Chapter 9 Chapter Nine A Message

At noon on April 30, the Forward passed near Holsteinberg and finally crossed the polar circle.Majestic mountains tower over the eastern horizon.It can be said that there is no more ice floes on the sea, or that these floes are easy to avoid.When the southeast wind blew, the ship put up the fore-sail, mizzen-sail, second-tier square sail, and third-tier sail, and sailed up the Baffin Sea. It was a very calm day, and the crew could rest for a while. Numerous birds were cruising and circling around the ship. Among them, the doctor noticed alca|aua, which was almost exactly the same as the wild duck, with the same neck, wings, black back and white. Breasted, they dive nimbly, and they often dive for more than forty seconds.

Nothing new happened that day, were it not for a subsequent incident on board the ship, however unusual it may have seemed. Six o'clock in the morning, Richard.When Sandon returned to his cabin after his shift, he found a letter on the table with the following address: Forward Commander Richard.Shan Dun received Bafenhai. Shandon couldn't believe his eyes, but before he knew the contents of this strange letter, he had the doctor called, James.Wall and the bosun, show them the letter. This is very strange.Johnson said. This is very interesting.the doctor thought. In short, exclaimed Shandon, we are about to learn the secret, and with a swift movement he tore open the envelope, and read the following:

commander, The Captain of the March is very pleased with the coolness, wisdom, and courage shown last time by your sailors, your officers, and yourself, and he asks you to express his gratitude to the entire crew. Please sail straight north to Melville Sound, from where you are about to enter Smith Strait. Captain of the March K． Z． Monday, April 30th, near Walsingheim. Is it all here?cried the doctor. It's all here.Shandon replied. The letter fell from his hand. Well, says Wall, the phantom captain doesn't even mention coming on board anymore, and I don't think he'll ever come.

But this letter, Johnson said, how did it come about? Shandon was silent. M．Wall was right, replied the doctor, picking up the letter and turning it over, the captain had no good reason to come on board what reason?Shandon asked eagerly. Because he was already on board.The doctor answered succinctly. already!Shandon exclaimed, what do you mean? If not, how to explain the arrival of this letter? Johnson nodded in agreement. impossible!Shandon said impulsively, I know all the crew members, could it be that the captain was among them when the ship set off?It's impossible, I told you!There is not a single person whom I have not seen a hundred times in Liverpool for more than two years, and your inferences, doctor, are unacceptable!

So what do you think, Shandon? Anything else will do.I admit to the captain or one of his men, how should I know?Sneak onto the boat in the dark or fog, whatever you can think of, we're not far from land, and the Eskimos' boats are invisible among the icebergs, they probably came to the boat and delivered the letter The fog is thick , which facilitates the realization of the plan But the ship would also be invisible, replied the doctor, how could he have spotted the March in the mist if we hadn't seen an uninvited guest coming on board? It's obvious.Johnson said. I still stick to my hypothesis, said the doctor, what do you think, Shandon?

Look at it any way you want, Sandron said furiously, except the assumption that the man was on board. Perhaps, Wall added, there was one of his men among the crew who took his instructions. Maybe.The doctor said. But who?Sandon asked, I have known all my men, and I tell you, for a long time. In conclusion, Johnson went on, if the Captain appeared, man or ghost, we would accept him, but wouldn't there be another lesson, or another message, to be drawn from this letter? What?Sandon asked. This is how we go not only to Melville Bay, but also to Smith Strait. You are right.The doctor said again.

Smith Strait.Richard.Shandon repeated mechanically. Evidently, Sandon went on, the purpose of the Going was not to find the North-West Passage, since we would be throwing the only entrance to it to the left, Lancaster Sound.This portends a difficult voyage in unfamiliar waters. Yes, Smith Strait, Sandon replied, this is the route taken by the American Kahn in 1853, how dangerous it is!For a long time it was thought he was lost in these dreadful waters!Since you want to go there, just go!But where?To the extreme? Why not?cried the doctor. The bosun shrugged his shoulders at the thought of this madness.

