"Poor child of danger, nursling of the storm,
Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form!
Rocks, waves, and winds the shatter'd bark delay;
Thy heart is sad, thy home is far away."
Campbell.
It was about midday, when the two Sea Lions opened their canvass, at the
same moment, and prepared to quit Sealer's Land. All hands were on board,
every article was shipped for which there was room, and nothing remained
that denoted the former presence of man on that dreary island, but the
deserted house, and three or four piles of cord-wood, that had grown on
Shelter Island and Martha's Vineyard, and which was now abandoned on the
rocks of the antarctic circle. As the topsails were sheeted home, and the
heavy fore-and-aft mainsails were hoisted, the songs of the men sounded
cheerful and animating. 'Home' was in every tone, each movement, all the
orders. Daggett was on deck, in full command, though still careful of his
limb, while Roswell appeared to be everywhere. Mary Pratt was before his
mind's eye all that morning; nor did he even once think how pleasant it
would be to meet her uncle, with a "There, deacon, is your schooner, with
a good cargo of elephant-oil, well chucked off with fur-seal skins."
The Oyster Pond craft was the first clear of the ground. The breeze was
little felt in that cove, where usually it did not seem to blow at all,
but there was wind enough to serve to cast the schooner, and she went
slowly out of the rocky basin, under her mainsail, foretopsail, and jib.
The wind was at south-west,--the nor-wester of that hemisphere,--and it
was fresh and howling enough, on the other side of the island. After
Roswell had made a stretch out into the bay of about a mile, he laid his
foretopsail flat aback, hauled over his jib-sheet, and put his helm hard
down, in waiting for the other schooner to come out and join him. In a
quarter of an hour, Daggett got within hail.
"Well," called out the last, "you see I was right, Garner; wind enough out
here, and more, still further from the land. We have only to push in among
them bergs while it is light, pick out a clear spot, and heave-to during
the night. It will hardly do for us to travel among so much ice in the
dark."
"I wish we had got out earlier, that we might have made a run of it by
day-light," answered Roswell. "Ten hours of such a wind, in my judgment,
would carry us well towards clear water."
"The delay could not be helped. I had so many traps ashore, it took time
to gather them together. Come, fill away, and let us be moving. Now we are
under way, I'm in as great haste as you are yourself."
Roswell complied, and away the two schooners went, keeping quite near to
each other, having smooth water, and still something of a moderated gale,
in consequence of the proximity and weatherly position of the island. The
course was towards a spot to leeward, where the largest opening appeared
in the ice, and where it was hoped a passage to the northward would be
found. The further the two vessels got from the land, the more they felt
the power of the wind, and the greater was their rate of running. Daggett
soon found that he could spare his consort a good deal of canvass, a
consequence of his not being full, and he took in his topsail, though,
running nearly before the wind, his spar would have stood even a more
severe strain.
As the oldest mariner, it had been agreed between the two masters that
Daggett should lead the way. This he did for an hour, when both vessels
were fairly out of the great bay, clear of the group altogether, and
running off north-easterly, at a rate of nearly ten knots in the hour. The
sea got up as they receded from the land, and everything indicated a gale,
though one of no great violence. Night was approaching, and an Alpine-like
range of icebergs was glowing, to the northward, under the oblique rays
of the setting sun. For a considerable space around the vessels, the water
was clear, not even a cake of any sort being to be seen; and the question
arose in Daggett's mind, whether he ought to stand on, or to heave-to and
pass the night well to windward of the bergs. Time was precious, the wind
was fair, the heavens clear, and the moon would make its appearance about
nine, and might be expected to remain above the horizon until the return
of day. This was one side of the picture. The other presented less
agreeable points. The climate was so fickle, that the clearness of the
skies was not to be depended on, especially with a strong south-west
wind--a little gale, in fact; and a change in this particular might be
produced at any moment. Then it was certain that floes, and fragments of
bergs, would be found near, if not absolutely among the sublime
mountain-like piles that were floating about, in a species of grand fleet,
some twenty miles to leeward. Both of our masters, indeed all on board of
each schooner, very well understood that the magnificent array of icy
islands which lay before them was owing to the currents, for which it is
not always easy to account. The clear space was to be attributed to the
same cause, though there was little doubt that the wind, which had now
been to the southward fully eight-and-forty hours, had contributed to
drive the icy fleet to the northward. As a consequence of these facts, the
field-ice must be in the vicinity of the bergs, and the embarrassment from
that source was known always to be very great.
