THE NORTH WATER TO THE WINTERING GROUND.
My diary continues:--"We passed the 'Crimson Cliffs' of Sir John
Ross in the forenoon of August 5th. The patches of red snow, from which
they derive their name, could be seen clearly at the distance of ten
miles from the coast. It had a fine deep rose hue, and all the gorges and
ravines in which the snows had lodged were deeply tinted with it. I had
no difficulty now in justifying the somewhat poetical nomenclature which
Sir John Franklin applied to this locality; for if the snowy surface were
more diffused, as it is no doubt, earlier in the season, crimson would be
the prevailing colour.
"Late at night we passed Conical Rock, the most insulated and conspicuous
landmark of this coast; and, still later, Wolstenholme and Saunder's
Islands, and Oomenak, the place of the _North Star's_ winter-quarters--an
admirable day's run; and so ends the 5th of August. We are standing
along, with studding-sails set, and open water before us, fast nearing
our scene of labour. We have already got to work, sewing up blanket bags
and preparing sledges for our campaignings on the ice."
We reached Hakluyt Island in the course of the next day.
"_August 6._--Cape Alexander and Cape Isabella, the headlands of Smith's
Sound, are now in sight; and, in addition to these indications of our
progress toward the field of search, a marked swell has set in after a
short blow from the northward, just such as might be looked for from the
action of the wind upon an open water-space beyond.
"_August 7._--We have left Cape Alexander to the south; and
Littleton Island is before us, hiding Cape Hatherton, the latest
positively-determined headland. We are fairly inside of Smith's Sound.
"As we neared the west end of Littleton Island, after breakfast this
morning, I ascended to the crow's-nest, and saw to my sorrow the ominous
blink of ice ahead. The wind has been freshening for a couple of days
from the northward, and if it continues, it will bring down the floes on
us.
"My mind has been made up from the first that we are to force our way to
the north, as far as the elements will let us; and I feel the importance,
therefore, of securing a place of retreat, that in case of disaster we
may not be altogether at large. Besides, we have now reached one of the
points at which, if any one is to follow us, he might look for some trace
to guide him."
I determined to leave a cairn on Littleton Island, and to deposit a boat
with a supply of stores in some convenient place near it. One of our
whale-boats had been crushed in Melville Bay, and the metallic life-boat
was the only one I could spare. Its length did not exceed twenty feet,
and our crew of twenty could hardly stow themselves in it, with even a
few days' rations; but it was air-chambered and buoyant.
Selecting from our stock of provisions and field equipage such portions
as we might by good luck be able to dispense with, and adding with
reluctant liberality some blankets few yards of India-rubber cloth, we
set out in search of a spot for our first depôt It was essential that it
should be upon the mainland, for the rapid tides might so wear away the
ice as to make an island inaccessible to a foot-party; and yet it was
desirable that, while secure against the action of sea and ice, it should
be approachable by boats. We found such a place after some pretty cold
rowing. It was off the north-east cape of Littleton, and bore S.S.E. from
Cape Hatherton, which loomed in the distance above the fog. Here were
buried our life-boat with her little cargo. We placed along her gunwale
the heaviest rocks we could handle, and, filling up the interstices with
smaller stones and sods of andromeda and moss, poured sand and water
among the layers. This, frozen at once into a solid mass, might be hard
enough, we hoped, to resist the claws of the polar bear.
We found to our surprise that we were not the first human beings who
had sought a shelter in this desolate spot. A few ruined walls here and
there showed that it had once been the seat of a rude settlement; and
in the little knoll which we cleared away to cover in our storehouse of
valuables, we found the mortal remains of their former inhabitants.
Nothing can be imagined more sad and homeless than these memorials of
extinct life. Hardly a vestige of growth was traceable on the bare
ice-rubbed rocks; and the huts resembled so much the broken fragments
that surrounded them, that at first sight it was hard to distinguish one
from the other. Walrus-bones lay about in all directions, showing that
this animal had furnished the staple of subsistence. There were some
remains, too, of the fox and the narwhal;[H] but I found no signs of the
seal or reindeer.