Anyway, James.Wall added, let's go back to the captain. If he exists, the only houses I've seen on the coast of Greenland are Disko Island or Urbana Vik. In a few days, we'll find out what's going on. But, the doctor asked Sandon, don't you want the crew to know the contents of this letter? As long as the commander allows, Shandon replied, I have no objection. why?the doctor asked. For all that is strange and unreal is fundamentally unnerving to our people, who are already very anxious about their fate in this mode of sailing.So pushing them into the supernatural has bad consequences and we can no longer count on them at critical moments.What do you think, Commander?

And you, doctor, what do you think?Shandon asked. Mr. Johnson, replied the doctor, which seems to me quite reasonable. How about you, James? Unless there is a better idea, replied Wall, I agree with these gentlemen. Sandon thought for a while, and he read the letter carefully again. Gentlemen, he said, your idea is indeed very good, but I cannot adopt it. Why so, Shandon?asked the doctor. For the instructions of this letter are very specific, and all they require of the crew to know is the captain's compliment, and, as I have hitherto blindly obeyed his orders, in whatever manner they were communicated to me, I cannot

But Johnson went on to say that he was concerned about the effect such a communication would have on the sailors' psyches. My good Johnson, said Sandon again, I understand your obstinacy, and your reasons are very good, but read this: He asks you to thank the whole crew. Just do it, Johnson went on. He is a man of discipline after all. Should the whole crew be gathered on deck? go a head.Shandon replied. News of the captain's letter spread quickly through the ship.The sailors arrived at the patrol post punctually, and the commander read the mysterious letter aloud. The letter brought a gloomy silence, and the crew's individual imaginations, Clifton had material for the superstitious imagination, in which he believed that Captain Dog played a considerable part in the matter, when he happened to be on the way When he met it, he didn't forget to say hello to it.

What am I telling you, he repeated to the sailors, the beast can write. Everyone was powerless to refute this view, even Bell, the carpenter, was speechless. But one thing was indisputable to each, that though the captain was not on board, his shadow and his spirit were on board, and the wisest men never exchanged their opinions with one another. At noon on May 1st, the observed latitude was 68 degrees and the longitude was 56 degrees 32 minutes.The temperature had risen, and the thermometer indicated minus four degrees Celsius. The doctor was amused to see a mother bear and two cubs playing on the edge of a land-bound ice floe.Accompanied by Wall and Simpson, he tried to hunt it in a small boat, but the animal was not aggressive, and immediately fled with her children, so the doctor had to give up. Rounding Cape Chidley at night with a favorable wind, the high mountains of Disko Island immediately appeared on the horizon, and Godavan Bay, the residence of the Danish Governor, was left to the right. Sandon felt it was inappropriate to stop, and soon Ditched the canoes of the Eskimos who were trying to keep up. Disko Island is also called Whale Island, and it is on this island that John.Sir Franklin wrote his last letter to the Admiralty on July 12, 1845, also on this island, Mark.Captain Clintock returned with undeniable evidence of the voyage's wreck. The coincidence of the two events was so great that the doctor should have noticed that the tragic resemblance was much more in his memory, but the high mountains of Disko Island were soon fading from his vision. There are many icebergs on the coast, which belong to the kind that cannot be melted even by the maximum thawing. This series of continuous peaks is really strange. About three o'clock the next day, passing Sanderson-Hope Cape in the northeast, the land was thrown fifteen nautical miles to starboard, and the mountains were reddish brown.At night, many finned whales play among the icebergs, blowing air and water out of their nostrils. On the night of the 3rd/4th of May, the doctor saw for the first time the sunlight brushing the horizon without sinking its bright disk, whose glossy surface had grown more and more since the 31st of January. Great, at the moment it glows continuously. To the unaccustomed viewer, the constant daylight has always been a surprising, even exhausting thing, and one cannot believe how vital the night is to the health of the eyes. I felt real pain from the light, made all the more scorching by the reflection from the iceberg. On May 5, the Forward passed the 72nd latitude.In two months, it will encounter many whalers operating at high latitudes, but the channel is still not clear enough to allow large ships to enter the Baffin Sea. The next day the ship passed the Isle of Mujeres before arriving at Urbana Vik, the northernmost Danish colony on this coast.