The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume III Part 19

"We are so badly off for strong arms that our reindeer threatened to be a great embarra.s.sment to us. We had hard work with our dogs carrying him to the brig, and still harder, worn down as we were, in getting him over the s.h.i.+p's side. But we succeeded, and were tumbling him down the hold, when we found ourselves in a dilemma like the Vicar of Wakefield with his family picture. It was impossible to drag the prize into our little moss-lined dormitory; the _tossut_ was not half big enough to let him pa.s.s; and it was equally impossible to skin him anywhere else without freezing our fingers in the operation.

"It was a happy escape from the embarra.s.sments of our hungry little council to determine that the animal might be carved before skinning as well as he could be afterwards; and, in a very few minutes we proved our united wisdom by a feast on his quartered remains.

"It was a glorious meal, such as the compensations of Providence reserve for starving men alone. We ate, forgetful of the past, and almost heedless of the morrow; cleared away the offal wearily, and now, at 10 P.M., all hands have turned in to sleep, leaving to their commanding officer the solitary honour of an eight hours' vigil.

"The deer was among the largest of all the northern specimens I have seen.

He measured five feet one inch in girth, and six feet two inches in length, and stood as large as a two years' heifer. We estimated his weight at three hundred pounds."

But such a happy experience was quite exceptional at this time. Other expeditions to the Esquimaux at this time demonstrated that they themselves were in a starving condition. On March 20th two of the men attempted to desert, but Kane had learned of their intentions, and confronted them as they were about to leave the vessel. One man, G.o.dfrey, however, did succeed, his intention being apparently to reach the settlement at Etah Bay, and robbing Hans, their hunter, of sledge and dogs, proceed south to Netlik. He afterwards returned to the brig with this very sledge, reporting that Hans was lying sick at Etah, and that he himself intended to settle down among the Esquimaux. Both Bonsall and Kane were at this time hardly able to walk, while the rest, thirteen in all, were down with the scurvy. Shots were fired at him to make him change his mind, but he again escaped, and this circ.u.mstance, with Hans' continued absence, naturally caused the commander much anxiety. Kane, though weak and dispirited, determined to go in search of both. The sequel was, that disguising himself as an Esquimaux, he succeeded in deceiving the deserter when he arrived at the village, and handcuffing him made him yield unconditionally; he returned to the brig as a prisoner. Hans, however, had been really ill.

CHAPTER XXVII.

KANE'S EXPEDITION (_concluded_).

A Sad Entry-Farewell to the Brig-Departure for the South-Death of Ohlsen-Difficult Travelling-The Open Water-The Esquimaux of Etah-A Terrible Gale-Among the broken Floes-A Greenland Oasis-The Ice Cliff-Eggs by the Hundred-An Anxious Moment-A Savage Feast-The First Sign of Civilisation-Return to the Settlements-Home once more.

Kane had now been two years in the arctic regions, and the day of release, so far at least as their little brig was concerned, seemed as far off as ever. Nearly all the men were invalids, and it took all the doctor's unremitting attention to keep them from utter despondency; others, again, wanted only strength to become mutinous. Kane writes at the beginning of March that his journal "is little else than a chronicle of sufferings."

Brooks, his first officer, "as stalwart a man-o'-war's-man as ever faced an enemy," burst into tears when he first saw himself in the gla.s.s. On the 4th their last remnant of fresh meat had been doled out, and the region about their harbour ceased to yield any game.

May arrived, and with returning spring, and some supplies obtained from the natives, the crew were so far restored to health that all but three or four could take some part in the preparations for an immediate start to the southward. It had become only too evident that their vessel, now almost dismantled to the water's edge-the woodwork having been needed for fuel-_must_ be abandoned. But one month's provisions remained, and they were thirteen hundred miles from the nearest Danish settlement.

The last farewell to the brig was made with some degree of solemnity. It was Sunday. After prayers and a chapter of the Bible had been read, Kane addressed his men, not affecting to disguise from them the difficulties still to be overcome, but reminding them how often an unseen Power had already rescued them from peril. He was met in a right spirit, and a memorial was shortly afterwards brought to him, signed by the whole company, which stated that they entirely concurred in his attempt to reach the south by means of boats, and that they were convinced of the necessity of abandoning the brig. All then went on deck. The flags were hoisted and hauled down again, and the men walked once or twice around the brig, looking at her timbers, and exchanging comments upon the scars, which reminded them of every stage of her dismantling. The figure-head-the fair Augusta, the little blue girl with pink cheeks, who had lost her breast by an iceberg and her nose by a nip off Bedevilled Reach-was taken from the bows. "She is at any rate wood," said the men, when Kane hesitated about giving them the extra burden, "and if we cannot carry her far we can burn her."

