THE DOLPHIN GETS BESET IN THE ICE--PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING IN THE
ICE--CAPTAIN GUY'S CODE OF LAWS.
An accident now befell the _Dolphin_ which effectually decided the fate
of the ship and her crew, at least for that winter. This was her
getting aground near the ravine of the giant flagstaff before mentioned,
and being finally beset by ice from which all efforts on the part of the
men to extricate her proved abortive, and in which she was ultimately
frozen in--hard and fast.
The first sight the crew obtained of the red snow filled them with
unbounded amazement, and a few of the more superstitious amongst them
with awe approaching to fear. But soon their attention was attracted
from this by the wonderful column.
"Och, then! may I niver!" exclaimed O'Riley, the moment he caught sight
of it, "if there ben't the north pole at long last--sure enough!"
The laugh that greeted this remark was almost immediately checked,
partly from the feelings of solemnity inspired by the magnificent view
which opened up to them, and partly from a suspicion on the part of the
more ignorant among the men that there might be some truth in O'Riley's
statement after all.
But their attention and energies were speedily called to the dangerous
position of the ship, which unexpectedly took the ground in a bay where
the water proved to be unusually shallow, and before they could warp her
off, the ice closed round her in compact, immovable masses. At first
Captain Guy was not seriously alarmed by this untoward event, although
he felt a little chagrin in consequence of the detention, for the summer
was rapidly advancing, and it behoved him to return to Baffin's Bay, and
prosecute the whale-fishing as energetically as possible; but when day
after day passed, and the ice round the ship still remained immovable,
he became alarmed, and sought by every means in his power to extricate
himself.
His position was rendered all the more aggravating by the fact that, a
week after he was beset, the main body of the ice in the strait opened
up and drifted to the southward, leaving a comparatively clear sea
through which he could have pushed his way without much difficulty in
any direction, but the solid masses in which they lay embedded were fast
to the ground for about fifty yards beyond the vessel, seaward, and
until these should be floated away there was no chance of escape.
"Get up some powder and canisters, Mr Bolton," he exclaimed, one
morning after breakfast; "I'll try what can be done by blasting the ice.
The highest spring tide will occur to-morrow, and if the ship don't
move then we shall--"
He did not finish the sentence, but turned on his heel, and walked
forward, where he found Buzzby and some of the men preparing the
ice-saws.
"Ay, ay," muttered the mate, as he went below to give the necessary
directions, "you don't need to conclude your speech, Captain. If we
don't get out to-morrow, we're locked up for one winter at least if not
more."
"Ay, and ye'll no get oot to-morrow," remarked Saunders with a shake of
his head, as he looked up from the log-book, in which he was making an
entry. "We're hard and fast, so we'll just have to make the best o't."
Saunders was right as the efforts of the next day proved. The ice lay
around the vessel in solid masses, as we have said, and with each of the
last three tides these masses had been slightly moved. Saws and ice
chisels, therefore, had been in constant operation, and the men worked
with the utmost energy, night and day, taking it by turns, and having
double allowance of hot coffee served out to them. We may mention here
that the _Dolphin_ carried no spirits, except what was needed for
medicinal purposes, and for fuel to several small cooking-lamps that had
been recently invented. It had now been proved by many voyagers of
experience that in cold countries, as well as hot, men work harder, and
endure the extremity of hardship better, without strong drink than with
it, and the _Dolphin's_ crew were engaged on the distinct understanding
that coffee, and tea, and chocolate were to be substituted for rum, and
that spirits were never to be given to anyone on board, except in cases
of extreme necessity.
But, to return--although the men worked as only those can who toil for
liberation from long imprisonment, no impression worth mentioning could
be made on the ice. At length the attempt to rend it by means of
gunpowder was made.
A jar containing about thirty pounds of powder was sunk in a hole in an
immense block of ice which lay close against the stern of the ship.
Mivins, being light of foot, was set to fire the train. He did so, and
ran--ran so fast that he missed his footing in leaping over a chasm, and
had well-nigh fallen into the water below. There was a whiz and a loud
report, and the enormous mass of ice heaved upwards in the centre, and
fell back in huge fragments. So far the result was satisfactory, and
the men were immediately set to sink several charges in various
directions around the vessel, to be in readiness for the highest tide,
which was soon expected. Warps and hawsers were also got out and fixed
to the seaward masses, ready to heave on them at a moment's notice; the
ship was lightened as much as possible, by lifting her stores upon the
ice, and the whole crew--captain, mates, and all--worked and heaved like
horses, until the perspiration streamed from their faces, while Mizzle
kept supplying them with a constant deluge of hot coffee. Fred and the
young surgeon, too, worked like the rest, with their coats off,
handkerchiefs bound round their heads, and shirt-sleeves tucked up to
their shoulders.