[H] _Narwhal_, the sea unicorn.
These Esquimaux have no mother earth to receive their dead, but seat them
as in the attitude of repose, the knees drawn close to the body, and
enclose them in a sack of skins. The implements used by the person while
living are then grouped around him; they are covered with a rude dome
of stones, and a cairn is piled above. This simple cenotaph will remain
intact for generation after generation. The Esquimaux never disturb a
grave.
Our stores deposited, it was our next office to erect a beacon, and
intrust to it our tidings. We chose for this purpose the Western Cape
of Littleton Island, as more conspicuous than Cape Hatherton; built our
cairn; wedged a staff into the crevices of the rocks; and, spreading the
American flag, hailed its folds with three cheers as they expanded in the
cold midnight breeze. These important duties performed--the more lightly,
let me say, for this little flicker of enthusiasm--we rejoined the brig
early on the morning of the 7th, and forced on again towards the north,
beating against wind and tide.
"_August 8._--I had seen the ominous blink ahead of us from the Flagstaff
Point of Littleton Island, and before two hours were over, we closed with
ice to the westward.
"In the evening I ventured out again with the change of tide, but it
was only to renew a profitless conflict. The flood, encountering the
southward movement of the floes, drove them in upon the shore, and with
such rapidity and force as to carry the smaller bergs along with them.
We were too happy, when, after a manful struggle of some hours, we found
ourselves once more out of their range.
"Our new position was rather nearer to the south than the one we had
left. It was in a beautiful cove, land-locked from east to west, and
accessible only from the north. Here we moored our vessel securely by
hawsers to the rocks and a whale-line carried out to the narrow entrance.
At M'Gary's suggestion, I called it 'Fog Inlet;' but we afterwards
remembered it more thankfully as Refuge Harbour.
[Sidenote: The Dogs]
"_August 9._--It may be noted among our little miseries, that we have
more than fifty dogs on board, the majority of which might rather be
characterised as 'ravening wolves.' To feed this family, upon whose
strength our progress and success depend, is really a difficult
matter. The absence of shore or land ice to the south in Baffin's Bay
has prevented our rifles from contributing any material aid to our
commissariat. Our two bears lasted the cormorants but eight days; and
to feed them upon the meagre allowance of two pounds of raw flesh every
other day, is an almost impossible necessity. Only yesterday they
were ready to eat the caboose up, for I would not give them pemmican.
Corn-meal or beans they disdain to touch, and salt junk would kill them.
"Accordingly I started out this morning to hunt walrus, with which
the Sound is teeming. We saw at least fifty of these dusky monsters,
and approached many groups within twenty paces; but our rifle balls
reverberated from their hides like cork pellets from a pop-gun target,
and we could not get within harpoon-distance of one. Later in the day,
however, Ohlsen, climbing a neighbouring hill to scan the horizon, and
see if the ice had slackened, found the dead carcass of a narwhal--a
happy discovery, which has secured for us at least six hundred pounds of
good wholesome flesh. The length of the narwhal was fourteen feet, and
his process, or 'horn,' from the tip to its bony encasement, four feet.
We built a fire on the rocks, and melted down his blubber; he will yield
readily two barrels of oil."
With the small hours of Wednesday morning came a breeze from the
south-west, which was followed by such an apparent relaxation of the
floes at the slack-water of flood-tide, that I resolved to attempt an
escape from our little basin.
[Sidenote: Warping The "Advance"]
"_August 12._--After careful consideration, I have determined to try
for a further northing, by following the coast-line. At certain stages
of the tides--generally from three-quarters flood to the commencement
of the ebb--the ice evidently relaxes enough to give a partial opening
close along the land. The strength of our vessel we have tested pretty
thoroughly; if she will bear the frequent groundings that we must look
for, I am persuaded we may seek these openings, and warp along them
from one lump of grounded ice to another. The water is too shallow
for ice-masses to float in, that are heavy enough to make a nip very
dangerous. I am preparing the little brig for this novel navigation,
clearing her decks, securing things below with extra lashings, and
getting out spars, to serve in case of necessity as shores to keep her on
an even keel.
