Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Captain Hatteras

The "Forward" started the engine and drove rapidly between the ice field and the iceberg.Johnson himself took the helm.Shandon watched the horizon with his snow goggles, but his excitement didn't last long, as he soon realized that the road led to a cirque. However, he prefers to keep going forward rather than going back with difficulty. The dog galloped across the ice field in pursuit of the ship, but the distance between him and the ship was considerable.It's just that once it falls behind, people can immediately hear a sharp whistle calling it.The first time this whistle was sounded, the sailors looked around, they were the only people on deck, gathered together to whisper, there was no stranger, no stranger, but this whistle was heard again many times.

Clifton was the first to wake up. "Did you hear that? Did you see how the animal jumped at the whistle?" "It's unbelievable," Gripper replied. "That's it!" cried Payne. "I can't go any farther." "Payne is right," Brenton echoed. "It's tempting God." "To lure the devil," Clifton replied, "I'd rather lose all my rewards than take an extra step." "We're never going back," Bourdain said dejectedly. The entire crew was at the height of discouragement. "Not a step further," cried Walson, "do you agree?"

"Yes, yes!" replied the sailors. "Okay," said Bourdain, "we'll go to the Commander, and I'll talk to him." The sailors lined up in a tight file and headed for the poop. The "Advance" entered a gigantic cirque of ice eight hundred feet in diameter, completely enclosed, except for one exit, through which the ship entered. Shandon understood that he had imprisoned himself, but what to do?How to go back?He felt all the responsibility fall on his shoulders, and his hands on the goggles began to convulse. The doctor watched with folded hands and said nothing, observing the wall of ice, whose average height was more than three hundred feet, and the dome of fog that hung over this abyss.

Just then Bourdain said to the commander: "Commander," he said excitedly, "we can't go any further." "What do you say?" replied Sandon, looking angry at the lack of recognition of his authority. "We say, Commander," continued Bourdain, "that we have done enough for the invisible captain, and we are determined not to go far." "You're determined?" cried Sandon. "You talk like that, Bourdain! Take care." "Your threats are useless," Payne replied flatly, "We're not going any further!"

Shandon approached the mutinous sailors, and the bosun came up to him, and said in a low voice: "Commander, if we want to leave here, we can't delay for a minute. There is an iceberg moving on the route. It may block all exits, and we will become prisoners." Shandon reassessed the situation. "You will explain your actions to me later, you others," he said, turning to the rebels. "Go to the boat for now." The sailors hurried to their positions. The Forward sped forward, the furnace loaded with coal, and should outrun the floating iceberg in speed.It was a struggle between the ship and the iceberg, the former heading south to get through, and the ice drifting north, ready to block any exit.

"Fire up, fire up!" cried Sandon. "Full power, Brenton, do you hear me?" The Forward flew like a bird among the scattered ice, the bow splitting the ice rapidly, the hull vibrating from the action of the propeller, and the barometer showed the tremendous pressure of the steam; the steam gave a dull hiss Hiss. "Close the exhaust valve!" Shandon shouted. The mechanic did as he was told, despite the risk of blowing up the ship. But his dying struggles were in vain. The iceberg was caught by a current on the bottom of the sea and quickly drifted towards that route.The ship was three chains away from there, and the iceberg stuck like a wedge in the open gap, clinging to the neighboring iceberg and blocking all exits.

"We're lost!" cried Sandon, who could not resist the imprudence. "It's over!" shouted the crew. "Run if you can!" some said. "Put the boat into the sea!" "To the pantry!" shouted Penn and some of their gang. "If you drown us, drown us in gin!" These people are really messed up to the extreme, and they have become unscrupulous.Shandon was overwhelmed.He wants to command, he stammers, he hesitates, he cannot express his thoughts in words.The doctor walked up and down restlessly.Johnson stoically folded his arms and remained silent.

Suddenly, a firm, powerful, and solemn voice came, uttering these words. "On your marks! Prepare to turn." Johnson shivered involuntarily, and he quickly had the wheel turned. The time had come, and the ship headed for the ice wall at full speed. But just as Johnson instinctively did as he was told, Shandon, Crawford, the crew, all of them, down to Warren, the stoker, and Strang, the Negro, who left the stove, all gathered on deck On the road, everyone saw a person walking out of that cabin, and only he had the key... This man is Gary the Sailor. "Sir!" cried Sandon palely. "Gary...you...what right do you have to command here?"