Their boats were three in number, all of them well battered by exposure to ice and storm, almost as destructive of their seaworthiness as the hot sun of other regions. Two of them were cypress whale-boats, twenty-six feet long, with seven feet beam, and three feet deep. These were strengthened with oak bottom-pieces and a long string-piece bolted to the keel. A washboard of light cedar, about six inches high, served to strengthen the gunwale and give increased depth. A neat housing of light canvas was stretched upon a ridge-line sustained fore and aft by stanchions. The third boat was the little _Red Eric_. They mounted her on the old sledge, the _Faith_, hardly relying on her for any purposes of navigation, but with the intention of cutting her up for firewood in case their guns should fail to give them a supply of blubber. Indeed, in spite of all the ingenuity of the carpenter, Mr. Ohlsen, well seconded by the persevering labours of M'Garey and Bonsall, not one of the boats was positively seaworthy. The _Hope_ would not pa.s.s even charitable inspection, and they expected to burn her on reaching water. The planking of all of them was so dried up that it could hardly be made tight by caulking. The three boats were mounted on the sledges, the provisions stowed snugly under the thwarts; the chronometers, carefully boxed and padded, placed in the stern-sheets of the _Hope_, in charge of Mr. Sontag. With them were such of the instruments as they could venture to transport. Their powder and shot, upon which their lives depended, were carefully distributed in bags and tin canisters.

"There was," says Kane, "no sign or affectation of spirit or enthusiasm upon the memorable day when we first adjusted the boats to their cradles on the sledges, and moved them off to the ice-foot. But the ice immediately around the vessel was smooth, and as the boats had not received their lading, the first labour was an easy one. As the runners moved, the gloom of several countenances was perceptibly lightened. The croakers had protested that we could not stir an inch. These cheering remarks always reach a commander's ears, and I took good care, of course, to make the onset contradict them. By the time we reached the end of our little level the tone had improved wonderfully, and we were prepared for the effort of crossing the successive lines of the belt-ice, and forcing a way through the smashed material which interposed between us and the ice-foot.

"This was a work of great difficulty, and sorrowfully exhausting to the poor fellows not yet accustomed to heave together. But in the end I had the satisfaction, before twenty-four hours were over, of seeing our little arks of safety hauled up on the higher plane of the ice-foot, in full time for ornamental exhibition from the brig; their neat canvas housing rigged tent-fas.h.i.+on over the entire length of each; a jaunty little flag, made out of one of the commander's obsolete linen s.h.i.+rts, decorated in stripes from a disused article of stationery-the red-ink bottle-and with a very little of the blue-bag in the star-spangled corner. All hands after this returned on board. I had ready for them the best supper our supplies afforded, and they turned in with minds prepared for their departure next day.

"They were nearly all of them invalids, unused to open air and exercise.

It was necessary to train them very gradually. We made but two miles the first day, and with a single boat; and, indeed, for some time after this I took care that they should not be disheartened by overwork. They came back early to a hearty supper and warm beds, and I had the satisfaction of marching them back each recurring morning refreshed and cheerful. The weather, happily, was superb."

Repeated sledge journeys back to the brig, and afterwards from station to station, were made, as they could not transport all their goods at one time in their enfeebled state. No one worked harder than did the commander himself. On one of his last visits to the brig, he, with the aid of Morton and an Esquimaux, baked 150 lbs. of bread, and performed other culinary operations for the benefit of the whole party.

Their journey was one of peril and difficulty, and constantly interrupted by gales. The reflection would now and again force itself upon their minds that a single storm might convert the precarious platform on which they travelled into a tumultuous ice-pack. While crossing a weak part of the ice one of their sledge-runners broke through, and but for the presence of mind of Ohlsen, the load, boat and all, would have gone under. He saw the ice give way, and by a violent exercise of strength, pa.s.sed a capstan-bar under the sledge, and thus bore the load till it was hauled on to safer ice. He was a very powerful man, and might have done this without injuring himself; but it would seem his footing gave way under him, forcing him to make a still more desperate effort to extricate himself. It cost him his life: he died three days afterwards, from the strain on his system.

But there were times when travelling was not so difficult, and when they could hoist their sails, and run rapidly before the wind over solid ice.

It was a new sensation to the men. Levels which, under the slow labour of the drag-rope, would have delayed them for hours, were glided over without a halt, and the speed of the sledges made rotten ice nearly as available as sound. They made more progress in one day in this manner than they had previously in five. The spirits of the men rose; "the sick mounted the thwarts; the well clung to the gunwale; and, for the first time for nearly a year, broke out the sailors' chorus, 'Storm along, my hearty boys!'"