It required a good deal of nerve for a mariner to run in among dangers of
the character just described, as the sun was setting. Nevertheless,
Daggett did it; and Roswell Gardiner followed the movement, at the
distance of about a cable's length. To prevent separation, each schooner
showed a light at the lower yard-arm, just as the day was giving out its
last glimmerings. As yet, however, no difficulty was encountered; the
alpine-looking range being yet quite two hours' run still to leeward.
Those two hours must be passed in darkness; and Daggett shortened sail in
order not to reach the ice before the moon rose. He had endeavoured to
profit by the light as long as it remained, to find a place at which he
might venture to enter among the bergs, but had met with no great
success. The opening first seen now appeared to be closed, either by means
of the drift or by means of the change in the position of the vessels; and
he no longer thought of _that_. Fortune must be trusted to, in some
measure; and on he went, Roswell always closely following.
The early hours of that eventful night were intensely dark. Nevertheless,
Daggett stood down towards the icy range, using no other precautions than
shortening sail and keeping a sharp look-out. Every five minutes the call
from the quarter-deck of each schooner to "keep a bright look-out" was
heard, unless, indeed, Daggett or Roswell was on his own forecastle, thus
occupied in person. No one on board of either vessel thought of sleep. The
watch had been called, as is usual at sea, and one half of the crew was at
liberty to go below and turn in. What was more, those small fore-and-aft
rigged craft were readily enough handled by a single watch; and this so
much the more easily, now that their top-sails were in. Still, not a man
left the deck. Anxiety was too prevalent for this, the least experienced
hand in either crew being well aware that the next four-and-twenty hours
would, in all human probability, be decisive of the fate of the voyage.
Both Daggett and Gardiner grew more and more uneasy as the time for the
moon to rise drew near, without the orb of night making its appearance. A
few clouds were driving athwart the heavens, though the stars twinkled as
usual, in their diminutive but sublime splendour. It was not so dark that
objects could not be seen at a considerable distance; and the people of
the schooners had no difficulty in very distinctly tracing, and that not
very far ahead, the broken outlines of the chain of floating mountains. No
alpine pile, in very fact, could present a more regular or better defined
range, and in some respects more fantastic outlines. When the bergs first
break away from their native moorings, their forms are ordinarily somewhat
regular; the summits commonly resembling table-land. This regularity of
shape, however, is soon lost under the rays of the summer sun, the wash of
the ocean, and most of all by the wear of the torrents that gush out of
their own frozen bosoms. A distinguished navigator of our own time has
compared the appearance of these bergs, after their regularity of shape
is lost, and they begin to assume the fantastic outlines that uniformly
succeed, to that of a deserted town, built of the purest alabaster, with
its edifices crumbling under the seasons, and its countless unpeopled
streets, avenues and alleys. All who have seen the sight unite in
describing it as one of the most remarkable that comes from the lavish
hand of nature.
About nine o'clock on the memorable night in question, there was a good
deal of fog driving over the ocean to increase the obscurity. This
rendered Daggett doubly cautious, and he actually hauled up close to the
wind, heading off well to the westward, in order to avoid running in among
the bergs, in greater uncertainty than the circumstances would seem to
require. Of course Roswell followed the movement; and when the moon first
diffused its mild rays on the extraordinary scene, the two schooners were
pitching into a heavy sea, within less than a mile of the weather-line of
the range of bergs. It was soon apparent that floes or field ice
accompanied the floating mountains, and extended so far to the southward
of them as to be already within an inconvenient if not hazardous proximity
to the two vessels. These floes, however, unlike those previously
encountered, were much broken by the undulations of the waves, and seldom
exceeded a quarter of a mile in diameter; while thousands of them were no
larger than the ordinary drift ice of our own principal rivers in the time
of a freshet. Their vicinity to the track of the schooners, indeed, was
first ascertained by the noise they produced in grinding against each
other, which soon made itself audible even above the roaring of the gale.