"_August 14._--Change of weather yesterday tempted us to forsake our
shelter and try another tussle with the ice. We met it as soon as we
ventured out; and the day closed with a northerly progress, by hard
warping, of about three-quarters of a mile. The men were well tired, but
the weather looked so threatening, that I had them up again at three
o'clock this morning. My immediate aim is to attain a low rocky island
which we see close into the shore, about a mile ahead of us.
"_Midnight._--We did reach it, and just in time. At 11.30 P.M.,
our first whale-line was made fast to the rocks Ten minutes later, the
breeze freshened, and so directly in our teeth that we could not have
gained our mooring-ground. It is blowing a gale now, and the ice driving
to the northward before it; but we can rely upon our hawsers. All behind
us is now solid pack.
"_August 16._--Fast still; the wind dying out, and the ice outside
closing steadily. And here, for all I can see, we must hang on for the
winter, unless Providence shall send a smart ice-shattering breeze to
open a road for us to the northward.
"More bother with these wretched dogs! worse than a street of
Constantinople emptied upon our decks; the unruly, thieving, wild-beast
pack! Not a bear's paw, nor an Esquimaux cranium, or basket of mosses, or
any specimen whatever, can leave your hands for a moment, without their
making a rush at it, and, after a yelping scramble, swallowing it at a
gulp. I have seen them attempt a whole feather-bed; and here, this very
morning, one of my Karsuk brutes has eaten up two entire birds'-nests,
which I had just before gathered from the rocks.
"_August 17._--In the afternoon came a gale from the southward. We had
some rough rubbing from the floe, pieces, with three heavy hawsers out
to the rocks of our little ice-breaker; but we held on. Toward midnight,
our six-inch line, the smallest of the three, parted, but the other two
held bravely. Feeling what good service this island has done us, what
a Godsend it was to reach her, and how gallantly her broken rocks have
protected us from the rolling masses of ice that grind by her, we have
agreed to remember this anchorage as 'Godsend Ledge.'
"The walrus are very numerous, approaching within twenty feet of
us, shaking their grim wet fronts, and mowing with their tusks the
sea-ripples.
"_August 19._--The walrus gather around us in crowds. I have always heard
that the close approach to land of these sphinx-faced monsters portends a
storm.
[Sidenote: Loss of the Cables]
"_August 20._--By Saturday morning it blew a perfect hurricane. We had
seen it coming, and were ready with three good hawsers out ahead, and
all things snug on board.
"Still it came on heavier and heavier, and the ice began to drive more
wildly than I thought I had ever seen it. I had just turned in to warm
and dry myself during a momentary lull, and was stretching myself out in
my bunk, when I heard the sharp twanging snap of a cord. Our six-inch
hawser had parted, and we were swinging by the two others, the gale
roaring like a lion to the southward.
"Half a minute more, and 'twang, twang!' came a second report. I knew
it was the whale-line by the shrillness of the ring. Our ten-inch cable
still held on. I was hurrying my last sock into its seal-skin boot, when
M'Gary cane running down the companion-ladders:--'Captain Kane, she won't
hold much longer; it's blowing the devil himself, and I am afraid to surge.'
"The cable was proving its excellence when I reached the deck; and the
crew, as they gathered round me, were loud in its praises. We could hear
its deep Æolian chant swelling through all the rattle of the running-gear
and moaning of the shrouds. It was the death-song! The strands gave way
with the noise of a shotted gun; and, in the smoke that followed their
recoil, we were dragged out by the wild ice at its mercy.
"We steadied and did some petty warping, and got the brig a good bed in
the rushing drift; but it all came to nothing. There was now but one
thing left for us--to keep in some sort the command of the helm, by going
where we must otherwise be driven.
"At seven in the morning we were close upon the piling masses. We dropped
our heaviest anchor with the desperate hope of winding the brig; but
there was no withstanding the ice-torrent that followed us. We had only
time to fasten a spar as a buoy to the chain, and let her slip. So went
our best bower!