"Though the condition of the ice a.s.sured us," says Kane, writing several days later, "that we were drawing near the end of our sledge-journeys, it by no means diminished their difficulty or hazards. The part of the field near the open water is always abraded by the currents, while it remains apparently firm on the surface. In some places it was so transparent that we could even see the gurgling eddies below it; while in others it was worn into open holes that were already the resort of wild fowl. But in general it looked hard and plausible, though not more than a foot or even six inches in thickness.

"This continued to be its character as long as we pursued the Lyttelton Island channel, and we were compelled, the whole way through, to sound ahead with the boat-hook or narwal-horn. We learned this precaution from the Esquimaux, who always move in advance of their sledges when the ice is treacherous, and test its strength before bringing on their teams. Our first warning impressed us with the policy of observing. We were making wide circuits with the whale-boats to avoid the tide-holes, when signals of distress from men scrambling on the ice announced to us that the _Red Eric_ had disappeared. This unfortunate little craft contained all the dearly-earned doc.u.ments of the expedition. There was not a man who did not feel that the reputation of the party rested in a great degree upon their preservation. It had cost us many a pang to give up our collections of natural history, to which every one had contributed his quota of labour and interest; but the destruction of the vouchers of the cruise-the log-books, the meteorological registers, the surveys, and the journals-seemed to strike them all as an irreparable disaster.

"When I reached the boat everything was in confusion. Blake, with a line pa.s.sed round his waist, was standing up to his knees in sludge, groping for the doc.u.ment-box, and Mr. Bonsall, dripping wet, was endeavouring to haul the provision-bags to a place of safety. Happily the boat was our lightest one, and everything was saved. She was gradually lightened until she could bear a man, and her cargo was then pa.s.sed out by a line and hauled upon the ice. In spite of the wet and the cold and our thoughts of poor Ohlsen, we greeted its safety with three cheers.

"It was by great good fortune that no lives were lost. Stephenson was caught as he sank by one of the sledge-runners, and Morton while in the very act of drifting under the ice was seized by the hair of the head by Mr. Bonsall, and saved!"

On June 16th their boats were at the open water. "We see," says Kane, "its deep indigo horizon, and hear its roar against the icy beach. Its scent is in our nostrils and our hearts." They had their boats to prepare now for a long and adventurous navigation. They were so small and heavily laden as hardly to justify much confidence in their buoyancy; but, besides this, they were split with frost and warped by suns.h.i.+ne, and fairly open at the seams. They were to be caulked, and swelled, and launched, and stowed, before they could venture to embark in them. A rainy south-wester too, which had met them on arrival, was now spreading with its black nimbus over the sky as if they were to be storm-stayed on the precarious ice-beach. It was a time of anxiety.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPE ALEXANDER, GREENLAND.]

Kane writes on July 18th, "The Esquimaux are camped by our side-the whole settlement of Etah congregated around the 'big caldron' of Cape Alexander, to bid us good-bye. There are Meteh and Mealik his wife, our old acquaintance Mrs. Eiderduck, and their five children, commencing with Myouk my body-guard, and ending with the ventricose little Accomadah.

There is Nessark and Anak his wife; and Tellerk, 'the right-arm,' and Amannalik his wife; and Sip-see, and Marsumah, and Aniugnah-and who not? I can name them every one, but they know us as well. We have found brothers in a strange land."

For many days after leaving their Esquimaux friends they were more or less beset with broken floating ice, and the weather was often extremely bad.

Kane describes a gale, during which the boats were nearly swamped. At length they reached a cleft or cave in the cliff, and were shoring up their boat with blocks of ice, when they saw the welcome sight of a flock of eider ducks, and they knew that they were at their breeding grounds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HOME OF THE EIDER DUCK.]

"We remained almost three days in our crystal retreat, gathering eggs at the rate of 1,200 a day. Outside the storm raged without intermission, and our egg-hunters found it difficult to keep their feet; but a merrier set of gourmands than were gathered within never surfeited in genial diet." It was the 18th of July before the ice allowed them to depart. In launching the _Hope_ she was precipitated into the sludge below, carrying away rail and bulwark, tumbling their best shot-gun into the sea, and, worst of all, their kettle-soup-kettle, paste-kettle, tea-kettle, water-kettle, all in one-was lost overboard. For some days after they made fair progress.

A little later and matters had not improved. The ice was again before them in an almost unbroken ma.s.s. "Things grew worse and worse with us," says Kane; "the old difficulty of breathing came back again, and our feet swelled to such an extent that we were obliged to cut open our canvas boots. But the symptom which gave me most uneasiness was our inability to sleep. A form of low fever which hung by us when at work had been kept down by the thoroughness of our daily rest. All my hopes of escape were in the refres.h.i.+ng influences of the halt.

"It must be remembered that we were now in the open bay, in the full line of the great ice-drift to the Atlantic, and in boats so frail and unseaworthy as to require constant baling to keep them afloat.

