University of Virginia Library

1. THE SEA LIONS.

1. CHAPTER I.

The Culprit Fay.

Roswell was hardly on the ice before a sound of a most
portentous sort reached his ear. He knew at once that the
field had been rent in twain by outward pressure, and that
some new change was to occur that might release or might
destroy the schooner. He was on the point of springing
forward in order to join Daggett, when a call from the boat
arrested his steps.

“These here fields are coming together, Captain Gar'ner,
and our boat will soon be crushed unless we get it out of
the water.”

Sure enough, a single glance behind him sufficed to assure
the young master of the truth of this statement. The
field he was on was slowly swinging, bringing its western
margin in closer contact with the eastern edge of the floe
that lay within it. The movement could be seen merely
by the closing of the channel through which the boat had
come, and by the cracking and crushing of the ice on the
edges of the two fields. So tremendous was the pressure,
however, that cakes as large as a small house were broken
off, and forced upward on the surface of the field, or ground
into small fragments, as it might be under the vice of a
power hitherto unknown to the spectators. Slow as was
the movement of the floe, it was too fast to allow of delay;

and, finding a suitable place, the boat was hauled up, and
put in security on the floe that lay nearest the schooner.

“This may give us a long drag to get back into the water,
Stimson, and a night out of our banks,” said Roswell,
looking about him, as soon as the task was achieved.

“I do not know that, sir,” was the answer. “It seems
to me that the floe has parted alongside of them rocks, and
if-so-be that should turn out to be the case, the whull on
us, schooner, boat, and all hands, may drift into the bay;
for that there is a current setting from this quarter up towards
our island, I'm sartain of, by the feel of my oar, as
we come along.”

“It may be so — the currents run all manner of ways,
and field-ice may pass the shoals, though a berg never can.
I do not remember, nevertheless, to have ever seen even a
floe within the group — nothing beyond large cakes that
have got adrift by some means or other.”

“I have, sir, though only once. A few days a'ter we got
in, when I was ship-keeper, and all hands was down under
the rocks of the north eend, a field come in at the northern
entrance of the bay, and went out at the southern. It
might have been a league athwart it, and it drifted, as a
body might say, as if it had some one aboard to give it the
right sheer. Touch it did at the south cape, but just winding
as handy as a craft could have done it, in a good tide's
way, out to sea it went ag'in, bound to the south pole
for-ti-'now.”

“Well, this is good news, and may be the means of
saving the Vineyard craft in the end. We do seem to be
setting bodily into the bay, and if we can only get clear of
that island, I do not see what is to hinder it. Here is a
famous fellow of a mountain to the northward, coming
down before the wind, as one might say, and giving us a
cant into the passage. I should think that chap must produce
some sort of a change, whether it be for better or
worse.”

“Ay, ay, sir,” put in Thompson, who acted as a boat-steerer
at need, “he may do just that, but it is all he can
do. Mr. Green and I sounded out from the cove for a
league or more, a few days since, and we found less than
twenty fathoms, as far as we went. That chap up to the

nor'ard there, draws something like a hundred fathoms, if
he draws an inch. He shows more above water than a first-rate's
truck.”

“That does he, and a good deal to spare. Thompson,
do you and Todd remain here, and look after the boat,
while the rest of us will shape our course for the schooner.
She seems to be in a wicked berth, and 'twill be no more
than neighbourly to try to get her out of it.”

Truly enough might Roswell call the berth of the Sea
Lion, of the Vineyard, by any expressive name that implied
danger. When the party reached her, they found the situation
of that vessel to be as follows. She had been endeavouring
to work her way through a passage between two
large fields, when she found the ice closing, and that she
was in great danger of being `nipped.' Daggett was a
man of fertile resources, and great decision of character.
Perceiving that escape was impossible, all means of getting
clear being rendered useless by the floes soon touching,
both before and behind him, he set about adopting the
means most likely to save his vessel. Selecting a spot
where a curve, in the margin of the field to leeward, promised
temporary security, at least, he got his vessel into it,
anchored fast to the floe. Then he commenced cutting
away the ice, by means of axes first, and of saws afterwards,
in the hope that he might make such a cavity as, by its
size and shape, would receive the schooner's hull, and prevent
her destruction. For several hours had he and his
people been at this work, when, to their joy, as well as to
their great astonishment, they were suddenly joined by
Roswell and his party. The fact was, that so intently had
every one of the Vineyard men's faculties been absorbed
by their own danger, and so much was each individual
occupied by his own duty, that not a man among them had
seen the boat, or even any of the crew, until Gardiner called
out to Daggett as he approached, announcing his presence
by his voice.