Both of our masters now began to be exceedingly uncomfortable. It was soon
quite apparent that Daggett had been too bold, and had led down towards
the ice without sufficient caution and foresight. As the moon rose, higher
and higher, the difficulties and dangers to leeward became at each minute
more and more apparent. Nothing could have been more magnificent than the
scene which lay before the eyes of the mariners, or would have produced a
deeper feeling of delight, had it not been for the lively consciousness of
the risk the two schooners and all who were in them unavoidably ran, by
being so near and to windward of such an icy coast, if one may use the
expression as relates to floating bodies. By that light it was very easy
to imagine Wilkes' picture of a ruined town of alabaster. There were
arches of all sizes and orders; pinnacles without number; towers, and even
statues and columns. To these were to be added long lines of perpendicular
walls, that it was easy enough to liken to fortresses, dungeons and
temples. In a word, even the Alps, with all their peculiar grandeur, and
certainly on a scale so vastly more enlarged, possess no one aspect that
is so remarkable for its resemblance to the labours of man, composed of a
material of the most beautiful transparency, and considered as the results
of human ingenuity, on a scale so gigantic. The glaciers have often been
likened, and not unjustly, to a frozen sea; but here were congealed
mountains seemingly hewed into all the forms of art, not by the chisel it
is true, but by the action of the unerring laws which produced them.
Perhaps Roswell Gardiner was the only individual in those two vessels that
night who was fully alive to all the extraordinary magnificence of its
unusual pictures. Stephen may, in some degree, have been an exception to
the rule; though he saw the hand of God in nearly all things. "It's
wonderful to look at, Captain Gar'ner, isn't it?" said this worthy seaman,
about the time the light of the moon began to tell on the view;
"wonderful, truly, did we not know who made it all!" These few and simple
words had a cheering influence on Roswell, and served to increase his
confidence in eventual success. God did produce all things, either
directly or indirectly; this even his sceptical notions could allow; and
that which came from divine wisdom must be intended for good. He would
take courage, and for once in his life trust to Providence. The most
resolute man by nature feels his courage augmented by such a resolution.
The gales of the antarctic sea are said to be short, though violent. They
seldom last six-and-thirty hours, and for about a third of that time they
blow with their greatest violence. As a matter of course, the danger amid
the ice is much increased by a tempest; though a good working breeze, or
small gale of wind, perhaps, adds to a vessel's security, by rendering it
easier to handle her, and to avoid floes and bergs. If the ice is
sufficient to make a lee, smooth water is sometimes a consequence; though
it oftener happens that the turbulence produced in clear water is
partially communicated over a vast surface, causing the fields and
mountains to grind against each other under the resistless power of the
waves. On the present occasion, however, the schooners were still in open
water, where the wind had a long and unobstructed rake, and a sea had got
up that caused both of the little craft to bury nearly to their gunwales.
What rendered their situation still more unpleasant was the fact that all
the water which came aboard of them now soon froze. To this, however, the
men were accustomed, it frequently happening that the moisture deposited
on their rigging and spars by the fogs froze during the nights of the
autumn. Indeed, it has been thought by some speculators on the subject,
that the bergs themselves are formed in part by a similar process, though
snows undoubtedly are the principal element in their composition. This it
is which gives the berg its stratified appearance, no geological formation
being more apparent or regular in this particular than most of these
floating mountains.
About ten, the moon was well above the horizon; the fog had been
precipitated in dew upon the ice, where it congealed, and helped to arrest
the progress of dissolution; while the ocean became luminous for the hour,
and objects comparatively distinct. Then it was that the seamen first got
a clear insight into the awkwardness of their situation. The bold are apt
to be reckless in the dark; but when danger is visible, their movements
become more wary and better calculated than those of the timid. When
Daggett got this first good look at the enormous masses of the field-ice,
that, stirred by the unquiet ocean, were grinding each other, and raising
an unceasing rushing sound like that the surf produces on a beach, though
far louder, and with a harshness in it that denoted the collision of
substances harder than water, he almost instinctively ordered every sheet
to be flattened down, and the schooner's head brought as near the wind as
her construction permitted. Roswell observed the change in his consort's
line of sailing, slight as it was, and imitated the manoeuvre. The sea
was too heavy to dream of tacking, and there was not room to ware. So
close, indeed, were some of the cakes, those that might be called the
stragglers of the grand array, that repeatedly each vessel brushed along
so near them as actually to receive slight shocks from collisions with
projecting portions. It was obvious that the vessels were setting down
upon the ice, and that Daggett did not haul his wind a moment too soon.
