Chapter 26 Chapter 26 The Last Coal

It appears that the bears were indeed out of reach; a few seals were killed on the 4th, 5th and 6th of November; then the winds changed and the temperature rose many degrees; but the snow mass resumed its rampage with incomparable fury stand up.It was impossible to leave the boat, and the people struggled against the damp.Over the weekend, the condenser was filled with bucket ice cubes. The weather changed on 15 November, with the thermometer dropping to -31°C under the influence of some atmospheric conditions.This is the lowest temperature ever measured.The cold was bearable in calm weather, but the wind blew up, and the wind pierced the sky like a knife.

The doctor regretted being thus imprisoned, for the snow was blown so hard that he was sure to walk, and he might have made a long journey. However, it should be said that any strenuous activity in this cold weather can quickly make you breathless.A man cannot do a quarter of his usual work; iron tools are soon useless; tools. The crew were stuck on board and had to walk for two hours on the covered deck, where smoking was allowed but not in the common room. There, as long as the fire didn't rage, the ice invaded through the seams of walls and floors; not a nail, not a nail, not a sheet of metal, did not immediately form a layer of ice.

The vagaries of the weather puzzled the doctor.The breath the people exhaled condensed in the air, changed from liquid to solid, and fell back into snow around them.A few feet from the fire, the bitter cold gathered strength again, and people stayed around the fire, close together. However, the doctor advised them to undergo exercise to get used to this temperature, which was obviously not the lowest temperature yet; he advised them to gradually accustom their skin to severe pain, and set an example; but most of them stayed where they were due to laziness and numbness ; they don't want to move, preferring to sleep in the harsh temperatures.

But the doctor sees no danger in coming from a warm room into bitter cold; such a sudden switch is only harmful to a perspiring person; the doctor proves his point with examples, but his theory fails or is not very useful. As for John Hatteras, it seemed he was not affected by the temperature.He walked up and down in silence, neither slow nor fast.Doesn't his strong body feel the cold?Does he have in himself to the maximum the natural heat he seeks in sailors?Was he so stubborn that he gave such an impression outwardly?His men were not surprised to see him brave the freezing temperatures of minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit; he had been away from the ship for hours and returned with no sign of cold on his face.

"This man is strange," said the doctor to Johnson, "he astonishes me! He has a furnace in him! One of the harshest natures I have ever studied in my life!" "The truth is," replied Johnson, "that he comes and goes, walks about in the open air, and wears no more clothes than he did in June." "Oh! Clothes are nothing," replied the Doctor, "and what is the use of being warm for those who cannot produce their own heat? It is an attempt to warm a piece of ice in a woolen quilt! But ha! Truss doesn't need that; his physicality is what it is. I'm not surprised at all that he's able to keep himself warm, as he is around glowing coals."

Johnson was responsible for cleaning the wellhead every morning and found that the ice had accumulated more than 10 feet. Almost every night, the doctor can see the beautiful aurora; every night from four to eight o'clock, the northern sky shows a pale multicolored color; , each end appears to be leaning on the ice rink.Gradually, due to the effect of celestial magnetism, the shiny area rises into the sky, and a darker streak appears; arcs, bathed in red, yellow or green shimmering light.This is a dazzling, incomparable scene.Soon the various curves merged into one point, forming a colorful aurora.Finally, the arcs overlapped with each other, the brilliant light dimmed, the intense light became pale, dim, erratic, and blurred, and the spectacular scene gradually weakened and almost disappeared, and finally disappeared silently into the black clouds in the south.

People can't understand that such a strange phenomenon will occur at a high latitude less than 8° from the pole.The aurora seen in temperate regions makes no impression, not even a faint one; and it seems that Heaven intends to reserve to this climate its most wonderful spectacle. When the moonlight comes out, it is also accompanied by many phantom moons. Many moons appear in the sky, and the sky is much brighter.There is often a halo around the moon, and the moon shines brightly in the middle of the halo. On November 26th, there was a high tide, and the sea water burst out from the wellhead; the thick ice layer seemed to be shaken by the rising tide, and the terrible cracking sound predicted the confrontation on the bottom of the sea; fortunately, the ship was firmly fixed on the ice bed, and only Its rigging shook and rattled; after all, Hatteras had secured the ship in anticipation of this.

The days that followed were colder; the sky was thick with mist; the wind raised the snow; and if there were lumps of snow in the air or on the ice-fields it was difficult to see; it was an indescribable confusion. The crew was busy with various in-house work, chief among which was the preparation of the seals' fat and grease; several barrels.Containers of any kind, as it has been seen, are useless; for they will burst under the action of the liquid whose temperature changes it. On the 28th, the temperature dropped to -36°C; with only 10 days of coal left, everyone was watching in horror for the moment when the fuel would run out.

Hatteras, out of economy, had the fire in the poop put out, and from then on Sandon, the doctor, and he had to share the quarters with the crew.So Hatteras came into more frequent contact with his men, who cast dull and timid glances at him.He heard their complaints, their reproaches, their threatening words, but could not punish them.Plus, he seems deaf to all of it.He does not take the place closest to the fire.He stayed in a corner with his arms folded and didn't say a word. Penn and his friends refused to take any exercise against the advice of their doctors; Bad influence, a dreadful bout of scurvy arose on board.

Physicians long ago began to dispense lemon juice and tablets of calcium each morning; but these usually very effective preventive measures were of little use to the patients, and the disease, in its course, soon displayed its most dire symptoms. What a sight the sinews and muscles of these unfortunates writhe in agony!Their legs were terribly swollen, covered with great black and blue spots; their bleeding gums and swollen lips could only make indistinct sounds; Clifton was the first to contract the dreadful disease; soon Gripper, Brenton, and Strong had to leave their hammocks.Those who were not sick could not escape this painful scene; there was no other shelter but the public room; they could only stay there; this place was quickly turned into a hospital, because the 18 sailors on the "Forward" Thirteen of the hands caught scurvy not long after, and Penn appeared to have escaped the infection; his strong constitution spared him; Sandon also showed the first symptoms of the disease; but the disease did not progress Going on, he maintained a certain level of fitness by exercising.

The doctor devotes himself to the care of the patient, and it pains him to see that he cannot relieve the suffering of the patient.But he brought as much joy as he could to these mourning crew; That prodigious memory furnished him with amusing tales, and those who were still healthy cuddled round the fire; but the groans, complaints, and cries of despair of the sick sometimes interrupted him, and his story ended abruptly, and he Became a dedicated doctor again. Fortunately his health was tolerable; he had not lost weight; his fat body was his best clothes, he said, and he thought it would be nice to dress like a seal or a whale, thanks to their thick layer of fat , in order to easily resist the polar climate. Hatteras was indifferent, both physically and mentally.The pain of his crew seemed to have little effect on him.It may be that he does not allow his feelings to show in his face; but a careful observer will sometimes catch a beating human heart beneath his steely exterior. The doctor analyzed and researched him, but finally he couldn't classify this strange personality and supernatural nature. The temperature was still dropping; the corridors on deck were very deserted.Only the huskies walked up and down, barking mournfully. Someone was always in charge of the fire, and was in charge of the cooking; it was essential that the fire not go out; as soon as the fire fell a little, the cold crept into the house, ice condensed on the walls, and suddenly the condensed moisture turned into snowflakes and fell on the on the unfortunate occupants of the ship. It was in the midst of these indescribable torments that one endured until December 8th; on this morning, as usual, the doctor looked at the thermometer outside.He found that the mercury in the mercury tank was completely frozen. "Minus 44 degrees Fahrenheit!" he said to himself in horror. On this day, people threw the last coal from the ship into the fire.