“This is good fortune, truly, Captain Gar'ner,” said
Daggett, shaking his brother master most cordially by the
hand; “good fortune, do I call it! I was satisfied that I
should fall in with you, somewhere about this group of
islands, for they lie just about where my late uncle had

given us reason to suppose some good sealing ground
might be met with; but I did not hope to see you this
morning. You observe our position, Captain Gar'ner;
there is every prospect of a most awful nip!”

“There is, indeed, though I see you have been making
some provision for it. What luck have you had in digging
a slip to let the schooner into?”

“Well, we might have had worse, though better would
have been more agreeable. It's plain sailing, so long as
we can work above water, and you see we've cleared a fine
berth for the craft, down to the water's edge; but, below
that, 't is blind work and slow. The field is some thirty
feet thick, and sawing through it is out of the question.
The most we can do is to get off pieces diagonally. I am
not without hopes that we have done enough of this to make
a wedge, on which the schooner will rise, if pressed hard
on her off-side. I have heard of such things, Captain Gar'ner,
though I cannot say I ever saw it.”

“It's a ticklish business to trust to such a protector;
still, a great deal must be gained by cutting away so much
of this upper ice, and it is possible your schooner may be
lifted, as you seem to expect. Has anything been done to
strengthen the craft in-board?”

“Not as yet; though I've thought of that, too. But
what is the stoutest ship that ever floated, against the pressure
of such an enormous field of ice? Had we not better
keep cutting away?”

“You can continue to work the saw and the axes, but I
will give an eye to strengthening the craft in-board. Just
point out the spars and plank you can spare, and we'll see
what can be done. At any rate, my lads, you can now
work with the certainty that your lives are safe. My schooner
lies about six leagues from you, as safely moored as if
she lay in a dock. Come, Captain Daggett, let me see
your spare spars and plank.”

Great encouragement it certainly was to these mariners,
so far from home, and in their imminently perilous condition,
to know that a countryman and a friend was so near them, to
afford shelter and protection. The American sailor is not
a cheering animal, like his English relative, but he quite as
clearly understands what ought to be received with congratulation,

as those who are apt to make more noise. The
Vineyard men, in particular, were habitually quiet and
thoughtful, there being but one seaman in the craft who
did not husband his lay, and look forward to meet the wants
of a future day. This is the result of education, men usually
becoming quiet as they gain ideas, and feel that the
tongue has been given to us in order to communicate them
to our fellows. Still, the joy at receiving this unlooked-for
assistance was great among the Vineyard men, and each
party went to work with activity and zeal.

The task of Roswell Gardiner was in-board, while that
of Daggett and his men continued to be on the ice. The
latter resumed the labour of cutting and sawing the field,
and of getting up fenders, or skids, to protect the inner side
of their vessel from the effects of a `nip.' As for Gardiner,
he set about his self-assumed duty with great readiness and
intelligence. His business was to strengthen the craft, by
getting supports up in her hold. This was done without
much difficulty, all the upper part of the hold being clear
and easily come at. Spars were cut to the proper length,
plank were placed in the broadest part of the vessel, opposite
to each other, and the spars were wedged in carefully,
extending from side to side, so as to form a great additional
support to the regular construction of the schooner. In
little more than an hour, Roswell had his task accomplished,
while Daggett did not see that he could achieve much more
himself. They met on the ice to consult, and to survey
the condition of things around them.