The half-hour that succeeded was one of engrossing interest. It settled
the point whether the schooners could or could not eat their way into the
wind sufficiently to weather the danger. Fragment after fragment was
passed; blow after blow was received; until suddenly the field-ice
appeared directly in front. It was in vast quantities, extending to the
southward far as the eye could reach. There remained no alternative but to
attempt to ware. Without waiting longer than to assure himself of the
facts, Daggett ordered his helm put up and the main gaff lowered. At that
moment both the schooners were under their jibs and foresails, each
without its bonnet, and double-reefed mainsails. This was not canvass very
favourable for waring, there being too much after-sail; but the sheets
were attended to, and both vessels were soon driving dead to leeward, amid
the foam of a large wave; the next instant, ice was heard grinding along
their sides.
It was not possible to haul up on the other tack ere the schooners would
be surrounded by the floes; and seeing a comparatively open passage a
short distance ahead, Daggett stood in boldly, followed closely by
Roswell. In ten minutes they were fully a mile within the field, rendering
all attempts to get out of it to windward so hopeless as to be almost
desperate. The manoeuvre of Daggett was begun under circumstances that
scarcely admitted of any alternative, though it might be questioned if it
were not the best expedient that offered. Now that the schooners were so
far within the field-ice, the water was much less broken, though the
undulations of the restless ocean were still considerable, and the
grinding of ice occasioned by them was really terrific. So loud was the
noise produced by these constant and violent collisions, indeed, that the
roaring of the wind was barely audible, and that only at intervals. The
sound was rushing, like that of an incessant avalanche, attended by
cracking noises that resembled the rending of a glacier.
The schooners now took in their foresails, for the double purpose of
diminishing their velocity and of being in a better condition to change
their course, in order to avoid dangers ahead. These changes of course
were necessarily frequent; but, by dint of boldness, perseverance and
skill, Daggett worked his way into the comparatively open passage already
mentioned. It was a sort of river amid the floes, caused doubtless by some
of the inexplicable currents, and was fully a quarter of a mile in width,
straight as an air-line, and of considerable length; though how long could
not be seen by moonlight. It led, moreover, directly down towards the
bergs, then distant less than a mile. Without stopping to ascertain more,
Daggett stood on, Roswell keeping close on his quarter. In ten minutes
they drew quite near to that wild and magnificent ruined city of alabaster
that was floating about in the antarctic sea!
Notwithstanding the imminent peril that now most seriously menaced the two
schooners, it was not possible to approach that scene of natural grandeur
without feelings of awe, that were allied quite as much to admiration as
to dread. Apprehension certainly weighed on every heart; but curiosity,
wonder, even delight, were all mingled in the breasts of the crews. As the
vessels came driving down into the midst of the bergs, everything
contributed to render the movements imposing in all senses, appalling in
one. There lay the vast maze of floating mountains, generally of a
spectral white at that hour, though many of the masses emitted hues more
pleasing, while some were black as night. The passages between the bergs,
or what might be termed the streets and lanes of this mysterious-looking,
fantastical, yet sublime city of the ocean, were numerous, and of every
variety. Some were broad, straight avenues, a league in length; others
winding and narrow; while a good many were little more than fissures, that
might be fancied lanes.
The schooners had not run a league within the bergs before they felt much
less of the power of the gale, and the heaving and setting of the seas
were sensibly diminished. What was, perhaps, not to be expected, the
field-ice had disappeared entirely within the passages of the bergs, and
the only difficulty in navigating was to keep in such channels as had
outlets, and which did not appear to be closing. The rate of sailing of
the two schooners was now greatly lessened, the mountains usually
intercepting the wind, though it was occasionally heard howling and
scuffling in the ravines, as if in a hurry to escape, and pass on to the
more open seas. The grinding of the ice, too, came down in the currents of
air, furnishing fearful evidence of dangers that were not yet distant. As
the water was now sufficiently smooth, and the wind, except at the mouths
of particular ravines, was light, there was nothing to prevent the
schooners from approaching each other. This was done, and the two masters
held a discourse together on the subject of their present situation.
