We were safe--so the old hands said; but it required some time before
one could fully persuade one's self of the fact. Not only were the
neighbouring floes in motion, but even the one in which we were fixed.
Rushing together with irresistible force, they were crushing and
grinding in every direction, with a noise far more terrific than that of
thunder.
The ship meantime, notwithstanding all our precautions, was driven back
before the force opposed to her; and had it not been for the loose
pieces under her stern, she might have been nipped in the most dangerous
manner. One might fancy that the floes were pitted to try their
strength against each other, though it would have been difficult to
decide which was the victor.
I had read descriptions of earthquakes, and the commotion reminded me of
them. Those who have crossed a large frozen pond or lake will remember
the peculiar noise which even stout ice makes when trod on for the first
time. Fancy this noise increased a thousand-fold, thundering under
one's feet, and then booming away till the sound is lost in the almost
interminable distance! Then the field began to tremble, and slowly
rise, and then to rend and rift with a sullen roar, and mighty blocks
were hove up, one upon another, till a rampart, bristling with huge
fragments, was formed close around the ship, threatening her with
destruction.
It seemed like the work of magic; for where lately there was a wide
expanse of ice, intersected with lanes of clear water, there was now a
country, as it were, covered with hills and rocks, rising in every
fantastic shape, and valleys full of stones scattered in every
direction.
In several places large misshapen masses had been forced up in a
perpendicular position, while others had been balanced on their summits
so evenly, that the slightest touch was sufficient to send them
thundering down on either side.
Our own safety being provided for, we had time to look after our
consorts. Most of them had managed, as we had done, to get into docks;
but one, which had taken a more southerly course, appeared to heel over
on one side, and to be in a most perilous condition.
The weather, which during the commotion had been very thick, now for an
instant clearing in the direction where she lay, the first mate ascended
with his glass to the crow's-nest, and on coming on deck he reported
that the _Arctic Swan_ seemed a complete wreck, and that the boats and
the men's chests were scattered about round her, as if thrown on the ice
in a great hurry.
"I fear it's a very bad case, sir; and if you'll give me leave, I'll
take a party and see what help we can afford them," said Mr Todd to the
captain.
Seamen are always anxious to render assistance to those in peril; and
Captain Rendall having given his permission, plenty of volunteers were
found ready for the somewhat hazardous expedition. I was one of them.
The risk was, that during our absence the ice might begin to take off;
and that we should be separated from the ship, and be left among the
heaving and tumbling masses of ice. Of this probably the captain had
not much fear, or he would not have allowed us to go.
To assist our return, and also to enable us to rescue any of the crew of
the wreck who might be injured, the stern boat was lowered that we might
track her up to them. Mr Todd, three other men, and I, formed the
party. Away we went towards the ship, dragging our boat with no little
difficulty among the hummocks and masses, with some risk of the blocks
toppling down on our heads and crushing us.
As we drew nearer the _Arctic Swan_, an exclamation from the mate made
us look up at her. "There they go," he cried; "I feared so--she'll
never see old England again."
One mast fell while he was speaking, and the others followed directly
after; and one fancied one could hear the crushing in of the ship's
sides even at that distance. That, however, was not the case, for the
ice had taken but a short time to perform its work of destruction.
When at length we got up to the ship, a scene of ruin presented itself,
which, before I saw what ice was, I could scarcely have believed could
have been wrought so speedily. Stout as were her timbers, the ice had
crushed them at the bows and stern completely in, and grinding them to
powder, the floes had actually met through her. Part of her keel and
lower works had sunk, but the rest had been forced upwards, and lay a
mass of wreck on the summit of the hummocks which had been formed under
it.
The stern, by the concussion, incredible as it may seem, had been
carried full fifty yards from the rest of the wreck. Two boats only had
been saved, the rest had been crushed by the ice before they could be
lowered and carried free. A few casks of provisions had been got up on
deck beforehand, in case of such an accident happening, and they, with
the two boats, were upon the ice.
The crew had escaped with the greatest difficulty--some having gone
below to get their bags being nearly caught in the nip and crushed to
death. At first their faculties were paralysed with the disaster; for
the thick weather prevented them from seeing that any help was near, and
they feared that they should have to attempt to escape in the two boats,
which, even without provisions, would not have held them all.
British seamen are not addicted to giving way to despair, and their
officers soon succeeded in rousing them, and in inducing them to set to
work to take measures for their safety. Having stowed away the most
portable and nutritious of their provisions in the boats, they began to
make a strong raft, to carry those whom the boats could not contain,
purposing afterwards, should the ice not break up before, to build a
barge out of the fragments of the wreck.
They were so busily employed that they did not see our approach, and a
loud shout we gave was the first intimation they had of it. They all
started up to see who was so unexpectedly coming to their relief; and
then responded to our cheer with a hearty good-will. They at once began
lightening the boats, so as to be able to drag them over the ice to our
ship; and some of the provisions we took into ours, as well as their
clothes.
