Chapter 6 Chapter 6 "Gathering the Slightly Open Shroud!"

With the help of currents and sea breeze, the voyage of the "Halle Brena" has been going smoothly.If the current and sea breeze can continue, within half a month, the distance between Prince Edward Island and Tristan da Cunha Island can be crossed-about 2,300 nautical miles.And, as the boatswain once claimed, there is no need to replace the front corner line once.The southeast sea wind blows all the time, and the wind direction does not change; sometimes it reaches a high wind level, as long as the high sail is lowered. Captain Lan Guy handed over the operation to Jem West.The intrepid "sail-rigger"--forgive me for using the word--will only make up his mind to draw back the sails when the mast is about to give in.I'm not worried.With such sailors, there is no need to worry about any loss.He is very careful about his work.

"Our first mate is the best in the world," Heligly said to me one day, "and he's good enough to command a flagship!" "Indeed," I replied, "Jem West is a true sailor, in my opinion!" "Our Halle Brena, a ship! Thank you, Mr. Georin." !Congratulate me too, for at last I made Captain Lan Guy change his mind about your question!" "If you got this achievement, then I am very grateful to you." "You should thank me. Although Uncle Atkins insisted again and again, our captain is still hesitant! I finally made him understand..."

"I won't forget, bosun, I won't forget. Thanks to your mediation, I didn't wait in the Keregrens. You see, I'm going to Tristan da Cunha soon. It's..." "It's only a few days, Mr. Georin. Now, tell me, I've heard people say that in England and the United States, people are building a kind of ship with a machine in their belly, and it uses wheels, just like ducks. Like my own webs!... That's all right, if it works, you'll know if you use it. But, in my opinion, that kind of boat will never be able to compete with a beautiful sixty-foot three-masted sailboat. When the wind is strong, this boat can force Sailing with the wind! Mr. Georin, this sea breeze, even if it receives five grids, is enough! A seaman does not need to install wheels in the hull!"

I have nothing to object to the bosun's opinion concerning the use of steam in navigation.It is still in the groping stage, and the turbine has not yet replaced the blade.As for the future, who can foresee it? ... At this time, another incident emerged in my memory: the "Jenny" happened to have traveled from Prince Edward Island to Tristan da Cunha Islands for half a month.Captain Lan Guy spoke to me of the Jenny as if she had actually existed, that he had seen it with his own eyes.Indeed, Edgar Allan Poe had sea winds and waters at his mercy. For a fortnight after that conversation, Captain Lan Guy never spoke to me about Arthur Pym.He even acted as if he had never spoken a word to me about the adventures of this hero of the Antarctic ocean.If he had hoped to convince me that it was all true, his intelligence was too mediocre.I repeat, how can a sane person agree to a serious discussion of such a question?No one—and I repeat this for the tenth time—hasn't put Edgar Allan Poe's story is treated as a work of pure fiction.

think about it!According to the novel, an English brig sailed as far as the eighty-fourth south latitude.So why didn't this voyage become a sensational geographic event? ... Arthur Pym returned from deep Antarctica, why is he not placed above Cooke, Weddell, Biscoe and the like? ... He and Dirk Peters, as two passengers of the "Jenny", even beyond the above-mentioned latitude, why should they not be given public honor? ...to the free-flowing sea they had discovered; the swift currents that carried them to the poles; the unnatural temperature of the sea here, as if heated from below, to a heat unbearable to the human hand; the curtain of smoke in the sky; Facing the half-open and half-closed gaseous waterfall, the huge human face behind the waterfall and so on.How should I feel? ...

Leaving aside these unreal things, how Arthur Pym and the half-breed escaped to return, how their zalar boat brought them back from beyond the polar circle, and how they were finally rescued and rescued. Was sent back to the motherland?I would really like to know.How can Arthur Pym's diary not mention the incident on the return journey in a thin scull boat, crossing the region of more than 20 degrees, crossing the polar ice again, and returning to the nearest land? ... It will be said that Arthur Pym died before he could furnish the last chapters of his account! ……Ok!Even so, he didn't mention a single word to the publisher of Southern Wenxun about his return journey. Is this true and credible? ...Why did Dirk Peters keep silent about the outcome of this adventure, since he lived in Illinois for several years? ... Would it be in his interest to say nothing? ...

