Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Captain Hatteras

The Forward started its engine and sped between the ice fields and icebergs.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 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 sounded again and again. Heard it many times.

Clifton was the first to wake up. Did you hear that?Did you see how the beast jumped when he heard the whistle? Incredible, Gripper replied. Let's stop here!cried Payne, I can't go any farther. What Payne said made sense, and Brenton agreed, this is to tempt God. Lure the devil, replied Clifton, and I'd rather lose all my rewards than take an extra step. We're never going back, Bourdain said despondently. The entire crew was at the height of discouragement. Not taking a step further, cried Watson, do you agree? agreed, agreed!Sailors answered. All right, said Bourdain, let's go to the commander and I'll be in charge of talking 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 in an agitated tone, we can't go any further. what did you say?Sandon replied, with a look of anger 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. Are you determined?cried Shandon, you speak like that, Bolton!Be careful. Your threat has no effect, Payne replied flatly, we will not go 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 get out of here, we can't delay for a minute, there is an iceberg moving in the airway, it may block all exits, and we will be prisoners.

Shandon reassessed the situation. Explain your actions to me later, you others, he said, turning to the rebels, get on board for now. The sailors hurried to their positions, and the Forward moved forward at a high speed, and the furnace was loaded with coal, and should outpace the floating iceberg in speed.It was a struggle between the ship and the iceberg, the former heading south for passage, the latter drifting north to block all exits. Fire up, fire up!cried Shandon, full throttle, Brenton, do you hear me? Like a bird, the Vanguard darted through the scattered ice, the bow splitting the ice rapidly, the hull shaking from the action of the propeller, the barometer showing the tremendous pressure of the steam; the steam made a dull hissing sound .

Close the exhaust valve!cried Shandon. 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 fucked!exclaimed Sandon, unable to resist the imprudence. It's over!shouted the crew. Escape if you can!some said. Put the boat into the sea! Go to the pantry!Payne and some of his gang shouted, If we're drowned, we're drowned 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, everyone saw a man coming out of that cabin, only he had the key

This man is Gary the Sailor. gentlemen!exclaimed Shandon palely, Garry, what right do you have to command here? Dark!Gary gave another whistle that shocked the 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 Vanguard possessed, the dog he sent to ascertain his identity, the unmistakable tone of voice of the commander, all made a deep impression on the sailors. , 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 changeable, and they couldn't help shouting in unison: Ulla!Ulla!Captain Ulla! Sandon, he said to his assistant, put the crew in line, and I will inspect. 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 a Briton, like you, and my motto is what Admiral Nelson once said: Britain waits for everyone to do their part.

As an Englishman, I don't want, and we don't want, the bravest to go where we can't go.As a Brit, I don't stand for it, we don't stand for someone else to be given the honor of traveling the furthest north.As long as human footprints set foot on the poles.This should be the footprints of an Englishman!This is the ship of our country.The boat I have furnished, the boat I have employed my treasures in, for which I will give my life and yours, but the boat will float in the North Pole of the world.Be confident.You will get twenty-five thousand francs for every degree of latitude we advance north from today.However, we are now at the 72nd latitude, and we will go to the 90th latitude, let's do the math.I swear to you by my name.It signifies perseverance and love of the 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 everybody get back to work, Shandon, I want to tell you about the ship, you come to my cabin, and Doctor, Wall, and bosun, 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 him 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. At the age of twenty, he had the muscular physique of a thin and bloody man: a resolute face, angular, high forehead, perpendicular to the eyes, handsome and stern eyes, thin lips Protruding from below is a taciturn mouth. He is of medium build, and the muscles of his whole body are hard and tense, creating 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 pride of an Englishman, as 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 were not English, I, Hatteras replied, would 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 is attributed to the Genoese Christopher.Columbus, India attributed to the Portuguese Vasco.Da Gama, China is attributed to the Portuguese Fernand.When Drada, Tierra del Fuego is attributed to the Portuguese Magellan, and Canada is attributed to the Frenchman Jacques.Cardier, Sunda Islands, Labrador Islands, Brazil, Cape of Good Hope, Azores, Madeira, Nova Zemland, Guinea, Congo, Mexico, Cape Blanc, Greenland, Iceland, South Seas, Califore Nigeria, Peru, Kamchatka, Philippine Islands, Spitsbergen, Cape Horn, Bering Strait, Tasmany, New Zealand, New Britain, New Holland, Louisiana, John | Mayne owes to Icelanders, Scandinavians, Russians, Portuguese, Danes, Spaniards, Genoese, Dutch; but no Englishman appears among them, Hatteras despairs to see his countrymen excluded from the honorable group of navigators who made the great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was not until modern Hatteras that I felt a little comfort: the British gradually paid off, and State, Conor.Stuart, Bock, Wells.King and Gray discovered Australia, Palliser discovered America, and Sirile.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. . He noted, however, that although the British were not in the majority of those past discoverers, although they dated back to Cook's discovery of New Caledonia in 1774 and his death there in 1778, Sandwich Island, somewhere in the world, there is still a place where they can do their best. This is the northern land and sea of ​​North America. Finally, the charts for polar discoveries are listed below: Discovery of Novaya Velufbi in 1553 Discovery of Baluffe on Vegaz Island 1556 Discovered by Davis on the east coast of Greenland in 1585 Davis Strait Davis Discovery 1587 Spitsbergen Velufby discovered 1596 Hudson Bay Hudson Discovery 1610 baffin bay baffin discovery 1616 In recent years, Hahn, Mackenzie, John.Ross, Barry, Franklin, Richardson, Bizzy, James.Ross, Baker.Teez, Simpson.Rea, Eaglefield.Belcher, Austin, Kelette, Moore, Mike.Clintock, Kennedy, Mike.Krull set foot on these strange lands one after another. People have clarified the south coast of America, roughly discovered the Northwest Passage, but this is not enough, there are still better things to be done, this is better John.Hatteras tried twice to equip two ships at his own expense. He wanted to reach the extreme, realize the pioneering work discovered by the British, and create even 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 seventy-fourth latitude. He was on the multi-masted sloop HMS Halifax, and his crew suffered severe turmoil. John.Hatteras's daring adventure was carried to the extreme, and sailors have since been little moved by a similar expedition under such a captain. But in 1850 Hatteras at last summoned a score of determined men aboard the schooner Farewell, though the firmness of these men was paid dearly for their bravery.Is to take this opportunity Dr. Crawford and John.Hatteras made contact with the latter, whom he did not know, and asked to join 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 seventy-sixth latitude, where it was necessary to spend the winter; No one ever saw England again, except Hatteras, who was returned 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. At this time, a geographical event occurred, which had a great impact on John.Hatteras had the most dramatic impact. Seventeen people were on board a ship named Qianxing, which was equipped by wholesaler Grinnell and led by Dr. Kane to find John.Sir Franklin, who sailed in 1853 via Baffin Sea and Smith Strait to beyond the eighty-second parallel north, came 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 is in Richard.Sandon saw in him the men he needed, and he sent these proposals by anonymous letter, informing Dr. Crowburny in like manner, and the March was built, armed, and equipped.Hatteras was very cautious that if his name were known, he might not find one to accompany him, and he resolved to take command only in a pinch, after recruiting his fleet sufficiently so as not to retreat, and he had He left a handsome reward for his crew, which was known to all, and none would refuse to follow him to the ends of the world. The place he was going was after all the end of the world. However, the situation has become very critical, 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. Fortunately for the brave and unlucky for the timid, there is no doubt that the captain of the Advancing was John.Hatteras.