Hatteras, after seeing to the anchoring of his ship, re-entered his cabin and examined his map attentively1. He found himself in latitude2 76 degrees 57 minutes and longitude3 99 degrees 20 minutes — that is to say, at only three minutes from the 77th parallel. It was at this very spot that Sir Edward Belcher passed his first winter with the Pioneer and the Assistance. It was thence that he organised his sledge4 and boat excursions. He discovered Table Isle5, North Cornwall, Victoria Archipelago, and Belcher Channel. He reached the 78th parallel, and saw that the coast was depressed6 on the south-east. It seemed to go down to Jones’s Strait, the entrance to which lies in Baffin’s Bay. But to the north-west, on the contrary, says his report, an open sea lay as far as the eye could reach.
Hatteras considered attentively the white part of the map, which represented the Polar basin free from ice.
“After such testimony7 as that of Stewart, Penny, and Belcher, I can’t have a doubt about it,” he said to himself. “They saw it with their own eyes. But if the winter has already frozen it! But no; they made their discoveries at intervals8 of several years. It exists, and I shall find it! I shall see it.”
Hatteras went on to the poop. An intense fog enveloped10 the Forward; the masthead could scarcely be distinguished11 from the deck. However, Hatteras called down the ice-master from his crow’s nest, and took his place. He wished to profit by the shortest clear interval9 to examine the north-western horizon. Shandon did not let the occasion slip for saying to the lieutenant12:
“Well, Wall, where is the open sea?”
“You were right, Shandon, and we have only six weeks’ coal in the hold.”
“Perhaps the doctor will find us some scientific fuel to warm us in the place of coal,” answered Shandon. “I have heard say you can turn fire to ice; perhaps he’ll turn ice to fire.” And he entered his cabin, shrugging his shoulders. The next day was the 20th of August, and the fog cleared away for several minutes. They saw Hatteras look eagerly at the horizon, and then come down without speaking; but it was easy to see that his hopes had again been crushed. The Forward weighed anchor, and took up her uncertain march northward13. As the Forward began to be weather-worn, the masts were unreeved, for they could no longer rely on the variable wind, and the sails were nearly useless in the winding14 channels. Large white marks appeared here and there on the sea like oil spots; they presaged15 an approaching frost; as soon as the breeze dropped the sea began to freeze immediately; but as soon as the wind got up again, the young ice was broken up and dispersed16. Towards evening the thermometer went down to 17 degrees.
When the brig came to a closed-up pass she acted as a battering17 ram18, and ran at full steam against the obstacle, which she sunk. Sometimes they thought she was stopped for good; but an unexpected movement of the streams opened her a new passage, and she took advantage of it boldly. When the brig stopped, the steam which escaped from the safety-pipes was condensed by the cold air and fell in snow on to the deck. Another impediment came in the way; the ice-blocks sometimes got entangled19 in the paddles, and they were so hard that all the strength of the machine was not sufficient to break them; it was then necessary to back the engine and send men to clear the screws with their handspikes. All this delayed the brig; it lasted thirteen days. The Forward dragged herself painfully along Penny Strait; the crew grumbled21, but obeyed: the men saw now that it was impossible to go back. Keeping north was less dangerous than retreating south. They were obliged to think about wintering. The sailors talked together about their present position, and one day they mentioned it to Richard Shandon, who, they knew, was on their side. The second officer forgot his duty as an officer, and allowed them to discuss the authority of the captain before him.
“You say, then, Mr. Shandon, that we can’t go back now?” said Gripper.
“No, it’s too late now,” answered Shandon.
“Then we must think about wintering,” said another sailor.
“It’s the only thing we can do. They wouldn’t believe me.”
“Another time,” said Pen, who had been released, “we shall believe you.”
“But as I am not the master ——” replied Shandon.
“Who says you mayn’t be?” answered Pen. “John Hatteras may go as far as he likes, but we aren’t obliged to follow him.”
“You all know what became of the crew that did follow him in his first cruise to Baffin’s Sea?” said Gripper.
“And the cruise of the Farewell under him that got lost in the Spitzbergen seas!” said Clifton.
“He was the only man that came back,” continued Gripper.
“He and his dog,” answered Clifton.
“We won’t die for his pleasure,” added Pen.
“Nor lose the bounty23 we’ve been at so much trouble to earn,” cried Clifton. “When we’ve passed the 78th degree — and we aren’t far off it, I know — that will make just the 375 pounds each.”
“But,” answered Gripper, “shan’t we lose it if we go back without the captain?”
