And away I
went to make my preparations without loss of time. I always felt an
inclination to volunteer for any work to be done, and never thought of
throwing difficulties in the way of the performance of any thing that
was proposed. I chose Nol Grampus, the old quarter-master, and Tom
Rockets as my companions in the enterprise. The dinghy, a small boat we
carried astern, was the best suited to my purpose. Having laden her
with provisions, we shoved off from the ship among the floating ice.
Our progress was very slow, sometimes we worked our way among the sheet
ice, then we came to a hard slab on to which we jumped and hauled the
boat over it. "Take care, sir," said Grampus, as we were crossing a
slab, "this is treacherous stuff we are on." Just as he spoke I felt my
feet sinking into the slush, and had I not had firm hold of the gunwale,
I might have gone through altogether. As I sprang into the boat I could
not help shuddering at the thought of sinking into the cold deadly mass
which surrounded us without the possibility of making an effort for
life; too dense to enable one to swim, and yet too liquid to bear the
weight of a person, it was as sure to destroy one as the treacherous
quicksand or the furious maelstrom. Near us was another boat with an
old man and a boy, likewise endeavouring to cross the harbour. We saw
that they were exerting all their energies, but were not making better
progress than we were. After some time the tide made down stronger, and
on taking our bearings I found that the ice was setting us fast down the
harbour and out to sea. My men needed no encouragement to exert
themselves to the utmost, for the peril we were in was very apparent.
Captain Hudson observed it also, and made the signal for us to return to
the ship, but it was even more difficult to go back than to go forward.
In attempting to obey the order I found that we were carried more into
the strength of the current. I therefore kept on towards the wharf,
where some hundreds of people were collected, rather anxious spectators
of our adventure. Captain Symonds, of the Cerberus, and the
master-attendant of the dockyard were looking on, and they also hailed
to me to return to the ship. Sometimes we appeared to be making no
progress whatever, and I felt the probability of our being carried out
to sea--then again we advanced, though slowly, towards the shore. The
old man and his boy were less able to contend with the difficu