According to Captain Lan Guy, he went to Vandalia because the novel talks about Dirk Peters living in Vandalia.But Captain Lan Guy didn't meet Dirk Peters... I'm sure!I repeat, like Arthur Pym, Dirk Peters exists only in the dizzying imagination of the American poet... He can impose pure fiction on the minds of some, Was it not a testament to the extraordinary power of this genius to convince them of the truth?On this point, I am afraid there is no objection. I could well see that Captain Lan Guy couldn't shake his fixation.It would be no fun to argue with him again, to bring up again the arguments that did not convince him.He was more sullen and taciturn than ever.He never appeared on the brig's deck unless necessary.Whenever he appeared on the deck, his eyes would scan the southern sky stubbornly, as if trying to pierce it...

Perhaps he seemed to see the curtain of smoke, with its broad stripes of zebras; the high sky, thickened by impenetrable darkness; Shot the shining light; saw the white giant show him the way through the eddies of the waterfall... What a weird paranoid our captain is!Fortunately, except for this topic, he still kept his head clear.His merits as a seaman were still intact.All the worries I could conceive were in no danger of becoming real. I must say that I found it more interesting to discover what caused Captain Lan Guy to be so concerned about the alleged victims of the Jenny.Even if Arthur Pym's narration were to be taken as true, and assuming that the British brig had indeed crossed the impassable waters, why should there be such needless lamentation?Even if some of the sailors, captains, or officers of the Jenny survived after the explosion and the collapse caused by the natives of Zalal, could it be reasonable to expect them to still be alive?Eleven years had elapsed since the incident, according to the date pointed out by Arthur Pym.Even if these unfortunates had escaped from the hands of the inhabitants of the island, how, then and now, under such difficult conditions, have they been fed and fed without all dying? ...

forget it!How did I begin to seriously discuss such assumptions, even though they were groundless?Going a step further, Arthur Pym, Dirk Peters, their partners, and the "Jenny" that disappeared behind the big ice floes on the Antarctic sea, am I about to believe that they all really existed?Had Captain Lan Guy's madness infected me too?In fact, hadn't I just found myself inadvertently comparing the distance traveled westward by the Jeanne with the distance traveled by the Halbrena to Tristan da Cunha? ... It was September 3rd.If there were no delays--and if they did, it would only be accidents at sea--our brig would be in port in three days' time.The main island in this group of islands is quite high above sea level and can be seen from a distance on a clear day.

Between ten and eleven o'clock that morning I took a walk from bow to stern on the windward side.The sea is undulating and gurgling, and the boat glides gently on the water.It was as if the Halle Brenale were a gigantic bird—a giant albatross mentioned by Arthur Pym—that was spreading its broad wings through space and carrying the whole ship with it.yes!For imaginative minds, it is no longer sailing, but flying.The sail is beating, it is flapping its wings! Jem West stood by the windlass, shaded by the jib at the bow.With the binoculars attached to his eyes, he stared at a floating object two or three nautical miles away under the port wind.Several sailors leaned over the bulwarks, also pointing their fingers at the thing.