“Not if we prove that we were obliged to,” answered Clifton.
“But it’s the captain ——”
“You never mind, Gripper,” answered Pen; “we’ll have a captain and a good one — that Mr. Shandon knows. When one commander goes mad, folks have done with him, and they take another; don’t they, Mr. Shandon?”
Shandon answered evasively that they could reckon upon him, but that they must wait to see what turned up. Difficulties were getting thick round Hatteras, but he was as firm, calm, energetic, and confident as ever. After all, he had done in five months what other navigators had taken two or three years to do! He should be obliged to winter now, but there was nothing to frighten brave sailors in that. Sir John Ross and McClure had passed three successive winters in the Arctic regions. What they had done he could do too!
“If I had only been able to get up Smith Strait at the north of Baffin’s Sea, I should be at the Pole by now!” he said to the doctor regretfully.
“Never mind, captain!” answered the doctor, “we shall get at it by the 99th meridian24 instead of by the 75th; if all roads lead to Rome, it’s more certain still that all meridians25 lead to the Pole.”
On the 31st of August the thermometer marked 13 degrees. The end of the navigable season was approaching; the Forward left Exmouth Island to the starboard, and three days after passed Table Island in the middle of Belcher Channel. At an earlier period it would perhaps have been possible to regain26 Baffin’s Sea by this channel, but it was not to be dreamt of then; this arm of the sea was entirely27 barricaded28 by ice; ice-fields extended as far as the eye could reach, and would do so for eight months longer. Happily they could still gain a few minutes further north on the condition of breaking up the ice with huge clubs and petards. Now the temperature was so low, any wind, even a contrary one, was welcome, for in a calm the sea froze in a single night. The Forward could not winter in her present situation, exposed to winds, icebergs29, and the drift from the channel; a shelter was the first thing to find; Hatteras hoped to gain the coast of New Cornwall, and to find above Albert Point a bay of refuge sufficiently31 sheltered. He therefore pursued his course northward with perseverance32. But on the 8th an impenetrable ice-bank lay in front of him, and the temperature was at 10 degrees. Hatteras did all he could to force a passage, continually risking his ship and getting out of danger by force of skill. He could be accused of imprudence, want of reflection, folly33, blindness, but he was a good sailor, and one of the best! The situation of the Forward became really dangerous; the sea closed up behind her, and in a few hours the ice got so hard that the men could run along it and tow the ship in all security.
Hatteras found he could not get round the obstacle, so he resolved to attack it in front; he used his strongest blasting cylinders34 of eight to ten pounds of powder; they began by making a hole in the thick of the ice, and filled it with snow, taking care to place the cylinder35 in a horizontal position, so that a greater portion of the ice might be submitted to the explosion; lastly, they lighted the wick, which was protected by a gutta-percha tube. They worked at the blasting, as they could not saw, for the saws stuck immediately in the ice. Hatteras hoped to pass the next day. But during the night a violent wind raged, and the sea rose under her crust of ice as if shaken by some submarine commotion36, and the terrified voice of the pilot was heard crying:
“Look out aft!”
Hatteras turned to the direction indicated, and what he saw by the dim twilight37 was frightful38. A high iceberg30, driven back north, was rushing on to the ship with the rapidity of an avalanche39.
“All hands on deck!” cried the captain.
The rolling mountain was hardly half a mile off; the blocks of ice were driven about like so many huge grains of sand; the tempest raged with fury.
“There, Mr. Clawbonny,” said Johnson to the doctor, “we are in something like danger now.”
“Yes,” answered the doctor tranquilly40, “it looks frightful enough.”
“It’s an assault we shall have to repulse41,” replied the boatswain.
“It looks like a troop of antediluvian42 animals, those that were supposed to inhabit the Pole. They are trying which shall get here first!”
“Well,” added Johnson, “I hope we shan’t get one of their spikes20 into us!”
“It’s a siege — let’s run to the ramparts!”