At last the tide rose--inch by inch, and slowly, as if it grudged to
give them even a chance of escape.
Mivins grew impatient and unbelieving under it. "I don't think it'll
rise another hinch," he remarked to O'Riley, who stood near him.
"Niver fear, boy. The capting knows a sight better than you do, and
_he_ says it'll rise a fut yit."
"Does he?" asked Grim, who was also beginning to despond.
"Ov coorse he does. Sure he towld me in a confidential way, just before
he wint to turn in last night--if it wasn't yisturday forenoon, for it's
meself as niver knows an hour o' the day since the sun became
dissipated, and tuck to sittin' up all night in this fashion."
"Shut up yer tatie trap and open yer weather eye," muttered Buzzby, who
had charge of the gang, "there'll be time enough to speak after we're
off."
Gradually, as the tide rose, the ice and the ship moved, and it became
evident that the latter was almost afloat though the former seemed to be
only partly raised from the ground. The men were at their several posts
ready for instant action, and gazing in anxious expectation at the
captain, who stood, watch in hand, ready to give the word.
"Now, then, fire!" he said in a low voice.
In a moment the ice round the ship was rent and upheaved, as if some
leviathan of the deep were rising from beneath it and the vessel swung
slowly round. A loud cheer burst from the men.
"Now, lads, heave with a will!" roared the captain.
Round went the capstan, the windlass clanked, and the ship forged slowly
ahead as the warps and hawsers became rigid. At that moment a heavy
block of ice, which had been overbalanced by the motion of the vessel,
fell with a crash on the rudder, splitting off a large portion of it,
and drawing the iron bolts that held it completely out of the
stern-post.
"Never mind; heave away--for your lives!" cried the captain. "Jump on
board all of you!"
The few men who had until now remained on the ice scrambled up the side.
There was a sheet of ice right ahead which the ship could not clear,
but which she was pushing out to sea in advance of her. Suddenly this
took the ground and remained motionless.
"Out there with ice-chisels. Sink a hole like lightning. Prepare a
canister, Mr Bolton; quick!" shouted the captain in desperation, as he
sprang over the side and assisted to cut into the unwieldy obstruction.
The charge was soon fixed and fired, but it only split the block in two,
and left it motionless as before. A few minutes after, the ship again
grounded; the ice settled round her; the spring tide was lost, and they
were not delivered.
Those who know the bitterness of repeated disappointment, and of hope
deferred, may judge of the feelings with which the crew of the _Dolphin_
now regarded their position. Little, indeed, was said, but the grave
looks of most of the men, and the absence of the usual laugh, and jest,
and disposition to skylark, which on almost all other occasions
characterised them, showed too plainly how heavily the prospect of a
winter in the Arctic regions weighed upon their spirits. They continued
their exertions to free the ship, however, for several days after the
high tide, and did not finally give in until all reasonable hope of
moving her was utterly annihilated. Before this, however, a reaction
began to take place; the prospects of the coming winter were discussed,
and some of the more sanguine looked even beyond the winter, and began
to consider how they would contrive to get the ship out of her position
into deep water again.
Fred Ellice, too, thought of his father, and this abrupt check to the
search, and his spirits sank again as his hopes decayed. But poor Fred,
like the others, at last discovered that it was of no use to repine, and
that it was best to face his sorrows and difficulties "like a man!"
Among so many men there were all shades of character, and the fact that
they were doomed to a year's imprisonment in the frozen regions was
received in very different ways. Some looked grave and thought of it
seriously; others laughed and treated it lightly; a few grumbled and
spoke profanely, but most of them became quickly reconciled, and in a
week or two nearly all forgot the past and the future in the duties, and
cares, and amusements of the present. Captain Guy and his officers,
however, and a few of the more sedate men, among whom were Buzzby and
Peter Grim, looked forward with much anxiety, knowing full well the
dangers and trials that lay before them.
It is true the ship was provisioned for more than a year, but most of
the provisions were salt, and Tom Singleton could have told them, had
they required to be told, that without fresh provisions they stood a
poor chance of escaping that dire disease, scurvy, before which have
fallen so many gallant tars whom nothing in the shape of dangers or
difficulties could subdue. There were, indeed, myriads of wild fowl
flying about the ship, on which the men feasted and grew fat every day;
and the muskets of Meetuck, and those who accompanied him, seldom failed
to supply the ship with an abundance of the flesh of seals, walrus, and
polar bears, portions of all of which creatures were considered very
good indeed by the men, and particularly by the dogs, which grew so fat
that they began to acquire a very disreputable waddle in their gait as
they walked the deck for exercise, which they seldom did, by the way,
being passionately fond of sleep! But birds and, perchance, beasts
might be expected to take themselves off when the winter arrived, and
leave the crew without fresh food.