The outer field had been steadily encroaching upon the
inner, breaking the edges of both, until the points of junction
were to be traced by a long line of fragments forced
upward, and piled high in the air. Open spaces, however,
still existed, owing to irregularities in the outlines of the
two floes; and Daggett hoped that the little bay into which
he had got his schooner might not be entirely closed, ere a
shift of wind, or a change in the tides, might carry away
the causes of the tremendous pressure that menaced his
security. It is not easy for those who are accustomed to
look at natural objects in their more familiar aspects, fully
to appreciate the vast momentum of the weight that was
now drifting slowly down upon the schooner. The only

ray of hope was to be found in the deficiency in one of the
two great requisites of such a force. Momentum being
weight, multiplied into velocity, there were some glimpses
visible, of a nature to produce a slight degree of expectation
that the last might yet be resisted. The movement was
slow, but it was absolutely grand, by its steadiness and
power. Any one who has ever stood on a lake or river
shore, and beheld the undeviating force with which a small
cake of ice crumbles and advances before a breeze, or in a
current, may form some idea of the majesty of the movement
of a field of leagues in diameter, and which was borne
upon by a gale of the ocean, as well as by currents, and by
the weight of drifting ice-bergs from without. It is true
that the impetus came principally from a great distance,
and could scarcely be detected or observed by those around
the schooner; still, these last were fully aware of the whole
character of the danger, which each minute appeared to
render more and more imminent and imposing. The two
fields were obviously closing still, and that with a resistless
power that boded destruction to the unfortunate vessel.
The open water near her was already narrowed to a space
that half an hour might suffice to close entirely.

“Have you set that nearest island by compass, Daggett?”
asked Roswell Gardiner, as soon as he had taken a good
look around him. “To me it seems that it bears more to
the eastward than it did an hour since. If this should be
true, our inner field here must have a very considerable
westerly set.”

“In which case we may still hope to drift clear,” returned
Daggett, springing on board the schooner, and running aft
to the binnacle, Roswell keeping close at his side. “By
George! it is as you say; the bearings of that island are
altered at least two points!”

“In which case our drift has exceeded a league—Ha!
what noise is that? Can it be an eruption of the volcano?”

Daggett, at first, was inclined to believe it was a sound
produced by some of the internal convulsions of the earth,
which within, as if in mockery of the chill scene that prevailed
without, was a raging volcano, the fierce heats of
which found vent at the natural chimneys produced by its

own efforts. This opinion, however, did not last long, and
he gave expression to his new thoughts in his answer.

“'T is the ice,” he said. “I do believe the pressure has
caused the fields to part on the rocks of that island. If so,
our leeward floe may float away, as fast as the weather field
approaches.”

“Hardly,” said Roswell, gazing intently towards the
nearest island; “hardly; for the most weatherly of the two
will necessarily get the force of the wind and the impetus
of those bergs first, and make the fastest drift. It may
lessen the violence of the nip, but I do not think it will
avert it altogether.”

This opinion of Gardiner's fully described all that subsequently
occurred. The outer floe continued its inroads
on the inner, breaking up the margins of both, until the
channel was so nearly closed as to bring the field from
which the danger was most apprehended in absolute contact
with the side of the schooner. When the margin of
the outer floe first touched the bilge of the schooner, it was
at the precise spot where the vessel had just been fortified
within. Fenders had also been provided without, and there
was just a quarter of a minute, during which the two captains
hoped that these united means of defence might enable
the craft to withstand the pressure. This delusion
lasted but a moment, however, the cracking of timbers letting
it be plainly seen that the force was too great to be
resisted. For another quarter of a minute, the two masters
held their breath, expecting to see the deck rise beneath
their feet, as the ice rose along the points of contact between
the floes. Such, in all probability, would have been
the result, had not the pressure brought about another
change, that was quite as much within the influence of the
laws of mechanical forces, though not so much expected.
Owing to the wedge-like form of the vessel's bottom, as
well as to the circumstance that the ice of the outer floe
had a similar shape, projecting beneath the schooner's keel,
the craft was lifted bodily, with an upward jerk, as if she
were suddenly released from some imprisoning power.
Released she was, indeed, and that most opportunely, for
another half-minute would have seen her ribs broken in,
and the schooner a mangled wreck. As she now rose,

Roswell gave vent to his delight in a loud cry, and all
hands felt that the occurrence might possibly save them.
The surge upward was fearful, and several of the men were
thrown off their feet; but it effectually released the schooner
from the nip, laying her gradually up in the sort of
dock that her people had been so many hours preparing for
her reception. There she lay, inclining a little, partly on
her bilge, or sewed, as seamen term it, when a vessel gets
a list from touching the ground and being left by the tide,
neither quite upright, nor absolutely on her beam-ends.