The master gave a last glance at the wreck of the ship with which he had
been entrusted, and with a heavy heart, I doubt not, turned away from
her for ever. After taking some food, in the shape of salt pork and
biscuit, which we much needed, we commenced our return to the ship.
Delay, we all felt, was dangerous; for, should the commotion of the ice
recommence before we could regain the ship, we ran a great chance of
destruction.
At length, however, after four hours' toil, we accomplished our journey
in safety, and the shipwrecked crew were welcomed on board the _Shetland
Maid_. Some persons might say that, after all, they had little to
congratulate themselves on, for that the same accident which had
happened to them might occur to-morrow to us. Though we were, of
course, aware of this, I must say that I do not believe the idea ever
troubled any one of us; and we all fully expected to return home in the
autumn, notwithstanding the destruction which was, we saw, the lot of so
many.
That night in the forecastle there was as much fun and laughter as if we
had all come off some pleasant excursion, and our light-hearted guests
seemed entirely to have forgotten their losses.
"Well, mates, it is to be hoped none of the other ships has met with the
same ill-luck that yours has," said old David. "It will be a wonder if
they have not. I mind the time, for it's not long ago, that nineteen
fine ships were lost altogether, about here. It was a bad year for the
underwriters, and for the owners too, let me tell you. I was on board
the _Rattler_, a fine new ship, when, in company with many others, we
were beset, not far from Cape York, by the ice driven in by a strong
south-wester.
"Our best chance was to form a line under the lee of the heaviest floe
we could pick out; and there, stem and stern touching each other, we
waited for what was to come. The gale increased, and forced the floes
one over the other, till the heaviest in sight came driving down upon
us. The first ship it lifted completely on to the ice; the next was
nearly stove in, and many of her timbers were broken; and then, getting
more in earnest, it regularly dashed to pieces the four next it got foul
of, sending them flying over the ice in every direction.
"We were glad enough to escape with our lives, which we had hard work to
do; and then some hundreds of us were turned adrift, not knowing what to
do with ourselves. We thought ourselves badly off, but we were many
times better than the people of another ship near us. They had made
fast to an iceberg, when it toppled right over, and crushed them and the
ship to atoms. We were not alone; for not far from us another fleet was
destroyed, and altogether we mustered nearly a thousand strong--
Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Danes. We built huts, and put up tents; and
as we had saved plenty of provisions, and had liquor in abundance, we
had a very jolly time of it.
"The Frenchmen had music, you may be sure; so we had dancing and singing
to our hearts' content, and were quite sorry when the wind shifted, and,
the ice breaking up, we had to separate on board the few ships which
escaped wreck."
"I remember that time well," said Alec Garrock, a Shetlander, belonging
to our ship. "It was a mercy no lives were lost, either escaping from
the ships, or afterwards, when we were living on the ice, and travelling
from one station to the other. It seems wonderful to me that I'm alive
here, to talk about what once happened to me. The boat I was in had
killed a whale in good style; and when we had lashed the fins together,
and made it fast to the stern of the boat, we saw that a number of
whales were blowing not far off--I ought to say we were close under an
iceberg. We, of course, were eager to be among them; and as, you must
know, the stern-boat had just before been sent to us with one hand in
her with another line, we wanted him to stay by the dead fish. He said
he would not--if we liked to go, so would he; but stay there by himself;
while sport was going on, he would not.
"At last we resolved to leave the small boat empty, and to take him in
ours. To this he agreed. So, making the whale fast to his boat, and
securing the boat to the berg, away we pulled, as fast as we could lay
our backs to the oars, after a fish we saw blowing near us. Now what I
tell you is true, mates. Not thirty fathoms had we pulled, when over
toppled the iceberg right down on the boat, and we were nearly swamped
with the sea it made. When we pulled back to look for the whale,
neither it nor the boat was to be seen. You may fancy what would have
become of us if we had been there!"
"There are none of us, to my belief; but have often, if we would but
acknowledge it, been mercifully preserved by Providence," observed my
friend Andrew.
"I won't speak of what has happened to myself; and Terence, and Peter
here. No one will doubt, I hope, but that it was the finger of God
directed you to take us off the iceberg; but every day some less
remarkable case occurs. A block falls from aloft on the deck, where a
moment before we were standing; a musket-ball passes close to one's ear;
a topmast is carried away just as we have come off the yard; and fifty
other things occur of like nature, and we never think of being grateful
for our preservation. Talking of escapes, I once saw a man carried
overboard by a line round his ankle as a fish was diving. We all gave
him up for lost; but he had a sharp knife in the right-hand pocket of
his jacket, and he kept his thoughts about him so well, that before he
had got many fathoms down, he managed to stoop and cut the line below
his foot, then striking with all his might, he rose to the surface."
