Enterprise and Adventure/The Voyage of the "Astrolabe"
THE VOYAGE OF THE "ASTROLABE."
While numerous expeditions to the northern Polar regions have been fitted out, and considerable additions to our knowledge of the geographical features of that part of the globe have been made during the present century, few voyagers have taken the Antarctic Circle for the field of their explorations. The exciting question of a north-west passage has, no doubt, contributed greatly to draw the attention of navigators chiefly to the north; but the peculiar dangers of the Southern Pole have probably contributed to render researches in this region unpopular among seamen, for here, to the terrors of snow and ice, are added the fearful storms which rage almost perpetually in those latitudes. Bellingshausen, a Russian navigator, and Balleny and Weddell, English explorers, and later still Captain Ross, have, during the present century, penetrated into this mysterious region, and brought home some additions to our knowledge; but one of the most interesting of the attempts to explore the Antarctic Circle was made by Captain D'Urville, a French navigator, who about twenty-five years since commanded the "Astrolabe," a vessel fitted out by the French government for an exploring voyage round the world.
A first attempt met with little success from a frightful dysentery having broken out among the crew of the "Astrolabe," by which a number perished. Having returned to Hobart Town to recruit, after twenty-eight months of incessant toil, the expedition was once more ready to sail, and on Jan. 1, 1840, weighed anchor for their voyage south. "On the fifteenth," says D'Urville, "we crossed the route of Cook in 1773, and from that time were in a sea that no keel had ever ploughed before." On the morning of the following day they saw the first ice—a mass of fifty feet in height by two hundred in length—a shapeless fragment long beaten and worn down by the action of the waves as it had slowly drifted from its original home into milder latitudes. Thenceforward, they saw icebergs daily, which soon began to increase in size until some which they steered cautiously among were from six hundred to a thousand feet in length, and not less than a hundred-and-thirty feet in height. Remarkably moderate weather, and a favourable wind, enabled them to steer towards the land, to reach which they had to make their way through an immense chain of icebergs, tubular in form, and prodigious in their dimensions. Their corvettes defiled tranquilly for many hours through these straits of a novel description. At times the channels presented a width of not more than three or four cables' length; and then the ships appeared to be buried beneath these glittering walls, towering perpendicularly to a height of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and seeming ready to overwhelm them with their giant masses. Then, suddenly opening out, they issued from them into spacious basins, surrounded by icebergs of strange and fantastic forms, recalling the palaces of crystal and of diamonds which figure abundantly in fairy tales. A clear sky, and a propitious breeze, helped the voyagers through this daring navigation. At length, they issued from these narrow and winding channels, whose lofty walls had long shut out the land from their view, and found themselves in a comparatively disencumbered space, from whence they could contemplate the coast in all its visible extent. Distant from them, about eight or ten miles, was an immense strip of land, stretching out of sight, and entirely covered with ice and snow which lay heaped up on its summit, marking the ravines on the land-slopes, as well as the bays and points upon the coast. In parts, the ice presented a smooth and uniform covering of a dull and monotonous white; in others, its surface was ploughed, and shattered, and broken, as if it had been subjected to the action of some violent convulsion, or of a sudden and irregular thaw. Numbers of huge ice-hills, recently fallen from the coast, had not yet been borne away, and made the approach to it impossible.
The solid barrier forbade all progress southward; but they now believed themselves near the southern magnetic pole, and that the line of the variation of the needle could not be far off to the westward. The vessel was therefore steered westward, and the corvettes coasted the land at five or six miles' distance. At noon, observations gave 66° 30" of southern latitude. All the compasses in the ship veered in a remarkable manner; and on board the "Astrolabe" the reversed compass in the commander's cabin was the only one which marked the route with precision. They thus knew that the newly-discovered land lay precisely under the Antarctic Polar Circle, since it ran nearly east and west.