No sooner was the vessel thus docked, than all apprehension
of receiving further injury from the outer floe ceased.
It might force the schooner altogether on the inner field,
driving the vessel before it, as an avalanche of mud in the
Alps is known to force cottages and hamlets in its front;
but it could no longer `nip' it. It did not appear probable
to the two masters, however, that the vessel would be forced
from its present berth, the rending and cracking of the ice
sensibly diminishing, as the two floes came closer and closer
together. Nor was this all: it was soon very obvious that
the inner field was drifting, with an increased motion, into
the bay, while the larger, or outer floe, seemed to hang,
from some cause or other. Of the fact there was soon no
doubt, the fissure beginning to open, as slowly and steadily
as it had closed, but noiselessly, and without any rending
of the ice.

“We shall get you clear, Daggett! we shall get you
clear!” cried Roswell, with hearty good-will, forgetting, in
that moment of generous effort, all feelings of competition
and rivalry. “I know what you are after, my good fellow
—have understood it from the first. Yonder high land is
the spot you seek; and along the north shore of that island
are elephants, lions, dogs, bears, and other animals, to fill
up all the craft that ever came out of the Vineyard!”

“This is hearty, Gar'ner,” returned the other, giving
his brother master a most cordial shake of the hand, “and
it's just what I like. Sealing is a sociable business, and a
craft should never come alone into these high latitudes.
Accidents will happen to the most prudent man living, as
you see by what has just befallen me; for, to own the truth,
we've had a narrow chance of it!”

The reader will remember that all which Daggett now
said, was uttered by a man who saw his vessel lying on the
ice, with a list that rendered it somewhat difficult to move
about on her deck, and still in circumstances that would
have caused half the navigators of this world to despair.
Such was not the fact with Daggett, however. Seven
thousand miles from home, alone, in an unknown sea, and
uncertain of ever finding the place he sought, this man had
picked his way among mountains and fields of ice, with
perhaps less hesitation and reluctance than a dandy would
encounter the perils of a crossing, when the streets were a
little moistened by rain. Even then, with his vessel literally
shelfed on the ice, certain that she had been violently
nipped, he was congratulating himself on reaching a sealing
ground, from which he could never return without encountering
all the same dangers over again. As for Roswell,
he laughed a little at the other's opinion of the sealing
business, for he was morally certain the Vineyard-man
would have kept the secret, had it been in his possession
alone.

“Well, well, we'll forget the past,” he said, “all but
what we've done to help one another. You stood by me
off Hatteras, and I've been of some service to you here.
You know how it is in our calling, Daggett; first come,
first served. I got here first, and have had the cream of
the business for this season; though I do not by any means
wish to be understood as saying that you are too late.”

“I hope not, Gar'ner. 'T would be vexatious to have
all this risk and trouble for nothing. How much ile have
you stowed?”

“All my ground-tier, and a few riders. It is with the
skins that we are doing the best business.”

Daggett's eyes fairly snapped at this announcement,
which aroused all his professional ambition, to say nothing
of that propensity to the “root of all evil,” which had become
pretty thoroughly incorporated with his moral being,
by dint of example, theory, and association. We have frequently
had occasion to remark how much more `enjoyable,'
for the intellectual and independent, is a country on the
decline, than a country on the advance. The one is accumulating
that wealth which the other has already possessed

and improved; and men cease to dwell so much on riches
in their inmost souls, when the means of obtaining them
would seem to have got beyond their reach. This is one
of the secrets of the universal popularity of Italy with the
idle and educated; though the climate, and the monuments,
and the recollections, out of doubt, contribute largely to its
charms. Nevertheless, man, as a rule, is far more removed
from the money-getting mania in Italy, than in almost any
other portion of the Christian world; and this merely because
the time of her wealth and power has gone by, leaving
in its train a thousand fruits, that would seem to be the
most savoury, as the stem on which they grew would appear
to be approaching its decay. On Martha's Vineyard, however,
aud in no part of the Great Republic, indeed, has this
waning season yet commenced, and the heart of man is still
engrossed with those desires that are to produce the means
which are to lay the foundations for the enjoyment of generations
to come.

“That's luck, indeed, for a craft so early in the season,”
returned Daggett, when his eyes had done snapping. “Are
the critturs getting to be wild and skeary?”