"Did you ever hear tell of the Dutchman who had a ride on the back of a
whale?" asked David. "He had just struck his harpoon into a fish, when,
lifting up her tail, she drove the boat into shatters. He fell on his
back, and got hold of his harpoon, his foot at the same time being
entangled in the line. Away swam the fish on the top of the water,
fortunately for him never thinking of diving. He stood upright all the
time, holding on by his right hand, while his left tried in vain to find
his knife to cut himself clear. Another boat followed, for the chance
of rescuing him; but there appeared but little hope of his being saved,
unless he could free himself. Just as the fish was going down, the
harpoon shook out, and, jumping off its back, to which he gave a hearty
kick, he struck out for the boat, and was picked up when he could swim
no more. He is the only man I ever heard of who really has ridden on a
whale's back, though there's many a tale told by those who have, which
is not true."
"I've been on the back of a live whale more than once," said Garrock.
"I mean when we've been fishing among bay ice, and the fish have come up
through the holes to breathe. But I was going to say how last season we
had a chase after a fish, which gave us more trouble than I ever saw
before. It led us a chase for the best part of the day, after it had
been struck. It dragged one boat, with twenty lines fast, right under a
floe, and then broke away; and when we killed it at last, it had taken
out thirty lines, which, as you know, is close upon six miles of line."
Thus yarn after yarn was spun. I do not attempt to give the peculiar
phraseology of the speakers; but their stories, which I believe to be
perfectly true, may prove interesting. For a whole week we were beset,
and some of the green hands began to fancy that we should be blocked up
for the winter; but the old ones knew better.
Every day the surface of the ice, where the nip had taken place, was
examined with anxious eyes, in the hopes that some sign of its taking
off or breaking up might be given. At length the pressure became less,
the sound under the ice shrill and sharp, instead of the sullen roar
which had before been heard; the fragments which had been cast above
others began to glide down and disappear in the chasms which were
opening around, and water was seen in a long thin line extending to the
northward.
A lane was formed, with a wall of fragments on either side; the lane
widened, the fragments rushed into the water, and the captain, from the
crow's-nest, ordered the ship to be towed out of dock. The order was
cheering to our hearts; and as we had plenty of hands, it was soon
executed. All sail was made, and away we flew through the passage, in a
hurry to take advantage of it, lest it should again close upon us. We
succeeded in getting clear, and soon after were joined by our consorts,
which had escaped the nip.
We made the land again to the northward of Cape York, and, when close
in, were completely becalmed. The boats of each ship were ordered ahead
to tow; and thus we slowly progressed along one of the most picturesque
scenes it has ever been my fortune to witness in the arctic regions.
The water was of glassy smoothness, the sky of brightest blue, and the
atmosphere of perfect transparency; while around floated numberless
icebergs of the most beautiful forms, and of dazzling hues, while all
around was glancing and glittering beneath a bright and glowing sun.
One berg, I remember, was of enormous size. On the north side it was
perpendicular, as if just severed from another; but, as we rounded it on
the west, ledge above ledge appeared, each fringed with icicles reaching
to the one below, thus forming lines of graceful columns, with a gallery
within, appearing as if tinged with emerald-green. The summit was
peaked and turreted, and broken into many fantastic forms. On the
eastern side a clear arch was seen; and several small cascades fell from
ledge to ledge with a trickling sound, and into the water with a gentle
splash, which could distinctly be heard as we passed.
It must be remembered that in every direction arose bergs of equal
beauty; while in the background were lofty hills covered with snow,
tinted of a pinkish hue, and above them, of dazzling whiteness, ranges
of eternal glaciers, towering to the sky. I could scarcely have
believed that a scene of such enchanting beauty could have existed in
the arctic regions, and was inclined to fancy, as I pulled at the oar,
that they were rocks of Parian marble and alabaster, and that the
galleries and caverns they contained were the abodes of fairies and the
guardian spirits of those realms. But avast! what has Peter the Whaler
to do with such poetical ideas?
On we worked our way northward. In clear weather, when a good look-out
was to be had from the crow's-nest, we were able to make our way among
the streams of ice; but in thick weather, when our course could not be
marked out, we were sadly delayed.
At last, after keeping a westerly course for a few hours, we broke
through all intervening barriers, and once more felt our gallant ship
lifting to the buoyant wave of the open sea, or rather what is called
the "north water."
The ice, by the warm weather, the currents, and the northerly winds,
being driven out of Lancaster Sound and the head of Baffin's Bay to the
southward, leaves this part, for most of the summer, free from
impediments. In five days after leaving the eastern land, having passed
the north of Lancaster Sound, we came off the famous fishing-station of
Pond's Bay.