"Down we went upon the gale again, helplessly scraping along a lee of
ice seldom less than thirty feet thick; one floe, measured by a line as
we tried to fasten to it, more than forty. I had seen such ice only once
before, but never in such rapid motion. One upturned mass rose above our
gunwale, smashing in our bulwarks, and depositing half a ton of ice in
a lump upon our decks. Our staunch little brig bore herself through all
this wild adventure as if she had a charmed life.
"But a new enemy came in sight ahead. Directly in our way, just beyond
the line of floe-ice against which we were alternately sliding and
thumping, was a group of bergs. We had no power to avoid them; and the
only question was, whether we were to be dashed in pieces against them,
or whether they might not offer us some providential nook of refuge
from the storm. But, as we neared them, we perceived that they were at
some distance from the floe-edge, and separated from it by an interval
of open water. Our hopes rose as the gale drove us toward this passage
and into it; and we were ready to exult, when, from some unexplained
cause,--probably an eddy of the wind against the lofty ice-walls,--we
lost our headway. Almost at the same moment we saw that the bergs were
not at rest; that with a momentum of their own they were bearing down
upon the other ice, and that it must be our fate to be crushed between
the two.
"Just then a broad low water-washed berg came driving up from the
southward. The thought flashed upon me of one of our escapes in Melville
Bay; and as the sconce moved rapidly close alongside us, M'Gary managed
to plant an anchor on its slope and hold on to it by a whale-line. It
was an anxious moment. Our noble tow-horse, whiter than the pale horse
that seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us bravely on, the spray dashing
over his windward flanks, and his forehead ploughing up the lesser ice
as if in scorn. The bergs encroached upon us as we advanced; our channel
narrowed to a width of perhaps forty feet; we braced the yards to clear
the impending ice-walls.
"We passed clear; but it was a close shave,--so close that our port
quarter-boat would have been crushed if we had not taken it in from the
davits,--and found ourselves under the lee of a berg, in a comparatively
open lead. Never did heart-tried men acknowledge with more gratitude
their merciful deliverance from a wretched death.
"The day had already its full share of trials; but there were more to
come. A flaw drove us from our shelter, and the gale soon carried us
beyond the end of the lead. We were again in the ice, sometimes escaping
its onset by warping, sometimes forced to rely on the strength and
buoyancy of the brig to stand its pressure, sometimes scudding wildly
through the half-open drift. Our jib-boom was snapped off; we carried
away our barricade stanchions, and were forced to leave our little
_Eric_,--as our life-boat was called,--with three brave fellows and their
warps, out upon the floes behind us.
[Sidenote: The Escape]
"A little pool of open water received us at last It was just beyond a
lofty cape that rose up like a wall, and under an iceberg that anchored
itself between us and the gale. And here, close under the frowning shore
of Greenland, ten miles nearer the Pole than our holding-ground of the
morning, the men have turned in to rest.
"I was afraid to join them, for the gale was unbroken, and the floes
kept pressing heavily upon our berg,--at one time so heavily as to sway it
on its vertical axis toward the shore, and make its pinnacle overhang
our vessel. My poor fellows had but a precarious sleep before our little
harbour was broken up. They hardly reached the deck when we were driven
astern, and our rudder splintered.
"Now began the nippings.[I] The first shock took us on our port-quarter,
the brig bearing it well, and, after a moment of the old-fashioned
suspense, rising by jerks handsomely. The next was from a veteran floe,
tongued and honeycombed, but floating in a single table over twenty
feet in thickness. Of course, no wood or iron could stand this; but the
shore-ward face of our iceberg happened to present an inclined plane,
descending deep into the water; and up this the brig was driven, as if
some great power was forcing her into a dry dock.
[I] _Nip_, the pressing in of ice round the vessel.
"At one time I expected to see her carried bodily up its face and tumbled
over on her side. But one of those mysterious relaxations, which I have
elsewhere called the pulses of the ice, lowered us quite gradually down
again into the rubbish, and we were forced out of the line of pressure
toward the shore. Here we succeeded in carrying out a warp, and making
fast. We grounded as the tide fell, and would have heeled over to
seaward, but for a mass of detached land-ice that grounded alongside of
us, and, although it stove our bulwarks as we rolled over it, shored us
up."