“Not more so than the day we began upon them. I
have taken the greatest care to send none but my most experienced
hands out to kill and skin, and their orders have
been rigid to give as little alarm as possible. If you wish
to fill up, I would advise you to take the same precautions,
for the heel of the season is beginning to show itself.”

“I will winter here, but I get a full craft,” said Daggett,
with a resolute manner, if not absolutely serious in what
he said. “Trouble enough have I had to find the group,
and we Vineyard-men don't relish the idee of being outdone.”

“You would be done up, my fine fellow,” answered
Roswell, laughing, “did you attempt to pass a winter here.
The Sea Lion of Humse's Hull would not herself keep you
in fuel, and you would have to raft it off next summer on
your casks, or remain here for ever.”

“I suppose a body might expect to see you back again,
another season,” observed Daggett, glancing meaningly towards
his companion, as if he had seriously revolved so
desperate a plan in his mind. “'Tis n't often that a sealer

lets a station like that you've described drop out of his recollection
in a single v'y'ge.”

“I may be back or I may not”—said Roswell, just then
remembering Mary, and wondering if she would continue
to keep him any longer in suspense, should he return successful
from his present adventure—“That will depend on
others more than on myself. I wish, however, now we are
both here, and there can no longer be any `hide and go
seek' between us, that you would tell me how you came to
know anything about this cluster of islands, or of the seals
then and there to be found?”

“You forget my uncle, who died on Oyster Pond, and
whose effects I crossed over to claim?”

“I remember him very well—saw him often while living,
and helped to bury him when dead.”

“Well, our information came from him. He threw out
several hints consarning sealing-grounds aboard the brig
in which he came home; and you needn't be told, Gar'ner,
that a hint of that kind is sartain to find its way through
all the ports down east. But hearing that there was new
sealing-ground wasn't knowing where to find it. I should
have been at a loss, wasn't it for the spot on my uncle's
chart that had been rubbed over lately, as I concluded, to
get rid of some of his notes. You know, as well as I do,
that the spot was in this very latitude and longitude, and
so I came here to look for the much-desired land.”

“And you have undertaken such an outfit, and come this
long distance into an icy sea, on information as slight as
this!” exclaimed Roswell, astonished at this proof of sagacity
and enterprise, even in men who are renowned for
scenting dollars from pole to pole.

“On this, with a few hints picked up, here and there,
among some of the old gentleman's papers. He was fond
of scribbling, and I have got a sort of a chart that he
scratched on a leaf of his bible, that was made to represent
this very group, as I can now see.”

“Then you could have had no occasion for the printed
chart, with the mark of obliteration on it, and did not come
here on that authority after all.”

“There you're wrong, Captain Gar'ner. The chart of
the group had no latitude or longitude, but just placed each

island with its bearings and distances from the other islands.
It was no help in finding the place, which might be in one
hemisphere as well as in the other.”

“It was, then, the mark of the obliteration_____”

“Marks, if you please, Captain Gar'ner,” interrupted
the other, significantly. “My uncle talked a good deal
aboard of that brig about other matters besides sealing.
We think several matters have been obliterated from the
old chart, and we intend to look 'em all up. It's our right,
you know, seeing that the old man was Vineyard-born, and
we are his nearest of kin.”

“Certainly” — rejoined Roswell, laughing again, but
somewhat more faintly than before. “Every man for himself
in this world is a good maxim; it being pretty certain
if we do not take care of ourselves, no one will take care
of us.”

“Yes, sir,” said Stimson, who was standing near; “there
is one to care for every hair of our heads, however forgetful
and careless we may be ourselves. Wasn't it for this, Captain
Gar'ner, there's many a craft that comes into these
seas that would never find its way out of 'em; and many a
bold sailor, with a heart boiling over with fun and frolic,
that would be frozen to an ice-cicle every year!”

Gardiner felt the justice of this remark, and easily pardoned
its familiarity for its truth. In these sealers the discipline
is by no means of that distant and military or naval
character that is found in even an ordinary merchantman.
As every seaman has an interest in the result of the voyage,
some excuse was made for this departure from the more
general usage; and this familiarity itself never exceeded
the bounds that were necessary to the observance of duty.

“Ay, ay,” returned Roswell, smiling—“in one sense you
are right enough; but Captain Daggett and myself were
speaking of human affairs, as human affairs are carried on.
—Is not this inner field drifting fast away from the outer,
Daggett? If so, we shall go directly into the bay!”

