“Then we’ll have to lay up alongside some iceberg till the snow melts.”
That day and the ensuing one the ship made but little progress, and with difficulty several times evaded being crushed in the ice.
The Arctic experienced all the perils of the frozen deep. Ice floes closing in on it, or the toppling of some immense iceberg, more than once threatened the safety of the ship and the crew.
An incident of excitement and enjoyment occurred the third day in the ice fields. A ship—a whaler—was met, like the Arctic seeking the open sea, and courtesies were exchanged, and the monotony of ocean solitude broken in upon.
That same night, however, the ships lost one another. A transient thaw set in, and the ensuing morning the Arctic was driving ahead through a narrow water-way, with temperature that frosted everything on deck and warned the crew to prepare for an icy experience.
The Arctic was well provided with the necessary clothing to protect its crew from the cold. Wrapped in thick coats, even to the boys, they were enabled to face the icy blast, which each hour grew more intense.
One morning the ship came to a stop. During the night the water-way had frozen up, and they were unable to proceed farther. Captain Smith made a calculation of the locality, and announced to the crew that night that it was probable that they would be compelled to stay where they were for some time to come.
“When the ice melts or breaks we may be able to reach the open sea again, but for the present we will go into winter quarters.”
They cut a course for the ship to the shelter of a slanting iceberg, and then the deck was lightly boarded over. The cabins and forecastle were made snug and warm, and a monotonous, but not unpleasant, life began for the ice-imprisoned crew.
Occasionally an expedition would venture out in quest of game or to explore the neighboring country, but the intense cold made the sailors chary of these wanderings.