The surface of this colossal thing was ten to twelve yards irregular, with a protruding central part, with a bulge, shining brightly.The waves were moving in a northwesterly direction, and the object was bouncing up and down with the waves. I went to the bow rail and looked at the object carefully. The words of the sailors reached my ears.Anything the sea brings, even small, interests them. "This is not a whale at all," the sail master Mardin Holt solemnly declared, "It is a whale. We have observed it for so long, at least we should take a breath or two!" "Of course it's not a whale," said Hardy the caulker. "Maybe it's the skeleton of an abandoned ship..." "The devil sent it up from the bottom of the sea!" cried Rogers. "Jump on it at night! Guaranteed, before you know what's going on, it's going to slash your face and sink you in the water!" "I'll take your word for it," added Draper, "that such drifts are more dangerous than rocks. How do you avoid them here today and over there tomorrow? . . . " Heligley just came over. "What do you say, bosun?" I asked him.He was beside me, his elbows resting on the railing. Heligley watched carefully.With a strong sea wind blowing, and the brig sailing swiftly towards the drift, it was easier to make an opinion. "In my opinion, Mr. Georin," said the bosun sharply, "this thing we have seen is neither a whale nor a wreck of an abandoned ship. It is simply an ice floe..." Jim Way Sturt looks through binoculars... "An ice floe?..." I called out loudly. "Herigley was right," said Jem West firmly. "It's an ice floe, an iceberg brought by the current..." "How?" I continued, "as far as the latitude of forty-five degrees?" "It happens quite often, sir," replied the mate, "there is a French navigator, Captain Blossville, who says that the ice floes sometimes go up as far as Cape Town, in 1828. He's encountered it at that latitude." "Then this piece will melt soon..." I said, surprised by the careful answer that First Officer West honored me with. "Maybe most of it has melted," said the first mate affirmatively. "What we see must be the remnants of an iceberg. The whole iceberg may weigh several million tons!" Captain Lan Guy had just emerged from the deckroom.He saw a group of sailors surrounding Jem West, and he approached the bow. The first mate talked to him in a low voice and handed him the binoculars. Lan Guy pointed the telescope at the drifting object.The brig was a nautical mile closer than before.He watched for a minute or so. "It's an ice floe," he said, "and it's a good thing it's melted. If 'Halle Brener' The USS crashed into it at night and was probably badly damaged. " I was amazed at how carefully Captain Lan Guy observed.It seemed that he couldn't take his eyes off the eyepiece of the telescope, it could almost be said that it had become his eyes.He was motionless, as if nails were driven into the deck.Whether the ship pitched back and forth, or swayed from side to side, he was indifferent.His arms were straight, a position he had grown used to.Calmly he kept the ice floe in his field of vision.On his bronze-colored face, there were thin marks and dark spots, and indistinct words came from his lips. A few minutes passed, and the "Halle Brena" was going so fast that it was about to yaw around the ice floe. "One square," said Captain Lan Guy, without lowering the glass. I guessed what was going on in the head of this man who was stuck with a fixed idea.This ice floe, separated from the great polar ice floe, came from the sea area that he longed for.He wanted to get a closer look at the floe, maybe get closer, maybe collect some debris... Jem West passed on the order, and the bosun immediately let the lower corner line a little, and the brig turned a notch, and headed straight for the ice floe.Soon we were only two chains away from the floe, and I was able to take a closer look. As in the case just observed, the central bulge has melted on all sides.The water column drips along the walls.The warm season came early this year, and it's only September now, and the sun has enough power to cause thawing, push it forward, and even accelerate it. The drift ice, which the water has carried to a latitude of forty-five degrees, will surely disappear before dark without leaving any trace. Captain Lan Guy no longer used binoculars, but he had been watching the flowing water, and he was beginning to make out an anomaly.Gradually, as the melting progressed, the alien body appeared more clearly—a black, human-like thing lying on the snow-white ice layer. We first see an arm appear, then a leg, upper body, head, and not at all naked, but in dark clothing.We were terrified! For a while, I even felt his limbs move...his hand stretched out to us... The people on board shouted involuntarily. No!The human body does not move, but slides gently on the ice surface... I glanced at Captain Lan Guy.His face was as pale as the face of this dead body drifting from the far high latitudes of Antarctica! Take action now, and rescue the poor man—he may still be alive! ...Anyway, maybe he has some papers in his pocket that will identify him! … Say a last prayer for him, and then throw the remains of the human body into the depths of the sea, where the graves of dead sailors are buried! ... Let go of the dinghy.The bosun took his place in the boat, and the two sailors, Grethian and Francis, took an oar each.Jem West took measures to block the sail, crossed the jib and forestay sail, pulled the mizzen mast tripod taut, and had stopped the remaining speed of the brig.Now the ship was almost at a standstill, only rising and falling with the long waves of the sea. My eyes were on the boat.The sea was eating up the ice floe, and the boat