"It was at this crisis of our fortunes that we saw a large seal floating-as is the custom of these animals-on a small patch of ice, and seemingly asleep. It was an ussuk, and so large that I at first mistook it for a walrus. Signal was made for the _Hope_ to follow astern, and, trembling with anxiety, we prepared to crawl down upon him.

"Petersen, with the large English rifle, was stationed in the bow, and stockings were drawn over the oars as m.u.f.flers. As we neared the animal our excitement became so intense that the men could hardly keep stroke. I had a set of signals for such occasions, which spared us the noise of the voice; and when about three hundred yards off the oars were taken in, and we moved on in deep silence with a single scull astern.

"He was not asleep, for he reared his head when we were almost within rifle-shot; and to this day I can remember the hard, careworn, almost despairing expression of the men's thin faces as they saw him move: their lives depended on his capture.

"I depressed my hand nervously, as a signal for Petersen to fire. M'Gary hung upon his oar, and the boat, slowly but noiselessly sagging ahead, seemed to me within certain range. Looking at Petersen, I saw that the poor fellow was paralysed by his anxiety, trying vainly to obtain a rest for his gun against the cut-water of the boat. The seal rose on his fore-flippers, gazed at us for a moment with frightened curiosity, and coiled himself for a plunge. At that instant, simultaneously with the crack of our rifle, he relaxed his long length on the ice, and, at the very brink of the water, his head fell helpless to one side.

"I would have ordered another shot, but no discipline could have controlled the men. With a wild yell, each vociferating according to his own impulse, they urged both boats upon the floes. A crowd of hands seized the seal, and bore him up to safer ice. The men seemed half crazy: I had not realised how much we were reduced by absolute famine. They ran over the floe, crying and laughing, and brandis.h.i.+ng their knives. It was not five minutes before each man was sucking his b.l.o.o.d.y fingers, or mouthing long strips of raw blubber.

"Not an ounce of this seal was lost. The intestines found their way into the soup-kettles without any observance of the preliminary home processes.

The cartilaginous parts of the fore-flippers were cut off in the _melee_ and pa.s.sed round to be chewed upon; and even the liver, warm and raw as it was, bade fair to be eaten before it had seen the pot. That night, on the large halting-floe, to which, in contempt of the dangers of drifting, we happy men had hauled our boats, two entire planks of the _Red Eric_ were devoted to a grand cooking-fire, and we enjoyed a rare and savage feast....

"Two days after this a mist had settled down upon the islands which embayed us, and when it lifted we found ourselves rowing in lazy time, under the shadow of Karkamoot. Just then a familiar sound came to us over the water. We had often listened to the screeching of the gulls or the bark of the fox, and mistaken it for the 'Huk' of the Esquimaux; but this had about it an inflection not to be mistaken, for it died away in the familiar cadence of a 'halloo.'

"'Listen, Petersen! oars, men!' 'What is it?'-and he listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said, in a half whisper, 'Dannemarkers!'

"I remember this the first tone of Christian voice which had greeted our return to the world. How we all stood up and peered into the distant nook; and how the cry came to us again, just as, having seen nothing, we were doubting whether the whole was not a dream; and then how, with long sweeps, the white ash cracking under the spring of the rowers, we stood for the cape that the sound proceeded from, and how nervously we scanned the green spots, which our experience, grown now into instinct, told us would be the likely camping-ground of wayfarers!

"By-and-by-for we must have been pulling for a good half-hour-the single mast of a small shallop showed itself; and Petersen, who had been very quiet and grave, burst out into an incoherent fit of crying, only relieved by broken exclamations of mingled Danish and English. "Tis the Upernavik oil-boat, the _Fraulein Flaischer_! Carlie Mossyn, the a.s.sistant cooper, must be on his road to Kingatok for blubber. The _Mariane_ (the one annual s.h.i.+p) has come, and Carlie Mossyn'-and here he did it all over again, gulping down his words and wringing his hands.

"It was Carlie Mossyn, sure enough. The quiet routine of a Danish settlement is the same year after year, and Petersen had hit upon the exact state of things. The _Mariane_ was at Proven, and Carlie Mossyn had come up in the _Fraulein Flaischer_ to get the year's supply of blubber from Kingatok.

"Here we first got our cloudy vague idea of what had pa.s.sed in the world during our absence. The friction of its fierce rotation has not much disturbed this little outpost of civilisation, and we thought it a sort of blunder as he told us that France and England were leagued with the Mussulman against the Greek Church. He was a good Lutheran, this a.s.sistant cooper, and all news with him had a theological complexion.

"'What of America? eh, Petersen?'-and we all looked, waiting for him to interpret the answer.