I could hardly get to my bunk, as I went down into our littered cabin on
the Sunday morning after our hard-working vigil of thirty-six hours. Bags
of clothing, food, tents, India-rubber blankets, and the hundred little
personal matters which every man likes to save in a time of trouble,
were scattered around in places where the owners thought they might have
them at hand. The pemmican had been on deck, the boats equipped, and
everything of real importance ready for a march, many hours before.
[Sidenote: Bravery of the Crew]
During the whole of the scenes I have been trying to describe, I could
not help being struck by the composed and manly demeanour of my comrades.
The turmoil of ice under a heavy sea often conveys the impression of
danger when the reality is absent; but in this fearful passage, the
parting of our hawsers, the loss of our anchors, the abrupt crushing of
our stoven bulwarks, and the actual deposit of ice upon our decks, would
have tried the nerves of the most experienced ice-men. All--officers and
men--worked alike. Upon each occasion of collision with the ice which
formed our lee-coast, efforts were made to carry out lines; and some
narrow escapes were incurred by the real of the parties leading them
into positions of danger. Mr Bonsall avoided being crushed by leaping to
a floating fragment; and no less than four of our men at one time were
carried down by the drift, and could only be recovered by a relief party
after the gale had subsided.
It was not until the 22d that the storm abated, and our absent men were
once more gathered back into their mess. During the interval of forced
inaction, the little brig was fast to the ice-belt which lined the bottom
of the cliffs, and all hands rested; but as soon as it was over, we took
advantage of the flood-tide to pass our tow-lines to the ice-beach, and,
harnessing ourselves in like mules on a canal, made a good three miles by
tracking along the coast.
"_August 23._--We tracked along the ice-belt for about one mile, when
the tide fell, and the brig grounded, heeling over until she reached her
bearings. She rose again at 10 P.M. and the crew turned out upon
the ice-belt.
"_August 24._--We have kept at it, tracking along, grounding at low
water, but working like horses when the tides allowed us to move. We are
now almost at the bottom of this indentation.
"We are sufficiently surrounded by ice to make our chances of escape
next year uncertain, and yet not as far as I could wish for our spring
journeys by the sledge.
"August 26.--My officers and crew are staunch and firm men; but the
depressing influences of want of rest, the rapid advance of winter, and,
above all, our slow progress, make them sympathize but little with this
continued effort to force a way to the north. One of them, an excellent
member of the party, volunteered an expression of opinion this morning in
favour of returning to the south and giving up the attempt to winter."
It is unjust for a commander to measure his subordinates in such
exigencies by his own standard. The interest which they feel in an
undertaking is of a different nature from his own. With him there are
always personal motives, apart from official duty, to stimulate effort.
He receives, if successful, too large a share of the credit, and he
justly bears all the odium of failure.
An apprehension--I hope a charitable one--of this fact leads me to
consider the opinions of my officers with much respect. I called them
together at once in a formal council, and listened to their views in
full. With but one exception, Mr Henry Brooks, they were convinced that
a further progress to the north was impossible, and were in favour of
returning southward to winter.
Not being able conscientiously to take the same view, I explained to
them the importance of securing a position which might expedite our
sledge journeys in the future; and, after assuring them that such a
position could only be attained by continuing our efforts, announced
my intention of warping toward the northern headland of the bay.
"Once there, I shall be able to determine from actual inspection the
best point for setting out on the operations of the spring; and at the
nearest possible shelter to that point I will put the brig into winter
harbour." My comrades received this decision in a manner that was most
gratifying, and entered zealously upon the hard and cheerless duty it
involved.
[Sidenote: More Warping]
The warping began again, each man, myself included, taking his turn at
the capstan. The ice seemed less heavy as we penetrated into the recess
of the bay; our track-lines and shoulder-belts replaced the warps. Hot
coffee was served out; and, in the midst of cheering songs, our little
brig moved off briskly.