And they made haste aft, where the crew, armed with poles, bars of iron, and handspikes, were getting ready to repulse the formidable enemy. The avalanche came nearer, and got bigger by the addition of the blocks of ice which it caught in its passage; Hatteras gave orders to fire the cannon43 in the bow to break the threatening line. But it arrived and rushed on to the brig; a great crackling noise was heard, and as it struck on the brig’s starboard a part of her barricading44 was broken. Hatteras gave his men orders to keep steady and prepare for the ice. It came along in blocks; some of them weighing several hundredweight came over the ship’s side; the smaller ones, thrown up as high as the topsails, fell in little spikes, breaking the shrouds45 and cutting the rigging. The ship was boarded by these innumerable enemies, which in a block would have crushed a hundred ships like the Forward. Some of the sailors were badly wounded whilst trying to keep off the ice, and Bolton had his left shoulder torn open. The noise was deafening46. Dick barked with rage at this new kind of enemy. The obscurity of the night came to add to the horror of the situation, but did not hide the threatening blocks, their white surface reflected the last gleams of light. Hatteras’s orders were heard in the midst of the crew’s strange struggle with the icebergs. The ship giving way to the tremendous pressure, bent47 to the larboard, and the extremity48 of her mainyard leaned like a buttress49 against the iceberg and threatened to break her mast.
Hatteras saw the danger; it was a terrible moment; the brig threatened to turn completely over, and the masting might be carried away. An enormous block, as big as the steamer itself, came up alongside her hull50; it rose higher and higher on the waves; it was already above the poop; it fell over the Forward. All was lost; it was now upright, higher than the gallant51 yards, and it shook on its foundation. A cry of terror escaped the crew. Everyone fled to starboard. But at this moment the steamer was lifted completely up, and for a little while she seemed to be suspended in the air, and fell again on to the ice-blocks; then she rolled over till her planks52 cracked again. After a minute, which appeared a century, she found herself again in her natural element, having been turned over the ice-bank that blocked her passage by the rising of the sea.
“She’s cleared the ice-bank!” shouted Johnson, who had rushed to the fore22 of the brig.
“Thank God!” answered Hatteras.
The brig was now in the midst of a pond of ice, which hemmed53 her in on every side, and though her keel was in the water, she could not move; she was immovable, but the ice-field moved for her.
“We are drifting, captain!” cried Johnson.
“We must drift,” answered Hatteras; “we can’t help ourselves.”
When daylight came, it was seen that the brig was drifting rapidly northward, along with a submarine current. The floating mass carried the Forward along with it. In case of accident, when the brig might be thrown on her side, or crushed by the pressure of the ice, Hatteras had a quantity of provisions brought up on deck, along with materials for encamping, the clothes and blankets of the crew. Taking example from Captain McClure under similar circumstances, he caused the brig to be surrounded by a belt of hammocks, filled with air, so as to shield her from the thick of the damage; the ice soon accumulated under a temperature of 7 degrees, and the ship was surrounded by a wall of ice, above which her masts only were to be seen. They navigated54 thus for seven days; Point Albert, the western extremity of New Cornwall, was sighted on the 10th of September, but soon disappeared; from thence the ice-field drifted east. Where would it take them to? Where should they stop? Who could tell? The crew waited, and the men folded their arms. At last, on the 15th of September, about three o’clock in the afternoon, the ice-field, stopped, probably, by collision with another field, gave a violent shake to the brig, and stood still. Hatteras found himself out of sight of land in latitude 78 degrees 15 minutes and longitude 95 degrees 35 minutes in the midst of the unknown sea, where geographers55 have placed the Frozen Pole.
收听单词发音 |
1
attentively
|
|
| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
latitude
|
|
| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
longitude
|
|
| n.经线，经度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
sledge
|
|
| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
isle
|
|
| n.小岛，岛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
depressed
|
|
| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
testimony
|
|
| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
interval
|
|
| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
enveloped
|
|
| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
lieutenant
|
|
| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
northward
|
|
| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
presaged
|
|
| v.预示，预兆( presage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
dispersed
|
|
| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
battering
|
|
| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
ram
|
|
| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
entangled
|
|
| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
spikes
|
|
| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
grumbled
|
|
| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
fore
|
|
| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
bounty
|
|
| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
meridian
|
|
| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
meridians
|
|
| n.子午圈( meridian的名词复数 )；子午线；顶点；（权力，成就等的）全盛时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
regain
|
|
| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
barricaded
|
|
| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
icebergs
|
|
| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
iceberg
|
|
| n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
perseverance
|
|
| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
folly
|
|
| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
cylinders
|
|
| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
cylinder
|
|
| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
commotion
|
|
| n.骚动，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
avalanche
|
|
| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
tranquilly
|
|
| adv. 宁静地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
repulse
|
|
| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
antediluvian
|
|
| adj.史前的，陈旧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
barricading
|
|
| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的现在分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
shrouds
|
|
| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
deafening
|
|
| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
extremity
|
|
| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
buttress
|
|
| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
hull
|
|
| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
planks
|
|
| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
hemmed
|
|
| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
navigated
|
|
| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
geographers
|
|
| 地理学家( geographer的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |