Under the Sea to the North Pole Page 2

  De Keralio had no more to say.

  As to the company, extravagant as the hypothesis mi^ht appear, they knew that those who had just spoken were quite capable of realizing it. And they contented themselves with wishing success to the future expedition.

  It was thus that this idea of a campaign at the North Pole arose. But once it had been agreed upon, the plan had to be thought out.

  At the outset De Keralio had obtained the necessary leave for Hubert. Then he had called in his old friend Bernard Lacrosse, an old officer of the French Navy, whose moderate fortune had compelled him to abandon the service of the State for the command of a transatlantic steamer. After five years of this new life Captain Lacrosse had taken part as a volunteer in a Russian expedition to the North Pole by way of Nova Zembla. When he was forty-two he had started for the Antarctic, as mate of a French ship. He had only just returned when a letter from Keralio claimed him in the name of friendship and science, .and he hastened to comply with it.

  In company with Keralio and Hubert he had chosen the crew of the Polar Star, such being the vessel’s destined name.

  They were all good fellows, these navigators to the Pole, for one knows to how great an extent gaiety and good spirits are indispensable among those who go on such adventures. The three initiators of the campaign chose the staff with scrupulous discernment, beginning with the officers and the doctors; and hardly any but cheery faces could be found on the muster roll,

  The principal officers were as follows:—

  Chief of the Expedition.—Pierre de Keralio, aged 50.

  Captain of the Polar Star,—Bernard Lacrosse, naval lieutenant, aged 48.

  Lieutenants.—Paul Hardy, aged 28; Louis Pol, aged 27, passed midshipmen resigned. Jean Remois, master mariner, formerly passed midshipman of reserve, aged 34.

  Surgeons.—Andre Servan, aged 40; Assistant—Felix Le Sieur, aged 48.

  Chief Engineer.—Albert Mohizan, aged 30. Chemist and Naturalist.—Hermann Schnecker, aged 36.

  To this list of officers we must add Lieutenant Hubert D’Ermont, engaged to Isabelle de Keralio, who held his place on board by virtue of unlimited leave from headquarters.

  All of them had been in the navy, and everyone represented a considerable amount of knowledge, experience and energy. The sailors were of similar character and capacity. By a sort of national egotism De Keralio had chosen only Bretons or Canadians, that is to say compatriots of both his countries.

  Then they had proceeded to fit out the ship. The Polar Star had not yet been afloat. She was in a shipyard at Cherbourg, begun by a builder whom bankruptcy had prevented from launching her. She was a steamer of 8oo tons, rigged as a barque. Bernard Lacrosse, who had visited all the French ports in the course of two months, had been fortunate enough to find her in her cradle. He had immediately bought her for De Keralio, and resumed work on her with a view to specially fitting her for her work in the icy seas. The ship had two compound triple expansion engines of 500 horse power. She had three decks and was coated with teak wood, between which and the hull was a space of about nine inches filled with oakum and palm fibre. Keel, carlines, stem and sternpost were of steel covered with a sort of copper sheathing.

  Copper had been employed with the intention of giving more elasticity to the hull. It was used in all the beams and Joints in order that great pressures could be borne without breakage. A longitudinal bulkhead made her all the stronger. The thickness of the teak planking varied from nine inches amidships, to five forward and four aft. The entire hull was in water-tight compartments. Besides the fibre packing between the two skins, the sides of the ship and the walls of the compartments had been ornamented with thin layers of compressed felt, to prevent the loss of heat and the penetration of damp. To save the rudder from the pressure of the ice, long beams covered with copper had been rigged put, forming davits, by the aid of which it would be possible to unship it and hoist it on deck.

  The curved prow ended in a ram of steel, ten feet in length. Forward were steam windlasses, and the Pinkey and Collins apparatus used by whalers to save them from having- to go aloft to reef the sails in bad weather. Sheet iron elbow pipes above the waste valves allowed of the steam being turned on the neighbouring ice, within a radius of sixteen feet on each side of the hull.

  The armament had been as carefully looked after. Besides the two 10-centimetre guns on deck, the Polar Star possessed two Hotchkiss revolving guns, four harpoon guns, two buoy guns. There were three whaleboats, five ice boats entirely sheathed with copper, the keels of which could be fitted with either runners or axles. And finally under a protecting tarpaulin aft, sheltered the mysterious submarine boat on which De Keralio had just been congratulating Hubert D’Ermont.

  The conversation interrupted for a moment by Isabelle’s arrival, became more animated than ever between the three.

  “My dear cousin,” said the girl, returning to what they were all thinking about. “I say that now is a favourable opportunity for putting your discovery to the proof.”

  The lieutenant gaily replied,—

  “Is it only curiosity, Isabelle, which makes you speak like that, or am I to infer that you have a certain feeling of interest in what has been done by my brother and myself?”

  Isabelle frowned, but the passing irritation almost immediately gave place to her usual playfulness,, as she replied with her sweetest smile,—

  “Can you doubt for a moment, Hubert? Do you think me such a stranger to scientific matters? Of course my affection for the author, or rather for the authors, of an invention which, owing to the faith I have in them, I hold to be admirable, is not free from a certain amount of fear. But to be frank, I am prepared to confess that in all this, I am chiefly thinking of the practical results of our expedition and that I am all the more attached to you because I know that you are the bearer of an invention which we can call the panacea for mis-reckonings in attempted discovery.”

  A vaguely sceptical smile rested for a moment on the girl’s lips.

  Hubert was not yet of an age when impatience is mastered in a moment. This smiling banter might have driven him into exceeding the limits he had imposed upon himself; but strong as was the temptation to give the girl the irrefutable proof of his merits, he remembered just in time that he had no right to do this before a day and hour fixed in advance.

  But if he had no right to do this he could at least defend himself by means of favourable appearances. He rose from his chair and, holding out his hand to his cousin, said,—

  “If it pleases you to come down to my cabin with my uncle, I can show you, if not the discovery at work, at least the instruments on which it is based.”

  Isabelle rose laughing.

  “Ho! ho! Hubert, you seem to take matters more seriously than I intended. Let me tell you my doubts are only on the surface, and that I have the greatest confidence in your wisdom united to that of your dear Marc.”

  “Of course,” said De Keralio with a laugh; “but you seem rather to belong to the school of St. Thomas Didymus, who believed nothing until he had seen it. Well, Hubert, as you proposed it, let us go and see.”

  The three moved towards the hatchway. As they were about to descend the iron ladder they were met by Captain Lacrosse.

  “Hallo, Bernard,” said De Keralio, “you will not be sorry to see with us the treasures of science stored in the cabin of my future sonin-law.”

  And passing his arm into Lacrosse’s, he led him off behind the young people.

  The Polar Star had been fitted up below like a pleasure yacht. The gangway, the saloon, the dining-room, the smoking-room were decorated in mahogany, along which ran a well-stuffed rail. The officers’ cabins opened on the gangway’, around the saloon were those of De Keralio and his daughter, and Captain Lacrosse and Hubert D’Ermont.

  It was the last which the four visitors entered.

  It was furnished with extreme simplicity, every corner being utilized with consummate art. The bed in one of the angles rested on a chest of d
rawers. The washbasin was pivoted in a niche, so that it could be turned up and form a desk. In the opposite corner was a strong steel safe, thick enough to defy any attempt to force it, a combination of ciphers further assuring its impenetrability. Hubert pointed to seats for his companions.

  “Uncle,” he began, “although I am your guest, I am here at home, with your consent, be it understood. It is for me to do the honours of my apartment, and to my dear cousin I pay the first homage.”

  He took a bunch of keys from the desk, and handing it to the girl,, said,—

  “Will you place that key in. the lock of this strongbox?”

  At the same time, with singular quickness, he combined the figures that lay under the steel knobs on the door.

  Isabelle had but to turn the key. The sharp click of six bolts withdrawn together, accompanied by the sound of a spring snapping, preceded the opening of the door, and the interior of the safe appeared arranged in symmetrical pigeon-holes.

  “Behold the treasure!” said Hubert, with a gesture of comic declamation.

  “Let us look at the contents i “remarked De Keralio.

  Hubert bent over and withdrew from one of the pigeonholes a few objects of simple form, which at first glance revealed nothing in particular.

  These were cylinders of steel, whose weight was relatively heavy. They measured about a foot in diameter, and ended in a narrow neck fitted with a double screw stopper, as if they were gas reservoirs.

  Bernard Lacrosse here put in a word.

  “We do not want to be so very clever to see that those cylinders contain something. Are we allowed to ask what?”

  Hubert placed his finger to his lips.

  “Not before the time. Yes, you understand, these cylinders contain something. I can only tell you what that is when we are in such a position that no ill-will can hurt us. Know only that these cylinders contain the secret of our approaching victory; heat, force, light, movement. With them, thanks to them, we shall know no obstacles. These are the things which will take us to the Pole.”

  The hearers of this little speech remained open-mouthed for a moment before him.

  “By Jove!” said Lacrosse, “if it is as you say, D’Ermont, that must be a secret well worth keeping.”

  Isabelle’s face had become thoughtful.

  “To what ill-will do you allude, Hubert?”

  The young man would probably have replied had not the cabin door been suddenly burst open to give entrance to a magnificent Newfoundland dog, who went and put his intelligent head on Isabelle’s knees.

  “Good morning, Salvator!” said she, gaily, as she caressed the superb animal.

  Hubert appeared vexed.

  “We left the door open, then?” said he, quickly.

  He put back the steel cylinder into the safe and hurriedly shut the door.

  Through the cabin doorway came a whiff of tobacco smoke. Hubert rushed into the saloon and saw a tall figure with red hair disappearing down the gangway. “Mr. Schnecker was there,” he said, with a frown, as he entered the cabin.

  “Our chemist?” asked Isabelle.

  “Yes our chemist; and I don’t particularly take to our chemist,” added Hubert.

  “Oh Hubert, what makes you say that?”

  “I say what I think,” said the young officer. “Besides cousin, would you like to examine an impartial witness?”

  Before she could reply, and while she was thinking in surprise, Hubert took the dog’s head in his hand and looked into his eyes.

  “Salvator, is your friend Mr. Schnecker?” Salvator showed all his teeth, and a deep growl of anger rolled within his depths.

  CHAPTER II

  FORT ESPERANCE.

  ON the 15th of May the Polar Star rounded the North Cape. Up to then the plan that had been agreed upon was to sail north-east. They wished, in fact, to follow in the route of the Tegetthoff expedition commanded in 1872-1874 by Payer and Weyprecht, who from Nova Zembla, situated in 76° north latitude, had reached an unknown coast they had called Franz Josef Land, and which they supposed extended from the eightieth to the eighty-third parallel.

  This plan, besides enabling the travellers to be near the old continent, had also the merit of flattering the vanity of those desirous of opening up an entirely new road. “It will be very unfortunate,” thought De Keralio, “if we cannot manage to find a passage beyond longitude 30, between Spitzbergen and the fragmentary lands of Nova Zembla.”

  Captain Lacrosse had steadily objected to this plan, and the reasons he had invoked for combating it were weighty. Besides going at a venture, they were in a peculiarly conceited spirit, neglecting to avail themselves of the experience of their predecessors, notably the precise discoveries made in Grinnell Land in 1875 and 1876 by Nares, Markham, and Stephenson, and more recently in 1881 to 1884 by Greely, Lockwood, and their gallant and unfortunate companions.

  Lacrosse reasoned with sound common sense, “At least,” he said, “by going that road we shall have an open course up to the 83rd parallel. Smith Sound and Strait, Lady Franklin Bay, are nowadays well known as rendezvous for people who know what they are about.” He added, not without some appearance of truth,— “It is to be feared that the breaking up of the ice will make the road very difficult in a region where there is. little land, and it may carry us to the westward, in spite of all we can do. That will be so much lost time, as we should have to winter in the neighbourhood of Iceland, and thus exhaust a third of our provisions on the voyage alone.”

  His opinion was only too soon to be confirmed by facts.

  On the 16th of May it could be seen that the field of ice was so little broken that it afforded no passage to the Polar Star, The numerous attempts that were made ended only in a loss of time, and notwithstanding all they could do, they had on the 25th of May drifted four degrees to the westward. The way that was blocked in the east seemed in curious irony to open out to the west.

  De Keralio’s obstinacy gave way before this demonstration of the facts themselves, and, yielding to the captain’s advice, he was the first to decide in favour of a change of direction.

  To the general satisfaction the north-easterly route was abandoned in favour of the one towards the opposite horizon, and the Polar Star steered for the southern end of Spitzbergen.

  The sea gradually becoming clearer of ice, this point was reached on the eighth of June. On that date eighty days had elapsed since their departure from Cherbourg. They were in the 78th degree of north latitude. Five only remained for them to traverse to reach the extreme limit of human investigations. But all knew that a veritable campaign was about to begin, rich in struggle and effort. To travel three of these degrees in sledges, Nares, Markham, Stephenson, and then Greely, Lockwood, and Brainard had taken two mortal years.

  They must hasten. The Arctic summer is very short, and when July was over the cold would begin again. Since passing the Polar circle they had no need of artificial light; the midnight sun had been their luminary. For nearly a month the broken ice had only been met with in inconsiderable fragments. But the captain had only shaken his head and smiled at Isabelle’s exclamation of astonishment. “Patience! All this will change. Do not forget we are in the least encumbered part of the polar seas. We can only depend on getting a start from Greenland.” He told her true. It was in vain that from the southern extremity of Spitzbergen they tried to steer straight for the north. The pack or field of ice stopped the Polar Star on the second day. It was even impossible to keep to the westward along the 78th parallel owing to the drift ice. The drift continued for three degrees. Then the field of ice under the action of a warm current opened again. Captain Lacrosse steered obliquely towards the northwest. On the 25th of June they had regained the 77th degree, and the coast of Greenland appeared, bordered by an icy barrier about thirty-five miles long. Obliged to keep a careful look-out on her surroundings, the Polar Star steamed hardly eight knots an hour. As the ship went further to the north the ice became more frequent. Now they could follow it without
interruption as a string of islands of unequal size. At present the blocks were all flat on the surface, being fragments of the ice field. But they were becoming more uneven, more hummocky, bristling with sharp points, striped with longitudinal cracks, with clear brilliant crevasses like the edges of broken glass. Behind them others appeared, higher, larger, which took the strangest of forms. Some looked like distant sails on the horizon, and the flotilla increased in numbers as they approached the grand fiord of Franz Josef discovered by Payer during the voyage of the Germania and the Hansa. At last on the 30th of June the Polar Star entered the fiord and cast anchor under the same 76th parallel they had already reached on the coast of Spitzbergen. The moment had come for putting into execution the second part of De Keralio’s plan. This consisted in landing a party, and then returning as quickly as possible to the south for dogs and Eskimo drivers, indispensable for the coming sledge journeys.

  The plan had suffered from such modifications that it might be said to be an entirely new one. Precious time had been lost in their attempt by way of the east. Instead of going north from Franz Josef Land, they were on the east coast of Greenland below Mount Petermann. It was proposed to take an oblique course from the 24th to the 5Sth degree of east longitude, so as to cross if possible Lockwood’s route in 1882, at about 82° 44' north latitude. It was a grand scheme, bristling with difficulty; but, as De Keralio said, was that an obstacle to stop a Frenchman?

  Captain Lacrosse had forty-six days, from the 1st of July to the i5th of August, in which to reach the south of Greenland, double, if necessary, Cape Farewell, and return to Franz Josef fiord with the dogs required by the expedition.

  Fortunately, this was the warmest period of the year. The Polar Star during her three months’ voyage had experienced no storm. She was still abundantly provided with coal, and even after her return would have enough for a further dash towards the north if the sea opened before her adventurous commander.

  Thanks to the measures taken a long time in advance, and minutely calculated, the landing of the chief explorers was accomplished in a day. The crystalline border of the fiord was only six miles wide, and such were still the solidity and thickness of the ice that there was no fear of its breaking up. These borders along the shore have remained unthawed for centuries, and their bases apparently rest on the rock itself, forming a ledge from six to nine feet thick above the level of the open water.