"Dark!" Gary uttered another whistle that shocked the entire crew. When the dog heard its real name being called, it jumped up to the poop and lay quietly at its master's feet. The entire crew was silent.The key, which only the captain of the "Forward" possessed, the dog he sent to identify him, the unmistakable tone of voice of the commander, all made an impression on the sailors. The impression is enough to establish Gary's authority. What's more, Gary became unrecognizable, he took off the beard that covered his face, his face appeared calmer, more resolute, and more solemn, he was wearing the uniform placed in the cabin, and the external emblem of the commander appeared up.

Moreover, the crew on the "Forward" was originally flexible, and they couldn't help shouting in unison: "Ulla! Ulla! Captain Ulla!" "Sandon," he said to his assistant, "put the crew in line for my inspection." Shandon obeyed, and the voice of his command changed.The captain went up to his officers and sailors, and said to each one what he had to say, and treated them differently according to their past performance. After his inspection, he returned to the poop and said in a calm tone the following words: "Officers and sailors, I am an Englishman like you, and my motto is what Admiral Nelson once said:

"The UK is waiting for everyone to do their part." "As an Englishman, I would not, and we would not, the bravest go where we cannot. As an Englishman, I would not tolerate, we would not tolerate someone else being given the honor of traveling the furthest north. As long as someone This is the footsteps of an Englishman! This is the ship of our country. I have equipped this ship, I have invested my fortune in this cause, and I will give My life and yours, but the boat will be adrift at the North Pole of the world. Be confident. You will get 25,000 francs for every latitude we advance northward from today. But we are now at 72 Latitude, and 90 latitude, do the math. I swear to you by my name. It means perseverance and love of country. I am Captain Hatteras!" "Captain Hatteras!" cried Shandon. This name, which is so familiar to British sailors, is really deafening among the crew. "Now," said Hatteras again, "let the ship anchor on the iceberg, put out the fires, and get everyone back to work, Shandon, I want to tell you about the ship, and you come to my cabin , and the doctor, and Wall and the boatswain, Johnson, let the team disband." Calm and composed, Hatteras quietly left the poop while Shandon made sure the ship was anchored. What was it about this Hatteras, and why did his name make such an impression on the crew? John Hatteras, the only son of a London beer wholesaler, died in 1852, leaving a fortune.He entered the Navy at a young age, completely disregarding the vast fortune that was left to him.It was not his business aspirations that led him into this business, but the nature of geographic discovery haunted him, and he always dreamed of going where no one else had gone. When he was 20 years old, he had the strong physique of a thin and bloody man: a resolute face, sharp-edged, high forehead, perpendicular to the eyes, handsome and cold eyes, thin A taciturn mouth protrudes from under the lips. He is of medium height, and the muscles of his whole body are hard and tense, making a man with a temperament that can withstand any test.When you see him, you feel his boldness; when you hear his voice, you feel his calm passion.It is a temperament that never flinches, and is always ready to master the fate of others with the same confidence that it masters its own.Should think twice before following his cause. John Hatteras had the English pride he answered a Frenchman one day with such pride. The Frenchman said to him with presumptuous politeness, even friendliness: "If I wasn't French, I'd rather be British." "If I'm not English, I," replied Hatteras, "I'd rather be English." One can judge the person by this answer. His first wish was to preserve the patent rights to geographical discoveries for his countrymen, but, to his great disappointment, these men had achieved little success in the way they had discovered in previous centuries. America to the Genoese Christopher Columbus, India to the Portuguese Vasco de Gama, China to the Portuguese Fernándrada, Tierra del Fuego to the Portuguese Magellan, Canada to the French Jacques Cartier, Sunda Islands, Labrador Islands, Brazil, Cape of Good Hope, Azores, Madeira Islands, Nouveau Earth, Guinea, Congo, Mexico, Cape Blanc, Greenland, Iceland, South Seas, California, Peru, Kamchatka, Philippine Islands, Spitsbergen, Cape Horn, Bering Strait, Tasmany, New Zealand, New Britain, New Holland, Louisiana, John One Isle of Mayne is attributed to the Icelanders, Scandinavians, Russians, Portuguese, Danes, Spaniards, Genoese, Dutch; but not a single Englishman appears among them, and Hatteras