was close to its side. Heligley found a slightly firmer spot to descend onto the ice floe.Grethian then disembarked.Francis held the boat still by a line with a four-claw anchor. The two crawled all the way to the body.One person pulls the legs, the other pulls the arms, and loads the body into the boat. After a few oars the bosun returned to the brig. The dead body, frozen from head to toe, lay on the foremast block. Captain Lan Guy immediately approached the dead body, and looked at it long, as if trying to recognize him. It was the corpse of a sailor, in coarse cloth, woolen trousers, and patched coarse smock; a thick Morleton double-faced shirt, with a belt looped twice around the waist.There is no doubt that his death dates back several months.Probably not long after being taken away by the ice floe, the poor man died... The man brought back to the boat, although his hair was gray, looked no older than forty years old.Shockingly thin, almost skinny.Starting from the polar circle of Antarctica, he has drifted at least 20 degrees of latitude. He must have suffered from the pain of hunger. The dead bodies were well preserved due to the cold.Captain Lan Guy was just now brushing up his hair.He raised the dead body's head, and looked for the dead man's gaze under his closed eyelids.At last, he wept bitterly, and called out a name: "Patterson...Patterson!" "Patterson..." I yelled. Even though the name is common, I feel like it has something to do with my memory! ... When have I ever heard that name spoken—or have I read it somewhere? ... At this time, Captain Lan Gay stood still, his eyes slowly scanning the sky, as if he was about to order to sail south... At this time, Jem West said a word.The boatswain immediately put his hand into the dead man's pocket, as he would.From it he took out a knife, a length of thick twine for a ship's cable, and an empty cigarette case.Later, I took out a leather notebook and a pencil with a metal casing. Captain Lan Guy turned around.Heligley was about to hand the blotter to Jem West when the captain said: "Give me!" A few pages were densely filled with words.The handwriting has almost completely disappeared due to moisture.But the words on the last page are still legible.My excitement may be imagined when I heard Captain Lan Guy's trembling voice read the following words.He read: "The 'Jenny'...Zhalal Island...at eighty-three degrees...there has been...eleven years...the captain...five sailors survived...rescue them quickly..." Below these lines, there is a name...a signature...that of Patterson... Patterson! ... I remembered! ...he was the first mate of the "Jenny". ... the brig "Jenny" that rescued Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters from the wreck of the "Orca", the "Jenny" that sailed all the way to the latitude of Zalal Island, It was the "Jenny" that was attacked by the islanders and engulfed by the explosion! ... So, it's all true! ...Then Edgar Allan Poe's book is the work of a historian, not a novelist! ...then he did read Arthur Gordon Pym's diary! ...Then, there is direct contact between them! ...then Arthur Pym did exist, or rather, had existed, and he was a real person! … Then, before he could complete the account of his thrilling travels, he died—suddenly and tragically, the circumstances of which are not revealed! . . . to what latitude had he and his partner Dirk Peters penetrated since they left Zalal Island?How did the two of them return to the United States? ... I feel like my head is going to explode, I'm going crazy!And I used to accuse Captain Lan Guy of being a madman! ……No!I, must have misheard... I must not have understood! ...This is purely a wild idea in my head! However, the evidence found on the first mate of the "Jenny" Patterson has an affirmative tone and an exact date, so how can it be denied? ...Jem West, calmer, made out the following fragments again.These statements are: "Brought north of Zalal Island since June 3rd...here...still...William Gay and five men aboard the 'Jenny'...my ice drifts through the Great Polar Floe ...food is running out...since June 13th...the last food source has run out...today...June 16th...nothing left..." After that, how could one remain skeptical? So Patterson's body had been lying there for almost three months on the surface of the ice floe we met on our way from the Kerguelens to Tristan da Cunha! ……what!How nice it would be if we could save the first mate of the "Jenny"! ...then he will tell the mysteries of this thrilling adventure that are not known, and may never be known! All in all, I have to admit the reality.Captain Lan Guy knows Patterson and has just found his frozen body! ... While at anchor, the captain of the "Jenny" buried a wine bottle in the Kerguelen Islands with a letter in it.At that time, it was he who accompanied the captain of the "Jenny".I used to refuse to believe the authenticity of that letter! ……yes!For eleven years the survivors of the British brig had been there, with little hope of ever being rescued! ... At this time, in my excited mind, the two names were connected again.This must explain to me why our captain is so interested in everything connected with Arthur Pym. Captain Lan Guy turned to me, looked at me, and said only these words: "Now, do you believe it?..." "I believe it... I believe it!" I stammered, "but Captain William Guy of the Jenny..." "Brother to Captain Lan Guy of the Halle Brena!" he cried in a thunderous voice, heard by all the crew. Then, our eyes turned to the place where the ice floe drifted.The dual effects of sunlight and flowing water at this latitude have already produced the desired effect, and the ice floes have disappeared without a trace on the sea surface.