Then, although the _Dolphin_ was supplied with every necessary for a
whaling expedition, and with many luxuries besides, she was ill-provided
with the supplies that men deem absolutely indispensable for a winter in
the Arctic regions, where the cold is so bitterly intense that, after a
prolonged sojourn, men's minds become almost entirely engrossed by two
clamant demands of nature--food and heat. They had only a small
quantity of coal on board, and nothing except a few extra spars that
could be used as a substitute, while the bleak shores afforded neither
shrub nor tree of any kind. Meanwhile they had a sufficiency of
everything they required for at least two or three months to come, and
for the rest as Grim said, they had "stout hearts and strong arms."
As soon as it became apparent that they were to winter in the bay, which
the captain named the Bay of Mercy, all further attempt to extricate the
ship was abandoned, and every preparation for spending the winter was
begun and carried out vigorously. It was now that Captain Guy's
qualities as a leader began to be displayed. He knew, from long
experience and observation, that in order to keep up the _morale_ of any
body of men it was absolutely necessary to maintain the strictest
discipline. Indeed this rule is so universal in its application that
many men find it advantageous to impose strict rules on themselves in
the regulation of their time and affairs, in order to keep their own
spirits under command. One of the captain's first resolves, therefore,
was to call the men together and address them on this subject, and he
seized the occasion of the first Sabbath morning they spent in the Bay
of Mercy, when the crew were assembled on the quarterdeck, to speak to
them.
It was an exceedingly bright day. Captain Guy stood up, and, in an
earnest, firm tone, said:--
"My lads, I consider it my duty to say a few plain words to you in
reference to our present situation and prospects. I feel that the
responsibility of having brought you here rests very much upon myself,
and I deem it my solemn duty, in more than the ordinary sense, to do all
I can to get you out of the ice again. You know as well as I do that
this is impossible at the present time, and that we are compelled to
spend a winter here. Some of you know what that means, but the most of
you know it only by hearsay, and that's much the same as knowing nothing
about it at all. Before the winter is done your energies and endurance
will probably be taxed to the uttermost. I think it right to be candid
with you. The life before you will not be child's-play, but I assure
you that it may be mingled with much that will be pleasant and hearty if
you choose to set about it in the right way. Well, then, to be short
about it. There is no chance whatever of our getting through the winter
in this ship comfortably, or even safely, unless the strictest
discipline is maintained aboard. I know, for I've been in similar
circumstances before, that when cold and hunger, and, it may be,
sickness, press upon us--should it please the Almighty to send these on
us in great severity--you will feel duty to be irksome, and you'll think
it useless, and perhaps be tempted to mutiny. Now I ask you solemnly,
while your minds are clear from all prejudices, each individually to
sign a written code of laws, and a written promise that you will obey
the same, and help me to enforce them even with the punishment of
_death_, if need be. Now, lads, will you agree to that?"
"Agreed, agreed!" cried the men at once, and in a tone of prompt
decision that convinced their leader he had their entire confidence--a
matter of the highest importance in the critical circumstances, in which
they were placed.
"Well, then, I'll read the rules; they are few, but sufficiently
comprehensive.
"First. Prayers shall be read every morning before breakfast, unless
circumstances render it impossible to do so."
The captain laid down the paper, and looked earnestly at the men.
"My lads, I have never felt so strongly as I now do the absolute need we
have of the blessing and guidance of the Almighty, and I am persuaded
that it is our duty as well as our interest to begin, not only the
Sabbath, but _every_ day with prayer.
"Second. The ordinary duties of the ship shall be carried on, the
watches regularly set and relieved, regular hours observed, and the
details of duty attended to in the usual way, as when in harbour.
"Third. The officers shall take watch and watch about as heretofore,
except when required to do otherwise; the log-books, and meteorological
observations, etcetera, shall be carried on as usual.
"Fourth. The captain shall have supreme and absolute command as when at
sea, but he, on his part, promises that, should any peculiar
circumstance arise, in which the safety of the crew or ship shall be
implicated, he will, if the men are so disposed, call a council of the
whole crew, in which case the decision of the majority shall become law,
but the minority in that event shall have it in their option to separate
from the majority and carry along with them their share of the general
provisions.
"Fifth. Disobedience to orders shall be punishable according to the
decision of a council, to be appointed specially for the purpose of
framing a criminal code, hereafter to be submitted for the approval of
the crew."
The rules above laid down were signed by every man in the ship. Several
of them could not write, but these affixed a cross (x) at the foot of
the page, against which their names were written by the captain in
presence of witnesses, which answered the same purpose. And from that
time, until events occurred which rendered all such rules unnecessary,
the work of the ship went on pleasantly and well.