At five in the evening the breeze gave way to a calm, of which Captain D'Urville took advantage to despatch some officers to a large iceberg, distant about two miles, for the purpose of observing the magnetic dip, variation, and intensity. In the meantime all eyes on board, aided by the glasses of the ships, had minutely examined the coast, but without discovering a single point which the ice had left uncovered. Notwithstanding the great improbability of a compact body of ice of such extent, fifteen hundred feet in height, doubts might still be entertained of the positive existence of land. Besides, their commander had ardently desired to present to geologists samples of that portion of our globe, the first specimens submitted to the inquiring gaze of man. At length, after many disappointments, his lieutenant directed his attention to some black stains, situate on that portion of the coast which was nearest to him, but which had hitherto been masked by a long chain of icebergs. After a short examination, D'Urville no longer had any doubt that they were rocks piercing the surface of the snow. For a moment he hesitated to send boats nearly six miles from the ships, for he knew how variable are the winds, and how thick and frequent the fogs, in latitudes like these. It was a terrible idea that he might be forced to leave the crews of two boats to certain and dreadful death, if a shift in the wind should drive him suddenly from this dangerous coast. Nevertheless, confiding in the promising aspect of the sky, and fearing that he might meet with no other such opportunity, he despatched a boat from each corvette towards this interesting portion of the coast. The sailors, who shared the enthusiasm of their officers, rowed with incredible vigour; and at eleven at night, the two boats returned on board, having accomplished their task. They were laden with specimens broken from the living rock. These were granites of various hues. They brought, besides, some penguins, which seemed of a different species from those which they had noticed in their first visit to the ice-fields. They had seen no other trace of any organized being belonging to either the animal or vegetable kingdom. From the aspect of these rocks, no one on board retained the slightest doubt as to the nature of the formidable barrier which closed all further progress against the ships.
Captain D'Urville was desirous of still continuing to skirt the land, which stretched indefinitely to the west; but the ice began to close, and when they were sufficiently near to it, they perceived that the icebergs were held together by a floe of ice which seemed to stretch from the land in a northerly direction. This unexpected barrier they strove to double; but, after every tack, it presented itself anew, and seemed to envelop them in long windings. No other resource was then left than to work between the land and the shoal, in the hope of freeing themselves from the difficulties in which they had become involved. Twenty-four hours later, after two long reaches, they were yet on the edge of the shoal, which seemed still to run north-east, as far as the eye could extend. Hitherto, it had been merely an affair of patience and vigilance; for, after all, under ordinary circumstances, they could always reckon on at least returning by the way they had come. But the weather, which for four days had been unvaryingly fine, suddenly changed. The sky was, in all directions, overcast; the wind rapidly freshened, and by noon blew a terrible gale, with gusts laden with a thick snow, which froze as it fell on the deck and rigging, and frequently limited their horizon to a few ships' lengths.
Hemmed in as they were, between the land and the shoal, and obliged to manoeuvre in a space encumbered with icebergs, their position now became most menacing. In spite of all efforts and the alarming crowd of sail which they carried, they soon perceived that they were driving to the westward, and that, if the storm should last four-and-twenty hours longer, they had but little chance of safety. Providentially the wind gradually lulled, the sea subsided, and the horizon expanded to half a mile, and sometimes a mile. In twelve hours their sails and rigging had suffered more than in six months of previous navigation. A few days later the wind shifted round again to the east-south-east, and rapidly freshened, accompanied by gusts and snowflakes. Abandoning, therefore, all further projects of exploration on this portion of the land, Captain D'Urville bore northward, for the purpose of escaping the labyrinth in which they were involved. They thus soon found themselves in a space where the icebergs, more widely scattered, permitted them to navigate with less peril; and it was time, for the wind blew afresh from the east with extreme violence, making a heavy sea, and wrapping them in a thick and continual snow-storm, which entirely shut out the view of all around them.
Wind, snow, sleet, and hail were now the daily companions of their lonely voyage, till, the weather clearing a little, the look-out man suddenly announced land ahead. At first it showed itself like a simple line, low, light, and uncertain; but gradually it defined itself, and presented a novel spectacle to the eager eyes of the officers and crew. They were close under a terrible perpendicular wall of ice, perfectly flat on the summit, and rising about a hundred and thirty feet above the waves. Not the slightest projection broke its irregularity throughout the sixty miles which they traversed this day. Meanwhile, though sailing close under this wall of ice, the lead gave no soundings at 160 fathoms. Touching the nature of this enormous wall, opinions were divided. Some held it to be merely a huge mass of compacted ice, independent of any land; while others maintained that this formidable girdle served at least as a covering or crust to some solid base, whether of earth, or rocks, or of scattered shoals, projected in advance of a great land. All their researches failed to find a break in this great barrier which appeared to surround the greater portion of the Antarctic Polar Circle, so as to present itself, at nearly all points, to the mariner who is bold enough and fortunate enough to penetrate the region of storms which ordinarily engirdles it. Wearied with their efforts, and anxious for the crew, whose health began again to be affected by the hardships of the voyage, Captain D'Urville at length bade a final adieu to these wild and inhospitable seas, and turned his course northward for Hobart Town, where they arrived without incident or difficulty.