Our success, however, was not complete. At the very period of high-water
she took the ground while close under the walls of the ice-foot. It would
have been madness to attempt shoring her up. I could only fasten heavy
tackle to the rocks which lined the base of the cliffs, and trust to the
noble little craft's unassisted strength.
"_August 27._--We failed, in spite of our efforts, to get the brig
off with last night's tide; and, as our night-tides are generally the
highest, I have some apprehensions as to her liberation.
"We have landed everything we could get upon the rocks, put out all our
boats and filled them with portables alongside, sunk our rudder astern, and
lowered our remaining heavy anchor into one of our quarter-boats. Heavy
hawsers are out to a grounded lump of berg-ice, ready for instant heaving.
"Last night she heeled over again so abruptly that we were all tumbled
out of our berths. At the same time the cabin stove, with a full charge
of glowing anthracite,[J] was thrown down. The deck blazed smartly for
a while; but, by sacrificing Mr Sontag's heavy pilot-cloth coat to the
public good, I choked it down till water could be passed from above to
extinguish it. It was fortunate we had water near at hand, for the powder
was not far off.
[J] _Anthracite_, a hard coal found in America, which burns without smoke.
"5 P.M.--She floats again, and our track-lines are manned. The
men work with a will, and the brig moves along bravely.
"10 P.M.--Aground again; and the men, after a hot supper, have
turned in to take a spell of sleep. The brig has a hard time of it with
the rocks. She has been high and dry for each of the two last tides,
and within three days has grounded no less than five times. I feel that
this is hazardous navigation, but am convinced it is my duty to keep on.
Except the loss of a portion of our false keel, we have sustained no real
injury. The brig is still water-tight, and her broken rudder and one
shattered spar can be easily repaired.
"August 28.--By a complication of purchases, jumpers, and
shores, we started the brig at 4 A.M.; and Mr Ohlsen having
temporarily secured the rudder, I determined to enter the floe, and trust
to the calm of the morning for a chance of penetrating to the northern
land-ice ahead."
We had now a breathing spell, and I could find time to look out again
upon the future. The broken and distorted area around us gave little
promise of successful sledge-travel. But all this might change its aspect
under the action of a single gale, and it was by no means certain that
the ice-fields further north would have the same rugged and dispiriting
character. Besides, the ice-belt was still before us, broken sometimes
and difficult to traverse, but practicable for a party on foot,
apparently for miles ahead; and I felt sure that a resolute boat's crew
might push and track their way for some distance along it. I resolved to
make the trial, and to judge what ought to be our wintering-ground from a
personal inspection of the coast.
I had been quietly preparing for such an expedition for sometime. Our
best and lightest whale-boat had been fitted with a canvas cover, that
gave it all the comfort of a tent. We had a supply of pemmican ready
packed in small cases, and a sledge taken to pieces was stowed away
under the thwarts. In the morning of the 29th, Brooks, M'Gary, and
myself, walked fourteen miles along the marginal ice; it was heavy and
complicated with drift, but there was nothing about it to make me change
my purpose.
[Sidenote: The Boat Crew]
My boat-crew consisted of seven, all of them volunteers and
reliable:--Brooks, Bonsall, M'Gary, Sontag, Riley, Blake, and Morton.
We had buffalo-robes for our sleeping-gear, and a single extra day suit
was put on board as common property. Each man carried his girdle full of
woollen socks, so as to dry them by the warmth of his body, and a tin
cup, with a sheath-knife, at the belt; a soup-pot and lamp for the mess
completed our outfit.
In less than three hours from my first order, the _Forlorn Hope_ was
ready for her work, covered with tin to prevent her being cut through by
the bay-ice; and at half-past three in the afternoon she was freighted,
launched, and on her way.
I placed Mr Ohlsen in command of the _Advance_, and Dr Hayes in charge
of her log; Mr Ohlsen with orders to haul the brig to the southward and
eastward into a safe berth, and there to await my return.
Many a warm shake of the hand from the men we left on board showed me
that our good-bye was not a mere formality. Three hearty cheers from all
hands followed us,--a Godspeed as we pushed off.
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