It was as Gardiner thought. By some means that were
not apparent, the floes were now actually separating, and at
a rate of movement which much exceeded that of their
junction. All idea of further danger from the outer field
disappeared, as a matter of course.

“It's so, Captain Gar'ner,” said Stimson, respectfully,
but with point; “and who and what brought it about for
our safety and the preservation of this craft?—I just ventur'
to ask that question, sir.”

“It may be the hand of Providence, my good fellow; for
I very frankly own I can see no direct physical cause.
Nevertheless, I fancy it would be found that the tides or
currents have something to do with it, if the truth could be
come at.”

“Well, sir, and who causes the tides and currents to
run, this-a-way and that-a-way?”

“There you have me, Stephen; for I never could get
hold of the clew to their movements at all,” answered Roswell,
laughing. “There is a reason for it all, I dare say, if
one could only find it out. Captain Daggett, it is high time
to look after the safety of your schooner. She ought to be
in the cove before night sets in, since the ice has found its
way into the bay.”

This appeal produced a general movement. By this time
the two fields were a hundred fathoms asunder; the smaller,
or that on which the vessel lay, drifting quite fast into the
bay, under the joint influences of wind and current; while
the larger floe had clearly been arrested by the islands.
This smaller field was much lessened in surface, in consequence
of having been broken at the rocks, though the
fragment that was thus cut off was of more than a league
in diameter, and of a thickness that exceeded many
yards.

As for the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, she was literally
shelfed, as has been said. So irresistible had been the
momentum of the great floe, that it lifted her out of the
water as two or three hands would run up a bark canoe on
a gravelly beach. This lifting process had, very fortunately
for the craft, been effected by an application of force from
below, in a wedge-like manner, and by bringing the strongest
defences of the vessel to meet the power. Consequently, no
essential injury had been done the vessel in thus laying her
on her screw-dock.

“If a body could get the craft off as easily as she was
got on,” observed Daggett, as he and Roswell Gardiner
stood looking at the schooner's situation, “it would be but

a light job. But, as it is, she lies on ice at least twenty feet
thick, and ice that seems as solid as flint!”

“We know it is not quite as hard as that, Daggett,” was
Roswell's reply; “for our saws and axes make great havoc
in it, when we can fairly get at it.”

“If one could get fairly at it! But here you see, Gar'ner,
everything is under water, and an axe is next to useless.
Nor can the saws be used with much advantage on
ice so thick.”

“There is no help for it but hard work and great perseverance.
I would advise that a saw be set at work at each
end of the schooner, allowing a little room in case of accidents,
and that we weaken the foundation by two deep cuts.
The weight of the vessel will help us, and in time she will
settle back into her “native element,' as the newspapers
have it.”

There was, indeed, no other process that promised success,
and the advice of Gardiner was followed. In the
course of the next two hours deep cuts were made with the
saws, which were pushed so low as to reach quite to the
bottom of the cake. This could be done only by what the
sailors called “jury-handles,” or spars secured to the plates.
The water offered the principal obstacle, for that lay on the
shelf at least five feet deep. Perseverance and ingenuity,
however, finally achieved their aim. A cracking was heard,
the schooner slowly righted, and settled off into the sea
again, as easily and harmlessly as if scientifically launched.
The fenders protected her sides and copper, though the
movement was little more than slowly sinking on the fragment
of the cake, which, by means of the cuts, had been
gradually so much reduced as to be unable to uphold so
great a weight. It was merely reversing the process of
breaking the camel's back, by laying the last feather on
his load.

This happy conclusion to several hours of severe toil,
occurred just as the field had drifted abreast of the cove,
and was about the centre of the bay. Hazard came up also
at that point, on his return from the volcano, altering his
course a little to speak the strangers. The report of the
mate concerning his discoveries was simple and brief.
There was a volcano, and one in activity; but it had nothing

remarkable about it. No seal were seen, and there
was little to reward one for crossing the bay. Sterility, and
a chill grandeur, were the characteristics of all that region;
and these were not wanting to any part of the group. Just
as the sun was setting, Gardiner piloted his companion into
the cove; and the two Sea Lions were moored amicably
side by side, and that too at a spot where thousands of the
real animals were to be found within a league.