"You're a bold fellow, Daggett, and one I should not like to follow in a
voyage round the world," commenced Roswell. "Here we are, in the midst of
some hundreds of ice-bergs; a glorious sight to behold, I must
confess--but are we ever to get out again?"
"It is much better to be here, Gar'ner," returned the other, "than to be
among the floes. I'm always afraid of my starn and my rudder when among
the field-ice; whereas there is no danger hereabouts that cannot be seen
before a vessel is on it. Give me my eyes, and I feel that I have a
chance."
"There is some truth in that; but I wish these channels were a good deal
wider than they are. A man may _feel_ a berg as well as see it. Were two
of these fellows to take it into their heads to close upon us, our little
craft would be crushed like nuts in the crackers!"
"We must keep a good look-out for that. Here seems to be a long bit of
open passage ahead of us, and it leads as near north as we can wish to
run. If we can only get to the other end of it, I shall feel as if half
our passage back to Ameriky was made."
The citizen of the United States calls his country "America" _par
excellence_, never using the addition of 'North, as is practised by most
European people. Daggett meant 'home,' therefore, by his 'Ameriky,' in
which he saw no other than the east end of Long Island, Gardiner's Island,
and Martha's Vineyard. Roswell understood him, of course; so no breath was
lost.
"In my judgment," returned Gardiner, "we shall not get clear of this ice
for a thousand miles. Not that I expect to be in a wilderness of it, as we
are to-night; but after such a summer, you may rely on it, Daggett, that
the ice will get as far north as 45°, if not a few degrees further."
"It is possible: I have seen it in 42° myself; and in 40° to the nor'ard
of the equator. If it get as far as 50°, however, in this part of the
world, it will do pretty well. That will be play to what we have just
here--In the name of Divine Providence, what is that, Gar'ner!"
Not a voice was heard in either vessel; scarcely a breath was drawn! A
heavy, groaning sound had been instantly succeeded by such a plunge into
the water, as might be imagined to succeed the fall of a fragment from
another planet. Then all the bergs near by began to rock as if agitated by
an earthquake. This part of the picture was both grand and frightful. Many
of those masses rose above the sea more than two hundred feet
perpendicularly, and showed wall-like surfaces of half a league in length.
At the point where the schooners happened to be just at that moment, the
ice-islands were not so large, but quite as high, and consequently were
more easily agitated. While the whole panorama was bowing and rocking,
pinnacles, arches, walls and all, seeming about to totter from their
bases, there came a wave sweeping down the passage that lifted them high
in the air, some fifty feet at least, and bore them along like pieces of
cork, fully a hundred yards. Other waves succeeded, though of less height
and force; when, gradually, the water regained its former and more natural
movement, and subsided.
"This has been an earthquake!" exclaimed Daggett. "That volcano has been
pent up, and the gas is stirring up the rocks beneath the sea."
"No, sir," answered Stimson, from the forecastle of his own schooner,
"it's not that, Captain Daggett. One of them bergs has turned over, like
a whale wallowing, and it has set all the others a-rocking."
This was the true explanation; one that did not occur to the less
experienced sealers. It is a danger, however, of no rare occurrence in the
ice, and one that ever needs to be looked to. The bergs, when they first
break loose from their native moorings, which is done by the agency of
frosts, as well as by the action of the seasons in the warm months, are
usually tabular, and of regular outlines; but this shape is soon lost by
the action of the waves on ice of very different degrees of consistency;
some being composed of frozen snow; some of the moisture precipitated from
the atmosphere in the shape of fogs; and some of pure frozen water. The
first melts soonest; and a berg that drifts for any length of time with
one particular face exposed to the sun's rays, soon loses its equilibrium,
and is canted with an inclination to the horizon. Finally, the centre of
gravity gets outside of the base, when the still monstrous mass rolls over
in the ocean, coming literally bottom upwards. There are all degrees and
varieties of these ice-slips, if one may so term them, and they bring in
their train the many different commotions that such accidents would
naturally produce. That which had just alarmed and astonished our
navigators was of the following character. A mass of ice that was about a
quarter of a mile in length, and of fully half that breadth, which floated
quite two hundred feet above the surface of the water, and twice that
thickness beneath it, was the cause of the disturbance. It had preserved
its outlines unusually well, and stood upright to the last moment; though,
owing to numerous strata of snow-ice, its base had melted much more on one
of its sides than on the other. When the precise moment arrived that would
have carried a perpendicular line from the centre of gravity without this
base, the monster turned leisurely in its lair, producing some such effect
as would have been wrought by the falling of a portion of a Swiss mountain
into a lake; a sort of accident of which there have been many and
remarkable instances.