despairs to see his countrymen excluded from the honorable group of voyagers who made the great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is not until modern Hatteras that there is some consolation: the English gradually pay off, Stater, Conor Stuart, Bock, Wells King, Gray discover Australia, Palliser discovers America, Cyril Graham, Waddington, Cummingham discovered India, Burton, Specbeck, Grant, Livingston discovered Africa. But that was not enough. For Hatteras, these intrepid navigators were not so much discoverers as improvers. They should find better ones. John was even willing to invent a country in order to be lucky enough to discover it. . However, he noted that although the British were not dominant among those past discoverers, although going back to Cook's discovery of New Caledonia in 1774 and the Sandwich Island where he died in 1778, on Earth's There is still a place for them to do their best in a certain corner. This is the northern land and sea of ​​North America. Finally, the charts for polar discoveries are listed below: Discovery of Velufby, Novaya Zemlya 1553 Discovered by Baluffe on Vegaz Island 1556 Davis Discovery 1585, East Coast of Greenland Davis Strait Davis Discovery 1587 Discovery of Velufby, Spitsbergen 1596 Hudson de Hudson Discovery 1610 Baffin Bay Baffin Discovery 1616 In recent years, Hahn, MacKenzie, John Ross, Barry, Franklin, Richardson, Beech, James Ross, Baker Titz, Simpson Rea, Eaglefield.Belcher, Austin, Colette, Moore, Mike Clindock, Kennedy, and Mike Krull set foot on these strange lands one after another. The South Coast of America has been cleared, the Northwest Passage roughly discovered, but this is not enough, there is better to be done, which is better. John Hatteras twice tried to equip two ships at his own expense, he thought To reach the extreme, realize the pioneering work discovered by the British, and create greater achievements. To reach the culmination, that was the purpose of his life. Hatteras first reached the northern seas via the Baffin Sea in 1846 after several excellent voyages in the southern waters.But he failed to cross the 74th latitude. He was in the multi-masted sloop HMS Halifax, and his crew suffered violent disturbances. The daring adventure of John Hatteras was pushed to the extreme. A similar expedition under such a captain was hardly impressed. But in 1850 Hatteras finally summoned a dozen or so determined men aboard the schooner Goodbye, though the men's determination was paid dearly for their bravery.It was on this occasion that Dr. Crowburny got in touch with John Hatteras, whom he did not know, and asked to go on the voyage, but fortunately for the Doctor his place was already taken. The "Goodbye" sailed north of Spitsbergen along the "Neptune" of Aberdeen in 1817, until it reached the 76th latitude, where it needed to spend the winter; No one ever saw England again, except Hatteras, who was sent home by a Danish whaling ship after walking two hundred miles on the ice floes. The repercussions of a person coming back are huge.Who dares to follow Hatteras on crazy adventures from now on?But he was not reconciled and determined to start over.His father, a beer wholesaler, died, and he became a wealthy property owner. It was at this time that a geographical event occurred which had the most marked effect on John Hatteras. A ship named "Forward" took 17 people and was sent by the wholesaler Grinnell Equipment and Dr. Kane to find Sir John Franklin. In 1853, it sailed through Baffin Sea and Smith Strait to 92°N Besides, it is closer to the pole than any of the pioneers. But this ship is American, this Grinnell is American, and this Kane is also American! It is easy to understand that the British contempt for the Yankee turned into hatred in Hatteras's heart, and he was determined to outrun his valiant adversary at all costs to the extreme. For two years he lived incognito in Liverpool, disguised as a sailor.He saw in Richard Sandon the man he needed, and he sent these proposals by anonymous letter, informing Dr. Crawford in like manner. The "Forward" was built.Armed and equipped.Hatteras was very careful that his name should not be known, and that he might not be able to find a man to accompany him, he resolved to take command only at a critical moment, and before that to recruit his fleet sufficiently so as not to retreat, It was well known that he had left rich rewards for his crew, and no one would refuse to follow him to the ends of the world. The place he was going was after all the end of the world. But the situation became so critical that John Hatteras could no longer hesitate, and he spoke the truth. His dog, the faithful Duck, his sailing companion, was the first to recognize him, and luckily for the brave and unlucky for the timid, there is no doubt that the captain of the "Forward" was John Hatteras.