the old chart, and we intend to look 'em all up. It's our
right, you know, seeing that the old man was Vineyard-born, and we are his
nearest of kin."
"Certainly"--rejoined Roswell, laughing again, but somewhat more faintly
than before. "Every man for him self in this world is a good maxim; it
being pretty certain if we do not take care of ourselves, no one will take
care of us."
"Yes, sir," said Stimson, who was standing near; "there is one to care for
every hair of our heads, however forgetful and careless we may be
ourselves. Wasn't it for this, Captain Gar'ner, there's many a craft that
comes into these seas that would never find its way out of 'em; and many a
bold sailor, with a heart boiling over with fun and frolic, that would be
frozen to an ice-cicle every year!"
Gardiner felt the justice of this remark, and easily pardoned its
familiarity for its truth. In these sealers the discipline is by no means
of that distant and military or naval character that is found in even an
ordinary merchantman. As every seaman has an interest in the result of the
voyage, some excuse was made for this departure from the more general
usage; and this familiarity itself never exceeded the bounds that were
necessary to the observance of duty.
"Ay, ay," returned Roswell, smiling--"in one sense you are right enough;
but Captain Daggett and myself were speaking of human affairs, as human
affairs are carried on.--Is not this inner field drifting fast away from
the outer, Daggett? If so, we shall go directly into the bay!"
It was as Gardiner thought. By some means that were not apparent, the
floes were now actually separating, and at a rate of movement which much
exceeded that of their junction. All idea of further danger from the outer
field disappeared, as a matter of course.
"It's so, Captain Gar'ner," said Stimson, respectfully, but with point;
"and who and what brought it about for our safety and the preservation of
this craft?--I just ventur' to ask that question, sir."
"It may be the hand of Providence, my good fellow; for I very frankly own
I can see no direct physical cause. Nevertheless, I fancy it would be
found that the tides or currents have something to do with it, if the
truth could be come at."
"Well, sir, and who causes the tides and currents to run, this-a-way and
that-a-way?"
"There you have me, Stephen; for I never could get hold of the clew to
their movements at all," answered Roswell, laughing. "There is a reason
for it all, I dare say, if one could only find it out. Captain Daggett, it
is high time to look after the safety of your schooner. She ought to be in
the cove before night sets in, since the ice has found its way into the
bay."
This appeal produced a general movement. By this time the two fields were
a hundred fathoms asunder; the smaller, or that on which the vessel lay,
drifting quite fast into the bay, under the joint influences of wind and
current; while the larger floe had clearly been arrested by the islands.
This smaller field was much lessened in surface, in consequence of having
been broken at the rocks, though the fragment that was thus cut off was of
more than a league in diameter, and of a thickness that exceeded many
yards.
As for the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, she was literally shelfed, as has
been said. So irresistible had been the momentum of the great floe, that
it lifted her out of the water as two or three hands would run up a bark
canoe on a gravelly beach. This lifting process had, very fortunately for
the craft, been effected by an application of force from below, in a
wedge-like manner, and by bringing the strongest defences of the vessel to
meet the power. Consequently, no essential injury had been done the vessel
in thus laying her on her screw-dock.
"If a body could get the craft _off_ as easily as she was got _on_,"
observed Daggett, as he and Roswell Gardiner stood looking at the
schooner's situation, "it would be but a light job. But, as it is, she
lies on ice at least twenty feet thick, and ice that seems as solid as
flint!"
"We know it is not quite as hard as that, Daggett," was Roswell's reply;
"for our saws and axes make great havoc in it, when we can fairly get at
it."
"If one _could_ get fairly at it! But here you see, Gar'ner, everything is
under water, and an axe is next to useless. Nor can the saws be used with
much advantage on ice so thick."
"There is no help for it but hard work and great perseverance. I would
advise that a saw be set at work at each end of the schooner, allowing a
little room in case of accidents, and that we weaken the foundation by two
deep cuts. The weight of the vessel will help us, and in time she will
settle back into her 'native element,' as the newspapers have it."
There was, indeed, no other process that promised success, and the advice
of Gardiner was followed. In the course of the next two hours deep cuts
were made with the saws, which were pushed so low as to reach quite to the
bottom of the cake. This could be done only by what the sailors called
"jury-handles," or spars secured to the plates. The water offered the
principal obstacle, for that lay on the shelf at least five feet deep.
Perseverance and ingenuity, however, finally achieved their aim. A
cracking was heard, the schooner slowly righted, and settled off into the
sea again, as easily and harmlessly as if scientifically launched. The
fenders protected her sides and copper, though the movement was little
more than slowly sinking on the fragment of the cake, which, by means of
the cuts, had been gradually so much reduced as to be unable to uphold so
great a weight. It was merely reversing the process of breaking the
camel's back, by laying the last feather on his load.
This happy conclusion to several hours of severe toil, occurred just as
the field had drifted abreast of the cove, and was about the centre of the
bay. Hazard came up also at that point, on his return from the volcano,
altering his course a little to speak the strangers. The report of the
mate concerning his discoveries was simple and brief. There was a volcano,
and one in activity; but it had nothing remarkable about it. No seal were
seen, and there was little to reward one for crossing the bay. Sterility,
and a chill grandeur, were the characteristics of all that region; and
these were not wanting to any part of the group. Just as the sun was
setting, Gardiner piloted his companion into the cove; and the two Sea
Lions were moored amicably side by side, and that too at a spot where
thousands of the real animals were to be found within a league.