Stimson's explanation, while it raised the curtain from all that was
mysterious, did not serve very much to quiet apprehensions. If one berg
had performed such an evolution, it was reasonable to suppose that others
might do the same thing; and the commotion made by this, which was at a
distance, gave some insight into what might be expected from a similar
change in another nearer by. Both Daggett and Gardiner were of opinion
that the fall of a berg of equal size within a cable's length of the
schooners might seriously endanger the vessels by dashing them against
some wall of ice, if in no other manner. It was too late, however, to
retreat, and the vessels stood on gallantly.
The passage between the bergs now became quite straight, reasonably broad,
and was so situated as regarded the gale, as to receive a full current of
its force. It was computed that the schooners ran quite three marine
leagues in the hour that succeeded the overturning of the berg There were
moments when the wind blew furiously; and, taking all the accessories of
that remarkable view into the account, the scene resembled one that the
imagination might present to the mind in its highest flights, but which
few could ever hope to see with their proper eyes. The moon-light, the
crowd of ice-bergs of all shapes and dimensions, seeming to flit past by
the rapid movements of the vessels; the variety of hues, from spectral
white to tints of orange and emerald, pale at that hour yet distinct;
streets and lanes that were scarce opened ere they were passed; together
with all the fantastic images that such objects conjured to the thoughts;
contributed to make that hour much the most wonderful that Roswell
Gardiner had ever passed. To add to the excitement, a couple of whales
came blowing up the passage, coming within a hundred yards of the
schooners. They were fin-backs, which are rarely if ever taken, and were
suffered to pass unharmed. To capture a whale, however, amid so many
bergs, would be next to impossible, unless the animal were killed by the
blow of the harpoon, without requiring the keener thrust of the lance.
At the end of the hour mentioned, the Sea Lion of the Vineyard rapidly
changed her course, hauling up by a sudden movement to the westward. The
passage before her was closed, and there remained but one visible outlet,
towards which the schooner slowly made her way, having got rather too
much to leeward of it, in consequence of not earlier seeing the necessity
for the change of course in that dim and deceptive light. Roswell, being
to windward, had less difficulty, but, notwithstanding, he kept his
station on his consort's quarter, declining to lead. The passage into
which Daggett barely succeeded in carrying his schooner was fearfully
narrow, and appeared to be fast closing; though it was much wider further
ahead, could the schooners but get through the first dangerous strait.
Roswell remonstrated ere the leading vessel entered, and pointed out to
Daggett the fact that the bergs were evidently closing, each instant
increasing their movement, most probably through the force of attraction.
It is known that ships are thus brought in contact in calms, and it is
thought a similar influence is exercised on the ice-bergs. At all events,
the wind, the current, or attraction, was fast closing the passage through
which the schooners had now to go.
Scarcely was Daggett within the channel, when an enormous mass fell from
the summit of one of the bergs, literally closing the passage in his wake,
while it compelled Gardiner to put his helm down, and to tack ship,
standing off from the tottering berg. The scene that followed was
frightful! The cries on board the leading craft denoted her peril, but it
was not possible for Roswell to penetrate to her with his vessel. All he
could do was to heave-to his own schooner, lower a boat, and pull back
towards the point of danger. This he did at once, manfully, but with an
anxious mind and throbbing heart. He actually urged his boat into the
chasm beneath an arch in the fallen fragment, and made his way to the very
side of Daggett's vessel. The last was nipped again, and that badly, but
was not absolutely lost. The falling fragment from the berg alone
prevented her and all in her from being ground into powder. This block, of
enormous size, kept the two bergs asunder; and now that they could not
absolutely come together, they began slowly to turn in the current,
gradually opening and separating, at the very point where they had so
lately seemed attracted to a closer union. In an hour the way was clear,
and the boats towed the schooner stern foremost into the broader passage.